Latest HMG Bulletin on towing

[AndrewAventura]

Yes, I did this, and paid the £26. (I'm sure when I looked in 2025 it said £15......). Presently travelling around France and have noticed one or two british caravans with the plate added and one or two without. Not seen many gendarmes and doubt that they'd care very much. But prefer to toe the line if it's not too irksome.

 

[otherclive]

I'm taking my caravan to France and Germany in September 26. I've completed the registration on the DVLA website via the Government Gateway - quite simple to follow. I have a registration number allocated to my caravan. Now they want payment of £26. Has anyone else completed and paid for registration? There's a note on page 53 of the Camping and Caravanning Club May 2026 issue about this.

See post #3. There was another member too.

A

Post in thread 'Caravan Registration in the EU and Brittany Ferries apparent lack of knowledge'

Feb 20, 2026

Coincidentally, I completed the registration for my caravan yesterday. Cost £26 on the gov.uk site for caravan registration, plus also the cost of the plate itself.
I can't quite remember how it was expressed before on the gov.uk site, but when I looked yesterday it seemed much clearer than it did previously that I should have it. Mind you, my recollection was a price of £15 to register, so maybe that's changed too.
Looking forward to Brittany in April!

• AndrewAventura

• 

 

[Johnb]

Yes. Same cost plus number plate and duly mounted top right side of rear panel.
Maybe or maybe not now needed but sorted some time ago - certainly not going to spend any time arguing about it - better things to do!

 

[Alanbrooke]

Yes. Same cost plus number plate and duly mounted top right side of rear panel.
Maybe or maybe not now needed but sorted some time ago - certainly not going to spend any time arguing about it - better things to do!

I've now registered the caravan (£26) and ordered the plate (£13.99) which is due Monday 20 April. All good to go - I'm wondering if it's worth attaching the plate straightaway, even though I'm staying in UK until September.

 

[Woodentop]

Yes. Same cost plus number plate and duly mounted top right side of rear panel.
Maybe or maybe not now needed but sorted some time ago - certainly not going to spend any time arguing about it - better things to do!

Shouldn't that be top LEFT side of rear panel so that an official with LHD will have the plate in front of the driver? Accepted that the DVLA advise it must be fitted as far away from the vehicle registration plate.

 

[Lutz]

Shouldn't that be top LEFT side of rear panel so that an official with LHD will have the plate in front of the driver? Accepted that the DVLA advise it must be fitted as far away from the vehicle registration plate.

Nobody abroad is going to recognise it intuitively as a registration plate until it is pointed out to them and its purpose is explained because it doesn't have the usual format of a regular registration plate and it's not where one would normally expect it to be, so it doesn't really matter whether it's in the top left or top right hand corner. When I first saw such plates on commercial trailers (where they were introduced several years earlier) I thought that it was a fleet number. I suspect that a lot of traffic officers abroad would suppose that, too.
I doesn’t even need to be illuminated, which is a requirement for rear registration plates.

 

[otherclive]

Shouldn't that be top LEFT side of rear panel so that an official with LHD will have the plate in front of the driver? Accepted that the DVLA advise it must be fitted as far away from the vehicle registration plate.

Think any European police officer/official that has difficulty reading a plate on the upper right of the rear panel should see an optician.