PERSONALISED REGISTRATIONS On Lorries,ERF 1,Etc

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
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Personalised Registrations On Lorries,ERF 1,ERF 7,Etc.

TruckNetUK Forum Member,Hayday,has inspired me to start a new Thread on the subject of Personalised
Registrations On Lorries,etc. In his latest thread on The Last Lorry (Truck) Out Of ERF Thread,he said:-

"but I seem to recall there were quite a few ERF’s and Fodens that were registered over the years and got “ERF” as part of their registration number (was “RF” Crewe or Stoke - someone here will know) Several of the ERF’s on the fleet at GL Baker had “GLB” as part of their reg, “LB” being somewhere in the East End I presume, and one for Dennis if your perusing , they also had a few “BEW"s down in Bristol (could I have possibly started a new thread here?).” :smiley:

RF,from 1924 to 1996 was a registration for Stafford County Council,and in 1996 RF was transferred to Birmingham and Shrewsbury.

The former Chairman and CEO of ERF Ltd,the late Peter E.P.Foden,had at least two ERF registrations:-

ERF 7:Audi A6 Estate Motorcar:-
flickr.com/photos/48589212@N06/5873892231/

Now the ERF 7 registration is now on a silver Mercedes-Benz Motorcar,registered on Wednesday,31st
August,2011,2987 cc diesel.

ERF 1:Bentley Continental GT Sports Coupe Motorcar,painted silver,registered on Thursday,1st September,
2005.5998 cc petrol.

I do remember seeing a photograph of Peter Foden’s Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow or Silver Wraith Motorcar
in the TRUCK Magazine,and the registration was ERF 1. So I wonder just how many motor vehicles - marques and models - ERF 1 has been the registration of. And the same applies to ERF 7.

Both ERF 1 and ERF 7 date from January 1937.

Certain road haulage companies have personalised registrations for their lorries - some of them ,such as
Alan Firmin Transport,have had personalised registrations for years and years going back decades.
Alan Firmin,AF.
Pollock Scot Trans Limited,PSL.

Motorcoach operators also have personalised registrations:Wallace Arnold Motorcoach Holiday Tours,now
part of Shearings Motorcoach Holiday Tours,had a few WA registrations on some of their motorcoaches :slight_smile: .

Certain celebrities have personalised registrations on their motorcars.For example,famous snooker
players:-
147 PRO,Mercedes-Benz Motorcar,owned by Willie Thorne.
THE 147S,Cadillac Fleetwood Motorcar,owned by Six-times World Snooker Champion,Steve Davies.

Some of my showmen friends have personalised registrations,and one of them,Steven Holland,from
Leicester,used to operate the following Foden S21 Spaceship Lorry:-
Foden S21 Spaceship Sputnik FG6/24 8x4 Showmans Ballast Road Locomotive,1001 MH,registered in
Middlesex in 1960,and originally operated by Rugby Cement :smiley: .
The 1001 MH registration was sold to Marcus Holland,a family member,and it’s now the registration of his
Mercedes-Benz Motorcar :slight_smile: .
Foden S21 Spaceship,1001 MH:-
flickr.com/photos/foden_djp/ … 09300@N08/

I’m sure other TruckNetUK Forum Members know a thing or two about personalised registrations for
lorries ,motorcoaches,motorcars,etc :slight_smile: .

VALKYRIE.

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Hiya …the axeminster carpet company have a few lorries with AXE and 1…2 or3 numbers on there fleet.
i think it was montgomery transport ireland always had 77 on there plates.
i think at one time ERF run a hire sceme, the numbers was ERF on the plates. someone will tell us,
they may have been just demonstrators.
John

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I had A5 CRM on my Constuctor,DVLA wanted too much for A14 CRM

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It’s getting hard to find one that doesn’t have a personalised number these days.

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Some Flickr photographs of Pollock Scot Trans Limited lorries with PSL registrations:-
flickr.com/photos/gezzasgallery/6122658074/

flickr.com/photos/truckphoto … 727142824/

flickr.com/photos/truckphoto … 734253064/

flickr.com/photos/truckphoto … 109355463/

flickr.com/photos/truckphoto … 109355463/

flickr.com/photos/gezzasgallery/6039488272/

flickr.com/photos/62813558@N02/7032299989/

Pete.

