REGISTRATION OF TRAILERS
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i refer to your recent article concerning the proposal that trailers should be registered (CM 12-18 July).
Surely all trailers already carry their own unique registration numbers? Originally called the MoT serial number, every trailer in this country has carried such a number since their introduction—presumably by the MoT in 1967, when lists of the numbers to be applied to every operators trailers were drawn up. Since 1968 all new trailers put into service have also been allocated individual MoT numbers, for which application has to be made by the operator to the DoT. The DoT must, therefore, maintain a register of all numbers issued in order to be able to continue the number sequence.
Operators have adopted a variety of ways to mark their trailers: some print or stamp the characters into the chassis frame, some fix a stamped metal plate, many spot-weld the characters or to the chassis. It is regarded as the registration number for plating and testing purposes. Since every trailer also carries a maker's serial or chassis number, this means that each already bears two unique means of identification. Surely your article Is not proposing a third number as well? This is even more than a vehicle carries! No trailer number can be affixed any more permanently that those already carried: all plates and markings are capable of removal by a determined criminal.
John R Mellott, Lcedc.
You're absolutely correct, Mr Mallet, that all trailers carry a unique number but, sadly, our understanding is that no central records are kept of exactly which trailers the numbers refer to, what the trailer type is or who owns them—incredible though this may seem. And while trailer makers mark their products with other codes for their own reasons, there is no standard format or location, all of which leaves police trying to trace a recovered trailer's history with what one officer describes in the letter which follows as a nightmare—Ed.