Has anyone been stopped for not displaying national sticker?

[donkmeister]

As next week our national identifier is changing from GB to UK, I was contemplating replacing the numberplates on my roadtrip car to go from the Euro-GB plate to the Union Flag-UK ones. Saves losing magnetic ones and having to soak off stickers, but TBH it's a very unexciting use of £27 and half an hour to drill the holes and fit them.

Is the national marker actually useful anywhere? I know it's a UN matter so being useless in Europe now doesn't mean it isn't useful somewhere else, but is there some way that this pretty vague information is actually useful on cars?

Also, I hear stories of over-zealous gendarmes and polizei being pedantic about rules, but I've never encountered it myself. Has anyone here actually ever been pulled and/or fined outside of the UK for not having the correct national marker on a car?

[smokey mow]

If the price and time is an issue for you why not buy some of the £1.50 stickers off eBay/Amazon that you can get to stick over the GB on your plates to change them to U.K?

[Turbobanana]

No experience of being pulled* but I've just changed mine as I plan to travel to France for half term and don't want stickers / magnets all over my car. My life is not so busy that I resented half an hour drilling and fitting them.




*1999: I'm making good progress through an alpine village late at night when I get pulled by 2 Gendarmes with a speed gun. On seeing I'm a Brit they wave me through.

[Pica-Pica]

donkmeister said:

Also, I hear stories of over-zealous gendarmes and polizei being pedantic about rules, but I've never encountered it myself.

It’s the rules our government and voters wanted.

(My 66 plate F30 came with no country identifier at all from new)

[vonhosen]

Spain, Malta & Cyprus you need the oval sticker, even if you have the UK identifier number plates.

[donkmeister]

smokey mow said:

If the price and time is an issue for you why not buy some of the £1.50 stickers off eBay/Amazon that you can get to stick over the GB on your plates to change them to U.K?

Having seen people with other stickers on the numberplate, they look naff when new and worse once weathered. I'll be swapping the plates.

The point of the question was more "has anyone ever actually had any issue due to not displaying a country identifier?"

[DoubleSix]

I just fitted new plates.

UK with Union Jack.

Don’t drill ‘em, looks awful. Just use high quality (3M) fixing tape and they won’t be going anywhere.

[Wills2]

As most probably display a sticker then it's a small pool of people you're looking for an answer from, you might be fine you might not, it isn't really an issue worth bothering about just slap a UK sticker on the back of the car then you won't need to worry about it.

[donkmeister]

Wills2 said:

As most probably display a sticker then it's a small pool of people you're looking for an answer from, you might be fine you might not, it isn't really an issue worth bothering about just slap a UK sticker on the back of the car then you won't need to worry about it.

Yes, but it would be refreshing to hear lots of "I forgot my GB sticker and ended up spending 3 years in a French prison as a result" type anecdotes, so I can think "phew, glad I'm doing this, I've heard the Bastille's canteen recently had one of its Michelin stars revoked." as I fit my new plates.

Rather than "pah, I could be wasting this time looking at PH threads started by mildly neurotic types about complying with UN rules for motoring".

[Bill]

I suspect it's a bit early to say. Prior to this we hadn't shove two fingers up to the EU and most would have been displaying GB on the number plate so it probably wouldn't have flagged up on les flics' radar. Now though, who knows?

[Ussrcossack]

I was stopped 1994 entering Czechoslovakia.

Just put the sticker on.

I'd assume now we have peeved most of Europe off with Brexit there is more chance of a pull

[Jamescrs]

Travelling from the UK throguh france to Germany in the next couple of weeks and then back via Belgum, I've ordered some of the reg plate stickers personally, not fussed if they will look naff as i'll no doubt remove them when i'm back again.

My car came from the BMW dealer with no GB markers at all on the plates though

[CABC]

it's a great question to ask, any nobody has said yes yet. I'd bank on a few extra pulls post Brexit tbh. folklore has it the worst is Spain, and they certainly do have random autoroute blocks occasionally. I really think the French care less, so long as you pass the attitude test. impounding is not the issue, but a quick €135 is a possibility.

[Speed Badger]

I was looking at this recently, I found you can get a couple of cheapo 'UK' stickers to put on the reg plates that you can remove later.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-CAR-NUMBER-PLATE-STI...

[2wheelsjimmy]

I've been driving around in Spain all year with my UK plated vehicle no issue

People love to make up good story.

[DoubleSix]

2wheelsjimmy said:

I've been driving around in Spain all year with my UK plated vehicle no issue

People love to make up good story.

Err.. the latest rules only just came in (Sept 28th) and I’m not sure legislation is considered a ‘story’.

https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/flags-...

[JohnnyUK]

Was stopped by the gendarme 15 minutes after leaving the channel tunnel for driving too fast on the motorway.

I had no GB sticker - the only interest he took in the number plate was that it was very similar to my surname and he thought I had paid a fortune for it - I have an unusual surname, so, no I didn't.

He was a nice guy, but he also had a big gun, so I was very polite.....

Edited by JohnnyUK on Sunday 26th September 18:42

[omniflow]

Was stopped last week by "Thelma and Louise" (a very clean and shiny black unmarked Golf R for anyone interested) about 10 miles short of the Spanish Border (with France). No GB or UK sticker and totally plain number plates. They both had guns, and batons and stab vests, but were as nice as pie and let me off with €90 for 217Km/Hr. Nothing was said about the lack of country identifier.

[Griffith4ever]

I honestly don't think anyone gives a st about gb/UK stickers. Never had one, nor have any friends, and never an issue with extensive (every other weekend for years) eu driving. I reckon the stickers exist for caravanners to get excited about. Something else to add on.

[Turbobanana]

Griffith4ever said:

I honestly don't think anyone gives a st about gb/UK stickers. Never had one, nor have any friends, and never an issue with extensive (every other weekend for years) eu driving. I reckon the stickers exist for caravanners to get excited about. Something else to add on.

I wonder whether that's because UK / GB plates are pretty distinctive and look nothing like those from any other* EU country. Rather like German plates: they can't really be mistaken for anything else.


*sorry, my bad: still haven't come to terms with that.