Final confirmation and implementation-tactics have been agreed in order to have Barcodes replace standard 7-digit registration plates by November 31st 2015. After being tested in Germany for the last 6 months, the new technology has been approved and labelled ‘fit for use’ in Great Britain following a recent change in legislation brought forward by the Department of Entitled Registration Proficiencies (DERP).
The conclusion has been regarded as ‘rushed and improvised’ from British motoring organisations as well as those who own Private Registration plates.
What are the benefits?
Barcode-plates contain over 1,000 times more fields of data that can be extracted from ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras. The 7 digits currently on our registration plates simply cannot contain all the necessary information.
What does your barcode say about you?
The new barcodes will be scanned by speed cameras, traffic cameras and emergency services to reveal the following information:
- Year of Manufacture
- Vehicle Make/Model
- Location of dealer
- Valid insurance?
- Valid MOT?
- Valid Tax?
- Owners house address
- Owners mobile phone number (if vehicle is stolen)
- Emergency contact number (if vehicle is involved in an accident)
- Fathers Maiden Name
- Mothers Maiden Name
- Favourite colour
- First Pet
- Bank Security PIN
- Your Browser History.
Is This Necessary?
The Managing Director of DERP, Madame Pune, told us in an exclusive phone-interview: “...the current registration layout has been in place for too long and only shows a small amount of the data that we feel we have the right to extract out of every road user. What possible benefit can we obtain from knowing the year of manufacture alone? How is that in any way financially worthwhile for us? We’ve used safety-concerns as a bargaining tool to help sway the Government's perspective with this issue and what’s great is - it worked! How can any government turn down a system that claims to provide valuable emergency contact information in the event of a crash? Even if we do have the safest roads in the Europe! It’s just so easy to scare this government and accordingly we’ll make an absolute killing from it. Furthermore, we’re a foreign company based in Switzerland with accounts held in the Virgin Islands, we literally pay zero tax - it’s a great system!”