4D Number Plates | Next Gen Number Plates – The Hype!
So, 4D Number Plates. You may have heard about them, or ‘Next Gen Number Plates’ in recent times and thought, ‘What on earth are 4D Plates?!’ You have may have questioned what the 4D means and what all the hype is even about! Unfortunately, they do not allow you to travel through time and space!
Well, as a matter of fact, 4D Plates, A.K.A Next Gen Number Plates have been around for a fair amount of time now. They are essentially 3D Number Plates as they have a laser cut black perspex letter applied to the front of the number plate; this gives it the 3D, or is it 4D, effect!
Pressed number plates and 3D number plates have been around for years. 3D gel number plates comprise of a gel letter which is adhered to the surface of the number plate clear perspex; 4D number plates are essentially the same. The only difference is that the characters are black perspex and not gel!
Generally, pressed plates are made for vintage, classic cars – these are generally black plates with silver lettering; this colour scheme is not legal for modern vehicles. To comply with the DVLA and BSI standards, number plates for modern vehicles must be made of BSI compliant materials and have a background colour of white for the front or yellow for the rear…
4D Number Plates are essentially the modern day pressed number plate to give that more vivid 3D effect!
4D Plates – Are They Legal
4D number plates; are they legal? The short answer is yes they are! However, the long answer is a bit more complicated. Feel free to read on…
The quantity of number of suppliers for this style of registration plate significantly increased in recent times; eBay is flooded and a new suppliers’ stating they ‘invented the 4D plate’. Lots of these suppliers don’t actually comply with the law and in some instances don’t even print their legal information on the bottom of the registration or ask for relevant documentation… This is a massive breach of the Vehicle Crimes Act (2001).
For instance, a friend of ours recently bought some 4D plates from eBay, the supplier didn’t ask for any proof of ID or vehicle entitlement which is a requirement of the aforementioned law. This means the supplier in discussion would essentially print anybody’s number plate which, in the number plate industry, is known as ‘cloning’. Anybody could therefore get your registration made, mounted to their car and whatever acts they then commit would then be directed back to yourself as being liable… This seller has sold 100’s of these plates too!
All legal number plates need to display the company name and postcode at the bottom of the plate. The company information is there to prove who supplied the registration plate for this exact reason. The aforementioned 4D number plates did display the company name and postcode but they were incorrect!
The printed company name was ‘VPN’ and the postcode was ‘L3 5NF’; if you have this information I’m afraid your number plates would have been made illegally and therefore your supplier is in breach of the Vehicle Crimes Act (2001). See this database search for the list of registered number plate suppliers in the UK and you will see that ‘L3 5NF’ is not there. This particular supplier has not printed the correct information on the bottom of the 4D number plates so they cannot be traced; why would a company not want to be traced? I’ll let you try and work that out…
The above example just goes to show the current hype of 4D number plates; most of these suppliers probably aren’t even registered with the DVLA and want to also get in on the action; printed number plates don’t fetch as much of a premium so every Tom, Dick & Harry want to make some quick cash while the 4D hype is here. You can be assured however, that JDM Plates are fully registered with the DVLA and we do infact print all of our information on the bottom of every number plate. We also request that we see relevant information even if a customer requires custom show plates that aren’t deemed for UK roads purely to eliminate, as far as reasonably practicable, number plate cloning within the UK!
It may be useful to know that 4D number plates are in fact fully legal. There is a section on the DVLA’s website stating that characters can be 3D. Within legislation it does however state that number plates must not be obscured and made hard to read which is subjective in many ways; 3D acrylic letters do not make a 4D plate hard to read.
We offer the smallest legal 4D plates in the country for all vehicles including imports and motorcycles and offer documentation to prove legality. We offer a range of 4D variants such as:-
For all number plate enquiries, please feel to leave us a message via the contact forms across the website or call on 01493 230023.
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