Number Plates in Sunderland

If you order before you set off, your plates can be made and fitted inside an hour of the order going in. That is the difference between collecting and posting your documents off for delivery, which takes a few days. The A690 runs west out of Sunderland and our workshop is at Dragonville Industrial Park in Durham, open 9:00am to 4:30pm, Monday to Saturday.

Walking in without an order

That works too, and it is what most people do. No booking, no waiting list: hand over your documents at the counter, and a pair of plates is usually ready about ten minutes later. There is a waiting area, though plenty of customers sit in the car.

The two documents we have to see

One proving your name and address, one proving the registration is yours to use, every time, because that is what a registered plate supplier is required to check. A driving licence with a V5C logbook is the common pairing. Buying for someone else is fine: the proof of address stays in your name while the entitlement document can be in theirs.

Fitting from £9.99 a plate

Fitting is £9.99 per plate and £19.98 for a pair, available Monday to Friday while you wait. We recommend sticky pads, which hold well and leave no drill holes, but screws, plate holders and velcro are all options. Plates you bought somewhere else are welcome, provided they are road legal; we will not fit illegal ones.

Styles and shapes

Every plate is built to the British Standard, BS AU 145e. No show plates, no tinted plates. The letter styles we make:

Flags are available on all of them, including the Union Flag, St George's Cross, the Saltire, the Welsh Dragon and the Green Flash EV identifier. On shape, we hold standard, shortened, hex, square 4x4, oversize, trailer, motorbike and Japanese import plates, and 4D laser cut is the range people come to look at in person.

SAFC, FTM and the rest

Sunderland is a football city, and initials plates get asked for by name here more than anywhere else we serve. There are over 74 million DVLA registrations to search, plus 60,000+ pre-owned registrations, so the combination you have in mind may well exist in dateless, prefix, suffix or current style form.

What a legal plate has to have

The supplier name, postcode and BS AU number appear on every plate we make, with Charles Wright characters on a reflective BS AU 145e background. That is the standard an MOT tester is looking for, and it is why show plates and tinted plates are not something we produce.

Assigning the registration

Putting a registration on a vehicle goes through the DVLA, whose online service is open 7am to 7pm every day. You need the V5C plus either the V750 Certificate of Entitlement or the V778 Retention Document, and the vehicle taxed and MOT'd. Hand the job to us with the Done-For-You Paperwork Service and our admin team liaises with the DVLA from a photograph of your V5C.

Selling the car but keeping the plate

Retention is how a registration comes off a vehicle and stays yours for later, which matters if you are selling up but not letting go of the plate. The retention guide runs through the conditions.

Prices

Printed plates start at £29.99 a pair and the raised styles cost more; fitting is £9.99 a plate on top. Registrations are priced separately, from £250 with the £80 DVLA fee included, and the pricing guide explains the tiers above that.

Sunderland number plate FAQs

How quickly can I have them? Inside an hour if you order online and collect, or about ten minutes from walking in with your documents.

Which road do I take? The A690 west, then Dragonville Industrial Park in Durham. Parking outside is free.

Can you fit them while I wait? Yes, Monday to Friday, at £9.99 a plate.

Do you sell the registration as well as the plate? Yes, we are a registration dealer as well as a plate maker, so both can be done in one visit.

Do you need the car there? No. The documents are what we check, not the vehicle, unless you want the plates fitted while you are here.

What do plates cost? Printed pairs start at £29.99, with the raised styles priced above that.

Areas we cover

Sunderland is one of eight towns we cover from Durham. The others:

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Getting here from Sunderland

Unit 1, Dragonville Industrial Park, Dragon Lane, Durham, DH1 2XJ, reached on the A690 from Sunderland, with free parking right outside the unit.

We are open 9:00am to 4:30pm, Monday to Saturday, and fitting runs Monday to Friday.