Which number plate must a trailer display?

GOV.UK's towing equipment page, checked in 2026, says you must display the same number plate on your trailer as on your towing car. If you tow more than one trailer at a time, fix the number plate to the trailer at the back. The plate has to be a real plate: the same characters, spacing and construction rules as any other GB plate. A handwritten board, a bit of tape or a magnetic strip with the wrong gaps is not that plate.

The car's own rear plate can be hidden by the hitch and the van. That is why the trailer carries the mark. When you unhitch, the car's rear plate has to be visible again. A private plate on the car means the trailer shows that private mark, not the old one you left in the garage. After a plate change, both ends have to match the current registration.

GOV.UK's trailer registration guidance, checked in 2025, says a trailer over 750 kg must be registered to travel through most European countries, and then displays its own trailer registration plate as well as the towing vehicle plate. That 750 kg line is about foreign travel, not about GB brakes, even though the number matches the unbraked GB limit. Check the GOV.UK trailer registration tool before you book a ferry.

Inside the UK, the ordinary rule remains the towing vehicle's registration on the rear of the last trailer. Do not replace that with a foreign trailer plate on a UK road, and do not leave the trailer plate off abroad because the car plate is there. GOV.UK describes both plates in that abroad case.

Use a registered number plate supplier and the same documents you would use for a car plate. The mark is the car's current registration. Construction, font and spacing follow the ordinary GB plate rules, which live on the number plate rules page and in INF104. Light the plate. A rear registration plate lamp is an MOT item on the car, and the trailer plate still has to be readable at night.

Snow, mud and a bike rack on a caravan A-frame can hide the mark. Highway Code rule 229 requires plates to be clearly visible before you set off in snow. Clean it. If two trailers are in a chain, only the back one needs the car's plate according to GOV.UK, but that back plate is the one cameras and officers will read.

An unmatched or unreadable trailer plate is an incorrectly displayed registration. GOV.UK's displaying number plates guide states a fine of up to £1,000 and an MOT fail for incorrectly displayed plates on a vehicle. The trailer is part of the combination you are using. A prohibition can follow if the outfit is being used in a condition that also breaks construction and use rules.

ANPR reads the rear mark. A trailer showing the wrong number is how a notice goes to a previous keeper, or how your current mark is never seen. Match the plates. It is cheaper than the correspondence.

A hire trailer still shows the towing vehicle's UK registration while it is on a UK road. Do not leave the hire firm's depot plate on it if that plate is not the car's mark. Northern Ireland has its own plate format. A GB car towing in NI still shows its GB mark on the trailer. An NI car towing in GB shows its NI mark. Do not mix the systems on one outfit.

Scotland and Wales use the same GOV.UK trailer plate rule as England. The Welsh-language displaying guide is a translation, not a different trailer rule.

Leaving the old registration on the van after a private plate change. Using a homemade board. Forgetting the plate when borrowing a neighbour's trailer. Putting the plate on the front of the caravan locker instead of the rear. Assuming a registered trailer plate for France replaces the car plate on a UK dual carriageway.

The UK rule is simple: the rear of the last trailer shows the towing vehicle's current registration, as a proper plate. Everything else is an extra for other countries or a fail.

GOV.UK's towing equipment page is the UK display rule: the same number plate as the towing car, on the rear-most trailer if you tow more than one. GOV.UK displaying number plates states a fine of up to £1,000 and an MOT fail for incorrectly displayed plates. INF104 is the DVLA booklet for registration marks. GOV.UK trailer registration, checked in 2025, is the abroad rule for trailers over 750 kg travelling through most European countries, where the trailer then shows its own plate as well as the towing vehicle plate.

Those 750 kg lines are easy to mix up. Unbraked GB towing uses 750 kg loaded as the brake threshold. Trailer registration uses 750 kg as the usual line for registering to travel through most European countries. Confirm both if your van is near that figure. Use a registered supplier for the plate itself. A handwritten board is not a compliant plate.