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Advice on Registration Plates
Hello,
I wonder if someone could offer me some advice. I would like to go into creating numberplates etc and was thinking of investing in an Oki printer i have seen the Oki 3100 printer – would this be good for the job. Also do you know where i can go to get the supplies i need as i have tried searching on the internet but not found anything helpful at all.
Thanks in advance.
Linz
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12 Replies
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don’t forget to register with DVLC approx £45 per year, buy the correct font from them £25 for a 10p floppy & then buy yourself a log account book to keep all the registrations in & lastly don’t forget to put your own phone No or post code on every plate you make.
apart from that I wouldn’t bother, there are easier ways of earning a living than making No Plates. (no profit because they are too time consuming).
But good luck though
Long John. -
Try website http://www.uknumberplates.com Paul who I think owns the company is a member here on the Sign Boards and I’m sure will help you in any way he can. Think he’s based in Kent.
Dawn
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Hi and welcome Linz 😀
I disagree with LJ on the number plates. If you price them accordingly, ie charge more for fancy show plates etc, you can make a reasonable amount depending on what custom comes in through your doors.
The registration fee with the DVLA is a one off £40, and you’ll recieve your registration number. They give you a form that you can either copy, or I’ve designed one if you’d like it, you just need to put your own number on it. The number plate font was kindly uploaded to UKSB about a year back by Paul at AutoMarque ( http://www.uknumberplates.com/ ) and as Dawn says, Paul’s a top bloke, more than willing to help and he’s got some popular products.
Obviously standard plates are covered by law now, stating you must keep records, have sight of documents and make them available for inspection at reasonable hours of business. Unfortunately, for the DVLA at least, there is still some speculation on what constitutes a standard plate and what constitutes a show plate. A show plate requires no documentation, other than a sticker on the reverse of the plate stating:
This is a Show Plate and is illegal for Road Use.
Or words to that effect anyway. Essentially if a plate deviates from what the DVLA consider standard, its a show plate in my book and considering the DVLA are being strict about the standards of plates, disallowing borders and the like, its not surprising that many signmakers haven’t bothered to register at all. Its not often you get ppl who just want a plain ordinary plate. As LJ says, its required by law that on a standard plate you also put your company details, or at the very least the name of your company and the street name of your business premises.
Personally I’d give Paul at AutoMarque a call and have a chat. He can give you a good idea of the products available to you and give you an idea on profit margins etc. etc.
Cheers, Dewi
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Thank you so much for your reply is very appriciated. As well as being covered by the law etc. how are the Oki printers for creating signs and number plates?
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Paul has mentioned them to me in the past and he says they are quite good for small, basic signage. Presumably they’d be more suited to small safety signs and the like, but he may be able to arrange a demo on one of the machines for you to test it out and see if its going to be useful to your business.
I think the machine is about £1500, which isn’t bad if all you want it for is small signage and number plates. A realistic alternative if you want to do bigger stuff and sticker runs is a PC60. I use it to make number plates, stickers, all sorts really and I think they currently weigh in at around £1200 – £1300. Possibly slightly more expensive to run than the OKI, but they’re more versatile for the small sign business. Its another option if you decide that the OKI is a limited to your needs.
Cheers, Dewi
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I`ve just bought a small thermal printer designed for number plates.
Only prints black.
Costs £300ish for 2nd user, £600 ish for new, prints your plates in 10 seconds.
contact rachel @ europlate 0121359 5566
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Any laser printer would be ok but the Oki C5200N & the earlier model C5100N do seem to be the ones aimed at the number plate market.
Without software pay no more than £690 for the printer, with software anything from £1,000 upwards.
Cheerio
Jobe -
Dewi,
quote :I disagree with LJ on the number plates. If you price them accordingly, ie charge more for fancy show plates etc, you can make a reasonable amount depending on what custom comes in through your doors.I agree with what you say about “Show Plates” Dewi, but the original question i was answering was concerning “No Plates”.
I have been making No Plates for 8 years now but started off doing it as a service to the customer who wanted his vehicle lettered. I thought it finished off the vehicle having new plates as well.
As most people around here wont pay more than £7 per plate i still say it’s not worth the time & effort in producing these. & that is without spending the £600 – £1200 for a printer to make them quicker. You would have to make a lot of No Plates before you get your money back on that outlay.
Now Show Plates are a different ball game altogether, i can & do charge £20 per show plate, which are usually for lorry drivers to put in their front window on top of the dashboard.
So because of the change in the law, I for one have stopped making No Plates but still make the Show Plates.
Anyway i hope that explains a bit better what i had quoted as “No Plates being a waste of time & effort”. I obviously didn’t explain myself correctly, sorry, but please don’t let me put you off going into that business Linz. It’s only my opinion.
Long John. -
£7 a plate! 😮 Blimey, no wonder you don’t think it’s worth it! The average in this area is £10 per plate, although I make a pair for £15 and charge anything from £25 upwards for a pair of show plates. Standard plates take no time at all really, although I know what you mean, it all depends on your volume of sales on them to whether you make reasonable money. At the moment there seems to be alot of ppl wanting mini motorbike show plates for their diddy bikes, which suits me as I can run them through the PC60 along side another job.
Buying a machine for £1500 just to make number plates does seem like quite alot, but again, it depends what sort of volume you can turn around. If you’re making 10-20 plates a day, its worth it, but if you struggle to make a couple of pairs a week, you’d be better with a versatile machine that can do more than just the plates.
Cheers, Dewi
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i charge £7.50 per plate no flag or anything and up to £12.50 for fancy stuff
i think it work out about 4 to 5 pound profit it takes no time at all once you hav a template set out i just print and cut on pc60 -
Dewi, Just shows you what we have said before, depends on what you can get away with in your particular area.
You say £25 per pair of Show plates, I only get asked for the lorry drivers special (1) @ £20.
There are too many Motorist Discount Shops & Motor Factors around here, all charging £6 – £7 each for basic plates but including GB stickers.
L J -
There are too many companies who sell plates for peanuts, I’ve been asked to quote time after time for number plates to customers who’ve wanted them for shows and stuff like that. I put my quote in at what I percieve to be competitive, only to be branded a rip off by the customer when Joeius Bloggius in the next town over offers them £4 a plate! 😮 £4 is taking the mickey, but they still stay in business and repeatedly get orders, so it boggles how they’re doing it! Being beaten on price is one thing, but when your customer brands you a rip off merchant because you’re trying to earn a living, it gets a bit much 😕
Cheers, Dewi
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