"Martin Rich" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 09:49:11 -0000, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:


So for vehicles registered in Mar-Sep, the digits will be the last two of
the year; for vehicles registered in Sep-Mar, the digits will be the last
two of the year in which the September occurred + 50. This will last until
2050, when a new system will be required.

As I understand it, the idea is to use the format XXX 01 PP from March
2051, and XXX 51 PP from September 2051 where XXX are random letters
and PP is a place designator, so the present system could actually
last until 2100

Seems logical that they simply reverse the current format, as they did in
the mid-80s when ABC 123 Y was followed by A 123 ABC.

2100 - I don't think any of us will be around to see what they decide to do
when that format runs out!


By the way, why was the letter U not used as a year letter? I can understand
why I, O, Q and Z were omitted because they are too similar to digits 1, 0
[O and Q] and 2. But what digit could U be confused with?