The Z Club is a member of the 'Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs' FBHVC. Note British Club not British Vehicle
I get a regular publication called 'FBHVC news' and I noted a few months ago that in a report of a meeting of the FBHVC with the DVLA it was stated that the B/W number plate dates were now linked to the 'Historic' taxation dates.
I questioned this because it didn't seem right as the reflective plates were introduced as a safety feature - I can remember it. I got this response:
Hi Rob,
Thank you for your email to our Secretary which has been passed to me
You are not alone in expressing surprise or doubt regarding the statement from DVLA that black and white/silver number plates are now permitted on vehicles first registered before January 1975. We have checked this out and it is correct although, as you say, it has received no publicity.
There will be a fuller explanation in the next FBHVC Newsletter and I quote in part from it here -
“The previous Regulations on the display of registration marks had only ever permitted vehicles manufactured before 1973 to use black and white number plates. However, the changes to the law in 2001 which introduced the new (and current) number plate format, directly linked the pre 1973 vehicles with those which were in the historic tax class (which had the same dates). This meant that when the changes to the historic tax class dates were announced in recent Budgets, this had the unintended consequence of amending the display Regulations to allow additional vehicles to display black and white plates.”
Regards,
Ian Edmunds
DVLA Liaison
FBHVC
I will post more on this later (today?) however I think there is a mis-understanding and that's why I haven't posted anything before. I think (just me not anyone else yet) that the 'exempt' vehicles mentioned in documentation are invalid carriages and not 'tax exempt' vehicles - but I need to do some more investigation.
As an aside to this, number plate manufacturers are 'in the dark' too however one manufacturer said that he would think fitting them on a 240Z was not a big problem anyway and doubted if anyone would question it.
Steve if you are carrying reflective plates you are admitting that you know you are breaking the law, wouldn't you be better saying you bought the car with B/W plates and plead ignorance?
I get a regular publication called 'FBHVC news' and I noted a few months ago that in a report of a meeting of the FBHVC with the DVLA it was stated that the B/W number plate dates were now linked to the 'Historic' taxation dates.
I questioned this because it didn't seem right as the reflective plates were introduced as a safety feature - I can remember it. I got this response:
Hi Rob,
Thank you for your email to our Secretary which has been passed to me
You are not alone in expressing surprise or doubt regarding the statement from DVLA that black and white/silver number plates are now permitted on vehicles first registered before January 1975. We have checked this out and it is correct although, as you say, it has received no publicity.
There will be a fuller explanation in the next FBHVC Newsletter and I quote in part from it here -
“The previous Regulations on the display of registration marks had only ever permitted vehicles manufactured before 1973 to use black and white number plates. However, the changes to the law in 2001 which introduced the new (and current) number plate format, directly linked the pre 1973 vehicles with those which were in the historic tax class (which had the same dates). This meant that when the changes to the historic tax class dates were announced in recent Budgets, this had the unintended consequence of amending the display Regulations to allow additional vehicles to display black and white plates.”
Regards,
Ian Edmunds
DVLA Liaison
FBHVC
I will post more on this later (today?) however I think there is a mis-understanding and that's why I haven't posted anything before. I think (just me not anyone else yet) that the 'exempt' vehicles mentioned in documentation are invalid carriages and not 'tax exempt' vehicles - but I need to do some more investigation.
As an aside to this, number plate manufacturers are 'in the dark' too however one manufacturer said that he would think fitting them on a 240Z was not a big problem anyway and doubted if anyone would question it.
Steve if you are carrying reflective plates you are admitting that you know you are breaking the law, wouldn't you be better saying you bought the car with B/W plates and plead ignorance?