Congestion Charge/Pre 1971 number plates

[V8rumble]

At the end of November there is an “Defender” meet starting in Belgrave Square. I plan to take my 1965 Series IIA which wears black and silver number plates. I think the consensus is that ANPR cameras don’t read these number plates, but I am not certain .
So I plan to pre register the car and provide a credit card that in theory means every time I drive into a chargeable. Zone payment is made. My theory is this will avoid any penalties for non payment but also won’t incur a charge as the ANPR cameras won’t realise my car was there. Any one has any thoughts on this?

[normalbloke]

What credible source do you have that they won’t be readable?

[Hawkshaw]

AIUI, if ANPR cannot read a plate, it will alert a human operator who will be able to read it.

[Mandat]

V8rumble said:

At the end of November there is an Defender meet starting in Belgrave Square. I plan to take my 1965 Series IIA which wears black and silver number plates. I think the consensus is that ANPR cameras don t read these number plates, but I am not certain .
So I plan to pre register the car and provide a credit card that in theory means every time I drive into a chargeable. Zone payment is made. My theory is this will avoid any penalties for non payment but also won t incur a charge as the ANPR cameras won t realise my car was there. Any one has any thoughts on this?

Give it a go. The cameras are not infallible.

On my previous, non-ULEZ, car I was only charged intermittently when I drove in the CC zone, perhaps only 1 in 5 times.

When ULEZ came in, I was getting charged the ULEZ fee every I drove in the zone, while at the same time the CC fee was still only charged 20% of the time.

I presume that the ULEZ & CC systems don't share the same cameras or database, hence the anomaly, however it goes to show that for whatever the reasons, the cameras are not 100% perfect.

[balham123]

There was definitely a rumour that black and white plates were unreadable by cameras, I think that's why so many modern cars use them. Possibly for supermarket car parks and the like they are effective, I would be amazed if proper ampr camera had a problem

[V8rumble]

What credible source do you have that they won’t be readable?


Some years ago I was driving a 2001 Morgan in Wandsworth. It has a 6 digit non dating number plate. It was wearing Black and silver number plates cos they look better on old cars. Two police motorcycles pulled me over . I told them I had just been to a show and had the appropriate yellow and white number plates with me. The policeman said the biggest issue in London was terrorism and the cameras can not read the black and silver. This was about maybe 10 years ago. Things could have changed

[sospan]

Us Morgan owners are sometimes mistaken for terrorists. My 2002 Plus8 showed as ULEZ compliant but that eventually changed. I think the TFLdatabase management is not the best maintained.

[OutInTheShed]

V8rumble said:

What credible source do you have that they won t be readable?


Some years ago I was driving a 2001 Morgan in Wandsworth. It has a 6 digit non dating number plate. It was wearing Black and silver number plates cos they look better on old cars. Two police motorcycles pulled me over . I told them I had just been to a show and had the appropriate yellow and white number plates with me. The policeman said the biggest issue in London was terrorism and the cameras can not read the black and silver. This was about maybe 10 years ago. Things could have changed

What ANPR can and cannot read can be a messy area.
Years ago, I used to struggle to get out of a certain airport car park because I had a shed with an old format number.
Other times, ANPR has been known to recognise random text on the back of a van as someone else's number.

It's evolving software, treading a line between failing to read and falsely reading.

If the machine fails to read, a human might or might not intervene.
My solution is generally not to drive inside the M25.

[the-norseman]

My thoughts on it are, what a pointless thread.

You'll either get charged for congestion charge, or wont.

[Speed Badger]

ANPR can read them just fine. It's vehicle front grilles they like to read as 111101111011 sometimes depending on what it is!