A friend of mine was chatting to one of the drivers delivering to his store the other day.
Aparently Tesco Thurrock sent out two drivers in 55 reg units on Tuesday (31st!) at 7pm. When they got to their destination stores, one was Norwich i think, the drivers got phone calls.
“can you pull round into the carpark, dont take the vehicle back on the road until midnight. It’s not Registered, Insured or taxed until then!”
Ooops!
Someones in the office has seen the wagon available and assigned it a job without checking details.
Had it in our place when we had a foreign truck brought over. It had had the foreign plates removed and was awaiting registration to be used with the company… and was sent out.
Driver didn’t take it out of yard as “Both Numberplates Missing” and he wouldn’t use a bit of cardboard to get around it…
Someone will have a red face over that!!!
Makes me laugh the amount of people who you see with bits of cardboard fitted to their trailers (car trailers mainly) or chalked ont he back of the vehicle!
Far worse than not having one at all!
If you get pulled for not having one, then just say. “it was there when i left, some Zb mustve nicked it, or it fell off etc etc” 7 day notice, no hassle.
what you gona say if you get pulled with a bit of cardboard? 
“Someone nicked it and was kind enough to put a bit of card on there?”
Obviously if you’re a farmer though, you’re aparently exempt from having number plates on your trailer that match the tow vehicle, or even have them at all, tail lights are optional too…
You can get fined for not diplaying a number plate, either on the front or on a trailer.
Cardboard will not do.
Neither will chalk.
Driver will get fined, operator will have offence recorded on operators licence and probably hauled over the coals for lack of maintainance as well.
I used to own a 1938 Packard. The number plate was on a metal bracket slung under the front bumper. One day the bracket broke and the plate disappeared. I carefully signwrote with white paint regulation height numbers and letters on a thick (half inch) square of rubber and inserted the two sides in the vertical radiator grills.
On my way to court in Stoke, on a quite different matter (I wiped an off duty bus driver up in the middle of the night when he jumped the lights on me), I was stopped by the old bill.
The Packard grill was V shaped and thus my ‘number plate’ was slightly curved. Against the law, it has to be flat. ‘What about all the boy racers with numbers painted over their curved bonnets?’ I asked. ‘All breaking the law’ he replied, and then booked me.
I was late for court, the mag was not pleased 
.
Salut, David.
There’s atleast two 55 plate Merc Actros Megaspaces at the company my dad works for. They where both in the yard on Friday, not sure if they’d actually been used at the time other than being delivered to the yard though.
an artic driver in our place the otherday had no no plate on his trailer, so i told him…him his reply £30 for no plate or £60 for speeding
some ■■■ knicked the plate of my moffett last week and i wouldnt take it out till they got me another, boss wasnt happy
It’s a £30 fine in practice although can be up to £1000 in law.
i cannot understand how a driver wants to risk running without a number plate, and the obvious fine…although to a certain extent i can understand the 30 pound fine against the 60 pound one…and no points for a missed numberplate.
I certainly have and would do again…refuse to drive a truck/trailer unless i had a number plate…
i went for a new job a while ago…and i asked where the number plate was…its in the side locker they said…well its not there now i said…i have already looked…well go and do your job…and well get you one for later…ok i said…i`m going home…give us a call when you got it…funny how i never heard from them…
The Packard grill was V shaped and thus my ‘number plate’ was slightly curved. Against the law, it has to be flat. ‘What about all the boy racers with numbers painted over their curved bonnets?’ I asked. ‘All breaking the law’ he replied, and then booked me.
I think there is some discresion in that, Take an E-type for example, there isnt anywhere to put a proper plate. Also there is the age and whether the vehicle was fitted with one when new. Some police just dont know their stuff. there are many exotic cars that are allowed dispensation. I agree with nicking boy racers for illegible plates, blacked out lights and all the other tacky ■■■■ they do. At the end of the day they only do it so they can drive like dicks!
My point with the bit of cardboard for a plate though, was that if it’s simply missing then you can claim it was there when you set off. If you get pulled by a decent copper chances are they’ll let you off and tell you to get a new one ASAP. If you have a bit of cardboard then it’s obvious you knew it was missing! Though yes they’re both illegal.