Registration Formats - The Current System

This new registration format is possibly the most confusing thing... ever
Here is an attempt to shed some light on the little yellow and white things stuck to your car :

The plate has 7 characters in 3 parts, each with a different meaning

• The first two letters show where the vehicle was registered, the local memory tag.
• The two numbers indicate the age of the vehicle, the age identifier.
• The last three letters give a unique identity to a vehicle, the random letters.
  

Local Memory Tag

The first two characters are the "Local Memory Tag"

The first character (A) refers to a region, the second (B) refers to the local DVLA office

In the example the plate shows the car was first registered in Anglia at the Peterborough DVLA office.

Age Identifiers

Age identifiers will continue to change twice yearly in March and September.

In the example above "51" represents the 6 month period from September 2001 to February 2002.

The age identifiers are as follows :

Random Letters

The three final letters will provide a random element to make each registration mark unique.

Letters "I" and "Q" are to be excluded along with letter combinations that may be considered offensive. The letter "Z" will be acceptable in this element of the number plate.