In a big relief to consumers, vehicles will soon come fitted with number plates and the cost will be included in the four-wheelers' price. "We have taken an important decision. Now, manufacturers will fit the plates and embossing will be done later through machine," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told the Press Trust of India.The cost of the registration number plate will be included in the total on-road price of the car.At present, a vehicle license plate -- which is attached to vehicles bearing its official registration number, commonly known as "a number plate" -- is procured by various states separately from designated agencies.

The minister said the new technology number plates were intended to bring relief not only to consumers but also to bring in uniformity across states as each state used to buy these plates earlier.The prices for number plates procured by states ranged from Rs 800 to Rs 40,000, the minister said.Gadkari said that there would be no compromise in terms of security as far as vehicles were concerned and such norms will be same for all models be it economy or luxury.“We will not compromise with security.... what security norms we have done for economic models, same is for luxury and SUVs,” he said.

“Since vehicle manufacturers will buy tamperproof high security registration plates (HSRPs) in bulk, prices will fall drastically. But what is more important is there will be huge relief for people, they will have assured service from the dealer concerned and there will be 100 per cent compliance,” Anil Chikkara, a transport expert, told us.

Personalised number plates are a popular way of customising your car and showing off a bit, but not all options are allowed out onto the streets.

Rude and offensive number plates are actually banned by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Some of the plates are pretty obviously unacceptable while others are a little more subtle.

The decision as to what should and shouldn’t be banned is made by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in a meeting convened twice a year, ahead of each bi-annual plate change.

Censors decide which plates should be banned due to their explicit nature or potential to be offensive for political, racial or religious reasons, including anything ending in BNP.

If a would-be banned plate does slip through the net, the DVLA has the power to force its removal and replacement with a new registration.

Plates can be banned regardless of whether they are standard or personalised.

My Plates will be conducting their biggest auction of the year, the Great Plate Auction. The auction will showcase 50 select, highly sought-after license plate messages with many never before available, including seven letter messages like "40 ACRES, GO TEXAS and TEACHER."

Some of the featured lots include rare two-digit numbers 17 and 99 as well as the single letter plate Z.

The My Plates Great Plate Auction for 2018 will end at 8 p.m. on April 25, so Texans have plenty of time to get in their bids.

With 50 plate messages on offer, there's a wide variety of choice, from team names like COW8OYS, TEXENS, ASTRO5 and LAKERS, to everyday messages like FRIEND & WELCOME.

"The auction features a little something for everyone" said Steve Farrar, President of My Plates.

Fans can buy other historic license plate numbers, such as America's birth year 1776 or 888, a number considered lucky by some cultures.

Unlike other everyday Texas license plates, plate messages sold at auction by My Plates are offered for a 5-year term and are legally transferable. The plate owner then has the right to sell the plate message to another person with the same ongoing rights or gift it to a family member or friend.

The Great Plate auction will be conducted online and will run through April 25, 2018.

People from outside the state can purchase a Texas license plate for display on their wall. But if you want to use the plate on a vehicle, the vehicle must be registered by a Texas resident.

Following the introduction of a new number plate design last year, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has now kicked off a campaign urging all motorists to upgrade to the new plates, ahead of mandatory upgrades from July for select codes.

The upgrade is currently available for all types of distinguished and special number plates across all codes, and from May it will also be available optionally for unowned (allotted randomly through vehicle registration) plates.

As the RTA presses ahead with its new plates regime, unowned car plates with codes A, B and C will be among the first to be up for mandatory replacement from July.
The new number plate design that includes either a black and white or colour Dubai logo, depending on the amount you pay, was launched last year after the introduction of double codes necessitated a redesign.
“The RTA has developed a new strategy for number plates resulting in a new generation of number plates with double codes. This has accordingly resulted in the whole design for the number plates to be changed to adopt the single and double codes with the same design language,” said Sultan Al Marzouqi, director of RTA’s Vehicle Licensing.
The double codes are being introduced as the RTA is running out of single codes, as the number of vehicles continues to rise at an alarming rate in Dubai.
Replacement in 2 years
According to RTA, over the next couple of years, all categories of vehicle number plates — whether purchased online, bought in an auction or allotted through the vehicle registration process — will have to be replaced in phases.

In the next phase, beginning January next year, plates with codes D, E, F, G, H and I will have to be replaced, while in January 2020 replacement for codes J, K, L, M, N and O will start and following that in January 2021, it will be the turn of all unowned plates with codes P to Z as well as other types of plates.

Depending on the size of the plates and colour of the logo, the prices of the plates vary.
A regular short number plate with a black and white logo will cost Dh35, while a long number plate in the same category will cost Dh50.

For those who already own number plates with colour logo of Dubai, the replacement for the long and short plates will cost Dh35 and Dh50, respectively, while those who want to buy a new plate with coloured Dubai logo will have to pay Dh400 irrespective of the plate’s size.
As for the distinguished or special number plates, the replacement will cost Dh500, with the process to be completed mandatorily by the end of this year.
Al Marzouqi said motorists with owned number plates willing to get the plates replaced can either proceed immediately to any of the RTA-affiliated vehicle testing and registration centres or get it replaced at the time of their scheduled renewal, while those with unowned number plates can wait till May to do the same.
Motorists unimpressed.

However, many motorists seem unimpressed with going through the hassle of replacing the number plates, especially those who had recently got the new ones.
“I recently got my number plate replaced with the one with Dubai’s colour logo and I will have to do it again and pay more in the process, this is unacceptable,” said Mohammad Akram, a Dubai resident.

Another motorist said that with the registration and testing fees also hiked, this is an additional burden.
“We are already paying extra for so many things. There is an increased registration and testing fee, plus fines, knowledge and innovation fees and now the number plate replacement. And then they will charge for the installation of the number plate. I think this is totally unnecessary,” said Saeed Fakri, another expatriate.