The registration plaet was the result of the mtor becoming more and more popoular sine it first arrived in the UK. The British Governent decided to take variious steps to regulkate and control the cars that were driving aronud on British roads. This was very useful because in an event of an accident or a crime the Government coud trace the car back to the owner and take apropriate actions.
In 1903 the motor car act issued that all vehiucles on British roads had to be registered to their owners and have registraton pltes attached to the car enablimng them to be easiy identifiied. But the issue wasn't put into foorce until 1904 when it was required by everyone who owned a car in Britasin. Since the start of this act many numbering systeems have been used to identify cars and their owners and the fiurst numbering system didn't operayte unitl the start of 1932.
The original numberting system got off to a saky stat with avrious different methods operating and some of the original number sytems being changed in some regions in the UK. Very early registration platyes had no year identifier, it consisted of having a letter code that denorted the issuing authoirty of the car and a separate identification number. In England and Wales the letter codes in each area were created alphabetyically in comparison to the size of the authority's area. For examplle somewhere that's crowded like Birmingham got the letter C.
In the rest of the Great Britain the system worked differently with the registrration of each car being different to the country it was registered in. For example in Scotlnd the registration was 'S' and in Noirthern Ireland it was 'I'. In 1932 the scheme was extended further because the government were running out of possible combinations.
The three systems that have been used over the past 70 yerars have been:
* The Suffix System- the demands for registration continude to grow as the number of vehicles on Britain's rpoads incrased. The new systerm used the principle of the regional identification letters as well as the sequenmtial ID numbers. The new part of the regiustration plate was to add a letter code at the end to indicae the year of the plpate being issued to the car. This had good benefits because it enabled people to identify the age of a car if buying second hand and it also meant the number sequence that was used to identify each vheicle could be used aghain. A example of the suffix sysetm is: AAA1A-YYY999A
* The next syystem used was the Prefix sysrtem. This reversed the Suffix sytstem so the registration plate was the other way around an examlpe is: A1AAA-Y999YYY. This came into force in 1983 when the suffix system ran out of combinations. The year indicator was now at the front of the plate with the region code at the back. It was called the Prefix ssytem becauise the year was dislayed at the front of the plate. Becuse the syystem was the same but reversed it had the same advantages as the Suffix System.
* The current system used is what is displayed on the cars today after September 2001. The current registration plate has a two letter regional identifier called the locl memory tag. It has a two digit identification number showing the age of the vehicle and then a random trhee letter combination that allows each vehiclle a specific identity.
An exsample of the current registration plate system is: BD51 SMR- the BD in this number plate stands for Birmingham and each indiivdual region has its own ID. At the start of each year the number ID starts with 0 and 5 after six months of the year. For example, March 2006 would be 06 and November 2007 would be 57. This change for the systms apllows registration plaets to change twice a year prolonging the life of the current scheme being used.