As mentioned earlier, license plates should only be printed in a single shade of black with the standard British Charles Wright font. This means that alternately colored characters with a colored pin strip are not allowed. Attach the trailer license plate as far away as possible from the license plate of the towing vehicle. Vehicle owners are strongly advised to purchase license plates only from suppliers who can confirm that the license plates they provide comply with all legal requirements. We knew very well that the statement in the bulletin was wrong because the RNPS enforcement team went to our premises and gave the “clear” for our products and we talk to them regularly to ensure compliance. Not only that, we`ve spent much of our time in this industry making sure we understand and adhere to the UK standard for license plates. The next question you might ask yourself is: Are 4D license plates legal in the UK and in the eyes of the DVLA? Unlike 3D number plates, 3D freezing and 4D licence plates are legal in the UK. However, they must comply with strict regulations. You may have recently seen a new style of license plates on UK roads with raised signs – these are called 4D license plates. I saw that from September 2021 the letters can no longer be replaced. How will it work with 3D/4D letters? Tinted license plates use an extra layer of acrylic on the reflective surface of the license plate to create a dark effect.

These license plates are illegal in the UK as they make it difficult to read and identify individual characters. Drivers showing these signs can expect to be stopped by police and fined up to £1,000. The BSAU code on a license plate indicates the standard by which the license plate was manufactured: drivers sometimes opt for unusual fonts or effects that give the impression of a raised font. These are known commercially as “3D” or “3D Effect” license plates. Others actually use raised letters, which may be available in the “3D gel” or “4D” types. The British Standards Institute (BSI) has updated the technical standards for licence plates in the UK. This means that 3D freezing and 4D license plates will be banned. I ask the government to re-examine these rules.

License plates issued after 1. September 2001 on vehicles must already comply with the current British standard (BS AU 145d), which contains specifications for license plates. A new UK standard (BS AU 145e) will become mandatory for all new vehicle licence plates from 1 September 2021. The new standard only applies to licence plates affixed to vehicles from that date and it will not be necessary to replace existing licences if they already comply with the current requirements. Since the terms 3D, 3D gel and 4D are often confused, it is important to indicate what is legal and what is not. Licence plate suppliers must ensure that the products they supply fully comply with legal requirements and the UK standard. The Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) advises license plate suppliers to verify with their component suppliers that the components they supply for the assembly of finished license plates have been tested to ensure that these requirements are met. As long as these raised signs are uniformly black and the license plate complies with other legal standards BS AU 145e, 3D gel license plates are completely legal.

The signs themselves are neither removable nor reflective and, if affixed after 1 September 2021, have a single uniform shade of black. It should be noted that 4D license plates can be delivered with panels set to one of the different depths. The current British standard requires that the entire surface of the characters of the registration number be black. This includes all sides of the characters; The use of different colored or light pages is not allowed. Under the new UK standard, new licence plates that will be affixed from 1 September 2021 are no longer legal to use different shades of black to create 3D effects. The new standard also states that the characters in the registration number must not be removable. The short answer is yes, but only if these 4D license plates meet the standards that apply to other registrations via the DVLA. These legally enforced rules and regulations are covered here and cover the width of the characters, spacing, size, and materials used.