Reg changes query
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• Truck dealers and ouyers opinions are to be canvassed on whether the system of changing registration prefixes an new vehicles every August should be scrapped The Department of Transport, which has already held discussions with as.sociations representing vehicle manufacturers and dealers, want., to open the debate and plans to launch a formal consultation period in the next couple of months.
The current system of annual plate change causes the greatest distortion in the car market, where the month of August can account for more than a quarter of the all the new cars sold in any one year. But for truck dealers, August registrations can also be an inconvenience.
"We have several trucks sitting here ready to go. but the buyers don't want to register them until the plate changes," says Mike Mudie, Mercedes-Benz truck dealer and chairman of the Retail Motor Industry Federation's truck committee. "TruckAnnual plate system:
buyers aren't fashion conscious but they are conscious of the effect a new plate can have on their truck's residual value."
A spokesman for the DOT dismissed speculation that ministers had already agreed to industry calls for plate changes on a quarterly basis and saidthere was "no supposition that there is going to be a change of any sort". In any case, one DOT source said he thought it unlikely that any changes could be implemented in time for August 1997.
If you wish to state your opinion on the August prefix change before the formal consultation, write to the Department of Transport, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR.