Friday, May 05, 2006

A bog standard van



The UK obsession with personalised number plates is strange, but a little endearing. In the States, you can register your own word, in Europe you don't get much choice. Here, people put their names on the plates, why? In case they forget? However I did quite like this plumber's van, though. For the foreigners, "bog" is slang for a toilet. Bog standard, on the other hand, just means basic, with slightly derogatory overtones, and has nothing to do with toilets.

Here's the result of a quick search for Ham, or maybe pork
would be cheaper.

We have had several revisions of the number plate format, each helped put more words on cars. Two of my favorites I've seen - First, years ago, on a beat up BMW, driven by a bro', BOL 1 X (normally swear words don't get issued -they missed this one!) and the second three days ago on a motorbike TU 05 LOW.

posted by Ham at 00:21 -- Comments here: 19

Comments on "A bog standard van"

 

Blogger Andreea said ... (09:02) : 

interesting. have'nt seen too many personlized ones in brussels.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10:32) : 

Personalized plates are also quite popular here in the Philippines...I don't know but i guess seeing your name "driving" around gives people a certain ego boost =)

 

Blogger Ineke said ... (12:08) : 

And what do you think of the truckdrivers who have their wives'and kids names displayed behind the frontwindow!
I didn't know it was legal to have only a name plate thought, thought it had to be a name and some numbers.

 

Blogger Mark said ... (12:40) : 

That must of cost a fortune, bloody fantastic though.

 

Blogger Brian DubĂ© said ... (13:05) : 

Not as many people own cars in NYC, but those who've got the fancy ones usually have something creative to say with the license plate...like that particular blue color, not one you see over here...
L

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (15:03) : 

My favorite is one I saw quite a few years ago in Louisiana, USA. It was a "bro" driving a Jag and the license plate read PO NO MO.

 

Blogger Ham said ... (16:56) : 

Andreea - In common with a lot of the continent, I don't think Belgian plates lend themselves to personalising in the same way.

Anne - be interesting to see some!

Chris - thanks, I love the way blogging gives permanance to a fleeting moment!

Dutchie - In the UK, our plates are issued to the car and for a long while were in the format A999AAA or AAA999A where the lone A denoted the year, so it is easy to get S1NGH (for a sikh) or L10NEL, for example. Now we have moved to AA99AAA where the 99 is the moth and year (two - eg 06 or 56 - a year)

Mark -reckon so!

Brian & Lucy - the blue is non-standard. Most vans are white!

Brant - I do likr the way you can get to choose all of your plate.

Trivia for the day? The three people that do not need to have number plates on their cars in the UK: 1) The Queen 2) President of America 3) Prime minister of Malta. DO NOT ask me why, I don't know.

 

Blogger G Fraser said ... (21:50) : 

what a random piece of trivia...fabulous! i love the flexibity of our number plates, but the new style makes it a bit harder. Around Edinburgh you see a lot variations for Hibernian FC such as H18BES, H1BBS. Hearts is a bit harder.

 

Blogger Ham said ... (22:45) : 

As my daugter pointed out, I missed the fourth one in the line up. The Pope, which makes me smile, because it means that the pope can come over here, pick up speeding tickets on his non-licensed car, and blame it on the queen. Sweet.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (05:27) : 

Nice Van,

Man :)

I like Pimlico they are great company - London Trademark.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (05:28) : 

That must of cost a fortune, bloody fantastic though.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (05:29) : 

Thats a great spot Ham. Loved your photo of the guitarist from the other day aswell.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (05:29) : 

interesting. have'nt seen too many personlized ones in brussels.

 

Anonymous plumbing said ... (05:50) : 

That sounds a good idea! Anyway, is it legal to put a number plate like this? Our place prohibits this kind of activity, I wish they could allow us too.

 

Anonymous Area Removals Company Barnet said ... (10:03) : 

good relocation services

 

Anonymous private plates said ... (17:20) : 

nice work best of luck.............

 

Anonymous allan said ... (19:02) : 

Love The Plate Bog 1, Its A Nice Personal Touch To The Business, Keep Up The Good Work Pimlico Plumbers.

 

Anonymous Plumber said ... (13:38) : 

Pimlico no doubt is a UK leader in plumbing.They can afford any number plates they like...

 

Anonymous Speedy Reg said ... (12:28) : 

Nice to see a personalised number plate with a sense of humour! :)

 

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Name: Ham Location: London, United Kingdom View my complete profile