The story of a crooked number

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The story of a crooked number
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The story of a crooked number

The confusion indicator
Story of a crooked number

What happens if the number of a motorcycle is confusingly similar to the number plate of two cars? Quite clearly: the motorcyclist gets traffic tickets for which he is not responsible. That brings him to white heat – and slowly to the edge of despair. A crooked number in which someone is right but not given a right.

Michael Schumann

05/01/2017

He has long since used the newspaper to turn on the living room stove. But Dieter Ruprecht * still remembers the article dated August 15, 2012 about the first Tauberbischofsheimer exchange number. And the photo for it anyway: “That’s my motorcycle number!” In fact, the picture shows, which MOTORRAD is not allowed to publish for legal reasons, but which can still be found on the Internet with just a few clicks, like two employees of the Tauberbischofsheim district office hand over the license plate TBB – S 27 to a driver with a smile. At first, Dieter Ruprecht does not notice the small black W above the approval seal. Neither are the small additional labels with a 3 ** and a 4 ** on the counter next to it. Yamaha rider Ruprecht has not yet suspected that this will start a long war of nerves for him.

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“That shit sucks!”


The story of a crooked number


Schumann

A good four years later. The stove roars in the background. Ruprecht has spread out a heap of torn open envelopes on the living room table, scribbled telephone numbers on them, in between fines, the typical speed camera photos, official hearing sheets, reminders, bills, even an enforcement order from the bailiff at the Wertheim district court and a “record of the police” from the Munizia Police Department Italy are among them. “It has been going on for four years. That shit annoys! ”Says Ruprecht.

He has long known the reason for the “shit” very well. For four years now, a driver has been walking with the same number plate combination that Dieter Ruprecht’s FZR 1000 has been wearing since 1998 – with almost the same one. The small 3 ** or 4 ** at the end, which completes the license plate for the cars and makes it formally a different combination of license plates than that of the Yamaha, is mostly overlooked. “In four years I have received eleven parking tickets for offenses I have neither committed nor own the cars with which they were committed. And every time I have to prove it anew! How many hours do you think I have already spent on the phone because of it?!? ”Hours in which he also explained again and again to the employees of the district office that issued the license plates what annoys him. Up to the head of office. Conversely, of course, the Yamaha rider got really annoyed at some point.

A new license plate free of charge

“The case is well known to our licensing authority,” says the press officer of the district office, Markus Moll. And also, “that the fine authorities keep confusing the cars with the license plate number and the motorcycle”. But for that – and Moll is probably right – the District Office could not do anything: “The assignment of the change number plate and the motorcycle number plate is completely correct and corresponds exactly to the legal requirements.”

So the high similarity of the numbers is just a stupid coincidence? That’s how you can see it. And this is how the office sees it: “In order to save the motorcyclist further inconvenience, we have offered him the possibility of assigning him a new license plate free of charge.” The word free of charge is underlined in the email to MOTORRAD. But the 51-year-old farmer doesn’t want to know anything about it and switches to stubborn: “The 20 euros for the sign maker, I have to pay that,” complains Dieter Ruprecht. For him it’s about the principle. “After all, I’ve had this license plate for almost 20 years. And the other one for four! Shouldn’t he get a new number? After all, it is he who drives a little too fast or parks incorrectly every now and then! “

“I don’t do anything anymore”

Sometimes it is 7 km / h above the permitted maximum speed, sometimes because it said at the expired parking meter – administrative offenses, trivialities. Committed partly outside of the Yamaha registration period due to the seasonal registration number by one of every two cars registered on the first exchange registration number of the Main-Tauber-Kreis issued in August 2012. “It’s not the big hit yet,” was the title of the aforementioned article about TBB’s first W license plate in the Frankische Nachrichten. Not a big hit, but a big nuisance for Ruprecht. Because as soon as he receives mail from the authorities, he has to take action. Must prove that he is the wrong addressee. “I’m not doing anything anymore,” he became defiant at some point. Until the bailiff wrote to him: “The claim to be enforced is 74.55 euros.” He then called back: “At least he immediately understood what was going on.” Other authorities do not: “If I go to Italy, I have to I’m afraid that my motorcycle will be confiscated because one of the cars was written down in the pedestrian zone of Bologna. “

In the district office you don’t seem to know what to do next. When Ruprecht called again to complain, the answer is said to have been: “Yes, if the other person behaved correctly, it wouldn’t be noticed …”

* Name changed by the editor; ** Code combination changed by the editorial team

What is a change number?

The exchange number is largely unknown in Germany because it is rare. Unlike in Austria, for example, it cannot be used for a car or a motorcycle. It hardly offers any advantages, but there is a risk of confusion.

We are allowed to show Dieter Ruprecht’s Yamaha license plate because he, as the owner, agrees. We could not ask the owner of the two cars whose ticket Ruprecht received because the employees at the respective fine office did not look closely or they did not even know the principle of the change number plate. Therefore, the symbol picture on the left must suffice to make the problem clear.

The car has the official license plate G – Tu 2012 1 – the small one on the right after the number and under the HU badge counts towards the license plate. However, if the one is overlooked and not mentioned in the owner query, the query comes to a completely different result. “Take a closer look! There is still something written there! ”- like an incantation, Dieter Ruprecht used the sentence again and again in his phone calls with various fines. The small number can hardly be seen at the end on the often blurred speed camera images.

The W license plate was introduced in July 2012. This means that a maximum of two vehicles of the same type can be operated – never at the same time, but both must be fully taxed. So the W could also stand for “Why?”.

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