A GUIDE TO THE U.K. VEHICLE LICENSING SYSTEM
how it works, how it affected export cars, what the plates looked like
The system presently in use, has changed little in concept terms since the beginning of the 20th Century. Normally, vehicles are licensed only once. Consequently, the registration they bear, stays with them until the end of their days, regardless of whether they move to other parts of the country during their lives or not. That said, there is now a multi-million pound industry called "Cherished Numbers" which allows owners to use a registration letter combination originating in another part of the land and which takes the form of the owners initials. All car owners are required to pay an annual or six monthly fee called a Road Fund
License. The plates themselves are not the license for a period. This takes the form of a circular disc, displayed on the inside of the windscreen. Responsibility for registering a vehicle, lies with the owner but this is an automatic function of the supplying dealer.
The United Kingdom including Northern Ireland is divided into counties and each county has a unique set of two letter combinations. The letter Q is used only in combination for kit cars and used vehicles imported from other countries, while the letters I and Z are used only in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Therefore, I, Q and Z do not feature in UK registration letter permutations. However, many counties have urban conurbations with significant populations. It is thus common for such large cities located within a county to have its own set of two letter combinations.
The City of Coventry is located in the County of Warwickshire. Warwickshire has the following letter combinations - AB, AC, HP, UE and WD while Coventry uses its own combination identifiers of DU, KV, RW, VC and WK. These dual letters make up the second and third letters of 3 letter combinations. The first letter is purely an alpha rotation - e.g. ADU, BDU, CDU, DDU etc.
The numbers go from 1 to 999. It should be noted that numbers from 1 to 9 are shown in that format. They have no leading zeros - e.g. 001, 002, 003.
In summary, a typical "Coventry number" is one that looks like ADU, BKV, CRW, DVC and EWK to name just a few.
In the late 1950's, the British Department of Transport found the country was running out of number plate letter number combinations. Further to that, if the system was re-launched from A1, it would clash with many cars bearing earlier numbers which were still in circulation and use. Various ideas were proposed but it had already been decided that a year of first registration identifier had to appear as an extra letter or number within the whole structure. This took time to agree - so, as a stop gap measure, letter/number combinations which were in use in the early 1920's were used. In these formats, the position of letters and numbers were reversed. Hence the earlier number of RW 5898 became a legitimate and viable alternative as 5898 RW.
In Coventry, Jaguar, Rootes Group and Standard Triumph used this number letter style for its Personal Export Sale vehicles - viz up to 9999 DU, 9999 KV, 9999 RW, 9999 VC and 9999 WK. Beginning in 1963, the year identifier issue was settled and in 1964, Coventry started issuing UK domestic registrations in the form ADU 123 B. The year letter ran from January 1 to December 31 of each calendar year. The letter H was reserved for personal export sales vehicles, so HDU, HKV, HRW, HVC and HWK became immediately identifiable as Personal Export Sales vehicles. British Customs and Excise also needed some means to identify a car leaving the country. Hitherto, owners had had to surrender documents at the port of departure but many forgot to do this. An external identifier was urgently needed, so all export plates had a thin yellow border surrounding the plate applied when the plate was made. The plate itself was of black painted metal sheet to which raised letters in silver were attached.
In 1967, the Department of Transport decided to move the year letter identifier validity period to a mid-year point. Instead of running from January to December, it was changed to run from August 1 of one year to July 31 of the following year. This was in an attempt to spread the sales load throughout the year for new car registrations, as hitherto there had been a massive demand for new cars in January. This did not work, it just moved the demand to August which is when many manufacturers are shut down for the annual summer holiday! Today and as a result of this, the month of August accounts for 20% of all new registrations and causes massive problems for franchised dealers and the used car market.
As a result of this "initiative" the suffix letter E was only issued for a seven month period (Jan 1 1967 to July 31). A further and final change, came about in 1972. Up to that time, it was mandatory to leave a car parked at night with its front side and rear tail lights switched on. This caused many flat batteries, so reflective plates were selected as an alternative means of effective road user alert.
The new reflective plate had black digits against white and yellow backgrounds. The white plate is fitted at the front of the car, the yellow plate at the rear. With this new colour scheme, the previously yellow coloured "export border" was changed from yellow to red. This style of plate has flat surfaces all round as the digits are embedded and the plate is made of a flexible plastic. It is very easy to keep clean. The dimensions of a current British
license plate are now metric but the Imperial equivalent is 20.5 inches long by 4.25 inches deep. It is possible the pre-1960 version is a little smaller - but not much.
This plate dimension would apply to all Triumph models imported into the United States and Canada with some notable exceptions:
Triumph "Razor Edges" of Mayflower (Saloon and Convertible) and Renown, Triumph 8 Saloon. Triumph 10 Saloon, Sportsman and Vanguard. All these cars had "square" plates at the rear. Current dimension of a "square" plate is 11 inches wide by 8inches deep.
Allocating "Coventry Style Registrations"
It is recommended Triumph Owners apply for a British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Certificate.
This is a precaution as the issue of a Certificate will reveal one of three delivery
alternatives:
(1) The car may have been delivered in the UK for European use
(2) it may have been 'shipped direct' as a UK licensed vehicle to the destination market, or
(3) shipped to the market as an unlicensed vehicle.
Determining these alternatives allows the correct 'Coventry
license style' to be selected. It should be noted that because a "Direct Shipment" car carried a UK registration, it was deemed as a used car for import duty purposes at the port of discharge and attracted a lower level of duty.
NB "Direct Shipment" cars did NOT have a yellow border to their plates. They were plain black with silver letters but still bore the export letter combination, number rotation and year letter. Of course, many current owners of cars which were originally delivered in Europe or "Shipped Direct" may not have a Heritage Certificate. In that case, it may be advisable for them to obtain one before applying for a Coventry Style
license plate.
1. Individuals wishing to enjoy the 'ownership' of a "Coventry style registration" for their cars, should understand:
1.1 The registration is NOT GENUINE and has NOT been allocated to the car by a
recognized UK authority, unless it can be proved beyond doubt through a Heritage Certificate that the car originally wore that plate as an EXPORT HOME DELIVERY VEHICLE or as a "Direct Shipment" car
1.2 The registration is not 'passed off' as a current British registration. It is purely for 'cosmetic enhancement' purposes.
2. This applies to cars where the Heritage Certificate does NOT indicate the car was
licensed in England for UK or European use and was therefore shipped to North America as an entirely new vehicle where the first registration would have been issued in the receiving market.