Vehicle registration certificate

American state-issued 1917 registration certificate

A vehicle registration certificate is an official document providing proof of registration of a motor vehicle. It is used primarily by governments as a means of ensuring that all road vehicles are on the national vehicle register, but is also used as a form of law enforcement and to facilitate change of ownership when buying and selling a vehicle.

European Union and European Economic Area

In the European Economic Area (EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), vehicle registration certificates are governed by the European directive 1999/37/EC.^[1] The information contained in these registration certificates includes:

• Vehicle registration number
• Personal data of the individual to whom the vehicle is registered
• Vehicle identification number (VIN)
• Engine specifications
• Exhaust emissions

United Kingdom

In the UK the document (V5C) was previously referred to as the log book,^[2] and this is still common usage. The document is issued by the DVLA and tracks the registered keeper of the vehicle, rather than the owner. When a vehicle is transferred, exported, scrapped or had major modification (new engine, chassis or factors affecting the taxation class) the form is returned to the DVLA, who issue a new document, if appropriate, with the amended details.

2001 redesign

A new design was issued in 2001 to comply with EC directive 2001/127/EC, not as a result of a theft of blank forms in the same year.^[3]

Red forms

In 2011/2012 a program was launched to replace the previous blue forms were with new red forms as a result of "theft of a number of blank V5Cs".^[4] The theft may have been of several hundred thousand forms in 2007/8,^[5] or the loss of over two million forms reported in 2008.^[6] Both or either incidents may relate to blank forms returned to a supplier in 2006 for overprinting which were eventually sent to be destroyed.^[7]

The police (AVCIS) launched "Operation Drift" to recover stolen forms, over a thousand being recovered.^[8] The relevant serial numbers of the illegal VC5s are either (according to the police):

• BG 8407501 – BG 8431000
• BG 9167501 – BG 9214000
• BG 9282001 – BG 9305000
• BI 2305501 – BI 2800000^[8]

Or, according to the DVLA reported in Parker's:

• BG 8229501 - BG 9999030
• BI 2305501 - BI 2800000 ^[6]

See also

• Electric vehicle conversion
• Pink slip
• Vehicle identification number (VIN)
• Vehicle register
• Vehicle registration plate
• Vehicle registration

External links

• Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in the UK

References