Anybody know hot to identify zero and O on Vehicle plate

[enjoylife]

Not sure if I post in the right sub-forum, but I did not find an proper place to post this. When I drive I quite often ask a question, how can we identify number 1 and 'I' on the registration plate, same with Zero and 'O'. Can anybody explain a bit this please.

 

[yasar365]

The o and 0 differ and usually the reg plate follows certain formats.
the new format. xx00 xxx (x being a letter - 0 a digit)
old format. x000 xxx
northern ireland xxx 0000

 

[SBlundell]

I always thought there was no O or I (because they're too similar to one and zero) but (depending how much faith you put in Wikipedia) it seems 'The letter O and the digit 0 are intentionally identical, as are the letter I and digit 1'

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicl...,_Crown_dependencies_and_overseas_territories]

 

[yasar365]

There is not a letter I as far as I know, but there is definitely o and zero.
my previous car reg ro06 ----

 

[Jeff FV]

The number '0' is certainly allowable on a number plate - I had a very trusty Citroen Picasso for 10 years - number plate WN02 ... until it got written off earlier this year* when a tractor reversed onto it. Twice.

I seem to recall that the letter 'O' was not allowed to avoid confusion, but I'm not sure.

J

ps Just seen @yasar365's post above (written at the same time as I was writing) so it seems o and 0 are both allowed.

*edit: forgotten its 2014 already! That should read last year!

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

DVLA says

We will not issue I,Q or Z as local office identifiers.

We will still issue existing ‘Q’ marks.

We will only use Z as a random letter

 

[enjoylife]

Still confused. Does DVLA mean zero and O can be in the same plate?

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

Since only the above get a mention, i'd say they are allowed.

http://www.vregs.com/registration/YR06O

 

[Lease4Less]

I can 100% confirm that both the number 0 and the letter O are in use and are permitted by the DVLA.

 

[enjoylife]

So how can we know which is zero or 'O' since they are shown in the same way on the plate?

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

the new format has 2 letters, 2 numbers, 3 letters
so you can tell by the position.

Older plates, like abc123d did not use the letter O but did use the number 0

 

[Scalloway]

O was used in the registration authority letters but not in year letters

http://www.wolfbane.com/vreg.htm

 

[Lease4Less]

So how can we know which is zero or 'O' since they are shown in the same way on the plate?

http://www.regtransfers.co.uk/main/searchs/searchresults.asp

They are not shown the same way on a plate and it is quite obvious (Have a search for plates included both 0 and O)

 

[enjoylife]

Thank you all. Much clear now.

 

[ThePublisher]

I've got both O and 0 in my numberplate next to each other. They are noticeably different in shape.

 

[IanG]

They are both used, but there are also many rules for placement of letters and numbers, many of which are historical and you'd need to learn both the current scheme and all those which pre-date it to be able to tell reliably which digits belong where.

In most cases prior to 2001, numbers are integers so a leading zero is not permissible.

After 2001, year identifiers were allowed a leading zero but the plate length is always 7 digits do you can work out from there.

ie. VO02ABC must be a 2002 car registered in the VO registration office, it cannot be a 2000/V plate with the number 002.

Loads of info here but don't expect to go from wondering where zeroes are to understanding it all in one go, there's a lot of history and changes over the years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicl...,_Crown_dependencies_and_overseas_territories

If in doubt, letter Os are normally a bit wider.

If even that fails you, put the reg in the Vehicle Enquiry on this page - http://taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/

If it doesn't work, substitute your numbers for letters and try again. You'll eventually get a vehicle record in most cases.