I was sat outside a bodyshop this morning, some short distance away, waiting for SWMBO to turn up (but that's another story which I'll save for the end of the week). Nearby was a small, old looking car transporter. A double decker. I'd say it could carry maybe 4 cars, though the way they pack 'em in I guess that's 6 in real life. Behind it, with it's rear end pointing at the transporter was an old shape Honda Civic. A guy was putting tape over the front number plate. Odd. Why was he doing that? Doesn't want Plod to see a hot car on the back of a transporter? Anyway, I kept watching, it was entertaining. I've never seen a transporter loaded or unloaded.
Ramps were dropped down from the back of the t. The top desk was angled down. The angle was pretty steep, must have been in the region of 45 degrees. In my innocence i assumed that the car would be winched up the wet, steel deck. No. He got in and reversed up. Part way up he was well skew whiff so he stopped, let it roll forward and then attempted to continue reversing. All he got on the smooth steel was wheel spin. So, down he comes and has another bash. The clearance under the front spoiler was nil. It must have been scraped. At the second attempt he got further up before going off the straight and narrow. The door mirror was clouted by one of the stanchions and I think the front left and rear right may have been clipped too. He stopped at the top, hard over to one side. No chance of getting out. He managed a bit of to-ing and fro-ing this time and straightened and centred it.
Next, he got out and, with the car held only on the handbrake, walked down the ramp! Scared me. Though I got the impression that there may be a lip at the top and he'd put the rear wheels over the lip so maybe it wasn't as scary as it looked.
I'm glad it wasn't my car getting the treatment. Just then SWMBO turned up and off I went. A good start to the day, a full week's excitement packed into 5 minutes. Too much :-)
So why did he tape over the plate?
John
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>> So why did he tape over the plate?
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I would presume to avoid potential confusion over the transporters registration.
I've seen comments that it's to prevent cloning, but it would be pointless to clone a car that's probably untaxed anyway.
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quite simply the car has been declared a write off by the insurance company and the vehicle will most likely be going to a copart salvage centre for sale to copart members
the reason for the tape is indeed to stop cloning
remember this car will still be registered to the owner and as such time that the paperwork is completed is still the responsibility of the owner and so may well be showing as taxed mot'd and insured
chummy would indeed like to clone his pool car to something on the transporter
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I agree with bellboy, but I would add that the tape could also prevent the Civic from triggering any ANPR cameras it may pass - if it is off the radar it could generate tickets / visits for lack of MoT/insurance.
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I agree with the cloning reasoning and as someone who sends many company vehicles to auction by transporter, I have also seen some dodgy vehicle loading! The point about ANPR is interesting though, many of my vehicles are not road legal (tax, MOT etc) when they leave on the lorry, but I have never had any notification as a result of ANPR. But why not??!!
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The cynic in me did wonder whether some of these cars were not entered onto the database as accident damaged cars and the plates covered for other reasons.
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Loading a car transporter - Bill Payer