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Here’s a pic of FG Bond and Son - first ERF that they bought new and the first to have a private/personalised plate. J9 FGB… All bar a couple have FGB plates and all of those bar one have a 9 in them - that one is registered as FG08 OND :smiley:

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3300John:
Hiya …the axeminster carpet company have a few lorries with AXE and 1…2 or3 numbers on there fleet.
i think it was montgomery transport ireland always had 77 on there plates.
i think at one time ERF run a hire sceme, the numbers was ERF on the plates. someone will tell us,
they may have been just demonstrators.
John

I think it was Dukes that had 77 on their plates, it was supposed to be their membership number of the Orange Order, or something like that :question:

Best personalised plate on a lorry I’ve seen was CAM 10N, owned by Unitruck and seen on a variety of big Volvos over the years :sunglasses:

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‘RF’ was a Staffordshire CC reg. Haydons had 7 ERFs but only an Albion with RF in the reg.

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Numbers that immediately spring to mind from my youth:

Alan Firmin had lots of AF no’s.
Vine Products (VP wines) had VPW
Post Office had some GPO
More than one brewer had ALE
And speaking of brewers, Fuller, Smith and Turner had FST on their lorries until recently, probably still do.
A number of firms including Siddle C Cook had specially requested numbers, to get all their lorry numbers ending in 00, EG. 600, 700, 800
When I remember some more I’ll be back!
Benard

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Back in the 60s Foxes Biscuits of Batley,had " FOX " on all their lorries

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There were a lot of ERF registrations like you say. Here is one of them

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old 67:
Back in the 60s Foxes Biscuits of Batley,had " FOX " on all their lorries

Which reminds of Samuel Fox & Company,Stocksbridge,Sheffield - still known to this day as Sammy Foxes -
despite having had several changes in ownership since 1918,when it became part of United Steel Company,then British Steel,then Corus and now currently Tata.
Anyway,back in the 1960s,the motorcars belonging to the managing directors of Sammy Foxes had FOX
registrations:FOX 1 was on a Humber Super Snipe,then there were FOX 2,FOX 3,FOX 4,FOX 5 and so on :smiley:
These are Birmingham 1941 registrations,so just how Sammy Foxes got hold of them,I would love to know :slight_smile:

VALKYRIE.

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Hi all Buzzer here from Davies International Hampshire we have had personal reg numbers on all our trucks for some years now, we have since the early 90’s addopted GEL as a prefix on all our trucks either with a single number double or treble, these we used to buy in blocks when released in august and always retain them when selling on the trucks.As i say we bought these every year until the DOT got greedy with the price so now we just transfer onto a new truck an old number some of which are on there fourth truck. i have my own number which is GEL 555 on my motor,i have always had an interest in numbers from an early age as my dad was in the AA and in there hand book it told you by the prefix which part of the contry a motor was registered and as a kid i used to be a number spotter which i suspect hundreds of other kids also had as a hobby.

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When I was an apprentice mechanic with a Stockton firm we used to get an Austin Loadstar in for service belonging to P. C. Richardson, it’s registration was PCR 1 , where is the reg now ?

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Its now on his Mercedes car.

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Buzzer:
Hi all Buzzer here from Davies International Hampshire we have had personal reg numbers on all our trucks for some years now, we have since the early 90’s addopted GEL as a prefix on all our trucks either with a single number double or treble, these we used to buy in blocks when released in august and always retain them when selling on the trucks.As i say we bought these every year until the DOT got greedy with the price so now we just transfer onto a new truck an old number some of which are on there fourth truck. i have my own number which is GEL 555 on my motor,i have always had an interest in numbers from an early age as my dad was in the AA and in there hand book it told you by the prefix which part of the contry a motor was registered and as a kid i used to be a number spotter which i suspect hundreds of other kids also had as a hobby.

used to be fascinated with that same AA list myself as a nipper :smiley: what does the GEL mean or represent please? always wondered

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Us poor folk only had the little I-spy books (Remember them? :smiley: ) but they had the same info… :smiley:

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jj72:

Buzzer:
Hi all Buzzer here from Davies International Hampshire we have had personal reg numbers on all our trucks for some years now, we have since the early 90’s addopted GEL as a prefix on all our trucks either with a single number double or treble, these we used to buy in blocks when released in august and always retain them when selling on the trucks.As i say we bought these every year until the DOT got greedy with the price so now we just transfer onto a new truck an old number some of which are on there fourth truck. i have my own number which is GEL 555 on my motor,i have always had an interest in numbers from an early age as my dad was in the AA and in there hand book it told you by the prefix which part of the contry a motor was registered and as a kid i used to be a number spotter which i suspect hundreds of other kids also had as a hobby.

used to be fascinated with that same AA list myself as a nipper :smiley: what does the GEL mean or represent please? always wondered

Hi g72 the GEL on all our number plates relates to " you got to GEL on " which round here means dont mess about get your ■■■ in gear, hope this answers you question regards Buzzer.

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A D Faulder, Carlisle
A11 ADF Volvo FH12 seen @ Kirkbride Truck Show
Kindest regards
CG

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C W Griffiths Volvo with the personalised plate bearing Clarence Wesley Griffiths initials.