What next for number plates

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#2921316 1-Jun-2022 10:34

danielparker:

Are you talking car plates and are we that far? Neighbour has just bought an ex demonstrator NUNxxx

My car is PFN***

Do they grab blocks of numbers and give them to dealers in advance?

cshwone

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#2921320 1-Jun-2022 10:39

Bung: Do they grab blocks of numbers and give them to dealers in advance?

The blocks are held by agencies such as VTNZ rather than the car dealers.

Behodar

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#2921325 1-Jun-2022 10:41

pchs:

Certainty displaying paper registrations, WOF and RUC in cars is pretty much redundant now... with Police and Parking authority's all having real-time information off the numberplate (contradicts above!) sending out little bits of paper in the post seems a waste of resources, I can't think of what having this displayed actually achieves?

It's certainly a lot quicker for the warden to walk down the street glancing at the paper WOF/licence than it is to enter/scan each individual plate number and check the details against a database.

Groucho

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#2921333 1-Jun-2022 11:06

wellygary:

We're current at N? so we have 12 more primary letters, or about 24 years, ( maybe 20 if the car population grows faster, -)

Don't forget all the new plates to replace stolen plates used for petrol drive offs, burglaries, ram-raids etc... My sister and I have both been victims of this. Hers were stolen back in April and ended up with PEM.

She had a posted letter arrive from Z to paraphrase 'oops looks like you forgot to pay so we've blocked your car from getting more fuel, mistakes happen so here are some ways of paying for that online using xxx reference number or instore'. They helpfully also included a timestamped forecourt photo of a beaten up Commodore that looked nothing like her Toyota. The letter/photo was forwarded to police with a much tighter timeline of less than two hours rather than when she discovered it the next day.

martyyn

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#2921336 1-Jun-2022 11:13

Bung:

Are you talking car plates and are we that far? Neighbour has just bought an ex demonstrator NUNxxx

IIRC number plates in NZ are pre-ordered by those who need them, they don't define an "age" of the car as such.

So a issuing place in Auckland could apply for 100 plates and go through them in a week but somewhere rural might take two years to go through them. So whilst it appears new in one location it could already be years behind the current number.

Obraik

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#2921339 1-Jun-2022 11:22

Looking beyond the format, I learnt that in California you can get digital plates which are basically just e-ink displays. I assume this makes sense over there because I believe their registration is tied to the plate and when they re-register they get a whole new plate.

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Geektastic

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#2921340 1-Jun-2022 11:24

Batman:

Anyone knows what the next plate configuration will be when we get to the end of 3 letters 3 numbers?

I recall when this sort of issue arose in the UK some years (decades!) ago. The date letter was at the end (eg one of my father's cars was PAW 666X. with X delineating the registration year).

They simply swapped the date letter to the front and added another letter (eg NU56 PAW). The numbers show what year (although I think they actually show what six months of what year as they change so that there are two sets per annum).

Here, we could just add a fourth letter or number I would think. We have rather fewer cars to cope with!

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richms

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#2921427 1-Jun-2022 14:22

Behodar:

It's certainly a lot quicker for the warden to walk down the street glancing at the paper WOF/licence than it is to enter/scan each individual plate number and check the details against a database.

Quicker again to drive past and ANPR it instead.

Richard rich.ms

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#2921485 1-Jun-2022 16:23

pchs:

I thought this might be a thread about what is next, I.E when is he phase out of numberplates? surely in this electronic world there will be a time when they are not necessary..

Certainty displaying paper registrations, WOF and RUC in cars is pretty much redundant now... with Police and Parking authority's all having real-time information off the numberplate (contradicts above!) sending out little bits of paper in the post seems a waste of resources, I can't think of what having this displayed actually achieves?

Still keep the plates but tie it into the mandatory "LoJack" device for all registered vehicles.

Aussie has already scrapped rego and wof stickers. So why can't we.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

ANglEAUT

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#2921580 1-Jun-2022 20:50

Technofreak: Why are we even bothering to have the discussion? The need to make a decision is that far into the future that if anything was decided now it can and probably will change before it's implemented. Not worth the brain power to bother thinking about ATM IMO.

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bankers with 30 year mortgages were saying in 1969
the insurance brokers were saying in 1989

richms: Quicker again to drive past and ANPR it instead.

Thank you, thank you.

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jonherries

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#2921583 1-Jun-2022 21:11

Geektastic:
Batman:

Anyone knows what the next plate configuration will be when we get to the end of 3 letters 3 numbers?

I recall when this sort of issue arose in the UK some years (decades!) ago. The date letter was at the end (eg one of my father's cars was PAW 666X. with X delineating the registration year).

They simply swapped the date letter to the front and added another letter (eg NU56 PAW). The numbers show what year (although I think they actually show what six months of what year as they change so that there are two sets per annum).

Here, we could just add a fourth letter or number I would think. We have rather fewer cars to cope with!

Not quite right AA ## are area code and year number respectively.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_United_Kingdom

Jon

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#2921588 1-Jun-2022 21:33

If NZTA / MoT are even vaguely thinking about adding an extra character to plate numbers, they need to start public and trade consultation Real Soon Now.
"Oh, it's just another character" you say.
Umm, no. That will (yes, it has to happen eventually) be a massive and massively expensive and technically risky set of projects.

It's not just that some database systems react poorly to having their table primary key definition changed, and will need the affected tables (probably almost all of them) unloaded and reloaded with a new schema.
It's the database procedures that were coded (maybe decades ago?) with the fixed understanding that plate number is at most six characters.
It's the data entry screens and web forms that have only got space for six characters, and all the validation logic behind the screens that has the same assumption.
It's all the on-screen and paper reports that don't have room for a seven character plate number and will either truncate it or run it into the adjacent field.

Oh, and it will be organisationally impossible to not include a whole bunch of other 'improvements' when you're doing a major refresh of your motor vehicle register and associated systems. This will inevitably add complexity and risk.

And it's not just the government sector - NZTA, MoT, Police are obvious, but any agency with a large fleet of registered vehicles will have this potential issue.
It's also all the private sector fleet operators, motor vehicle dealers, insurance companies ... all sorts.

Definitely an "I hope I retire before that happens" 😬

frankv

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#2921788 2-Jun-2022 13:43

danielparker:

Are you talking car plates and are we that far? Neighbour has just bought an ex demonstrator NUNxxx

My car is PFN***

Pretty ... New then ;)

PolicyGuy

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#2921798 2-Jun-2022 14:16

It looks like they skipped from "NZZ999" to "PAA1" without issuing any "Oxxnnn" plates.

🤷‍♂️

DonH

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#2921800 2-Jun-2022 14:20

Bung: How old was it? Back in 60's they were 5 digit black & silver, my 1952 Tbird was 35854. Were they able to work back from sticker number? My 1st thought would have been that the 1st digit had been cut off.

It was a 1961/1962 Suzuki SGB. The plate was definitely not modified. I don't know the details of what they did, but I was issued a current registration sticker to put on the same plate.

I'm not particularly old, but I learned to drive in a 1932 Morris Cowley. A couple of years later my father loaned it to a friend. I was riding the motorcycle past some shops when the friend pulled a sudden u-turn in front of me, writing the bike off...

On topic, I still think they can go to mixed alphanumeric, for example N61P45. The systems are already set up to handle random alphanumeric (personalised plates) so there should be no issues.

People hear what they see. - Doris Day

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