Taking your caravan abroad, a different slant.
I know this has been discussed in some detail, but there seems to be something missing when you book a crossing through the club, or directly with the crossing company.
If you board a ferry on Eurotunnel without that caravan plate then you are technically entering the country with a illegal combination.
So why is this information not being asked for?
Today I have e-mailed the club asking why they are not requesting your caravans registration number when booking a crossing.
I have to admit, that after considerable searching of the clubs website pages I did find evidence that said you needed your caravan registered, something that you are not made aware of when booking a crossing on-line.
Colin
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Ferry companies don’t mention it either.
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Neither the ferry companies nor the Channel Tunnel have ever asked me for the caravan‘s registration number although, living on the Continent, in the 40 odd years I've been crossing the Channel with a caravan, it has always had a different plate to that on the towcar.
Only when I arrive at a campsite in the UK and they ask me for the registration number and I reply with the question whether they mean the one on the car or the one on the caravan, am I met with blank faces.
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My understanding is that it is only really Germany where the authorities are insisting on this secondary registration and there are instances last year of UK drivers being fined for not having the relevant paperwork and number on show. It seems that Spain are not asking for the European Plate and I believe that France have a far more "laissez faire" attitude to the whole thing. So on that basis as the majority of the channel crossings are to France or Spain - plus two to Holland - I can understand why the various operators are not asking for it.
That said, I have registered my caravan for European travel, it was a very easy process and when the winter cover comes off, that number will go on!!
Hope I have helped? Truth is, nobody really know whether it is essential or not! Google it and you will see that the recommendation is to get it done.
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Probably because the requirement to have a trailer registration number only applies to public roads in Europe not on board a ferry or in the port of disembarkation.
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Just a note on the side:
It's not only most countries in Europe that require trailer registration, by the way, but all countries that signed the 1968 Vienna Convention and that's almost 100 worldwide. Spain is one of the exceptions (although they require it for trailers in their own country). And it's not a secondary registration, but the primary one. The Vienna Convention doesn't reference any secondary registration.
That said, the requirement has been in place in the UK since 2019 (earlier elsewhere), although there were no provisions to implement it for non-commercial trailers there until last year. I don't think that the ferry operators informed UK commercial haulage companies engaged in international traffic back then, either, as they see it as none of their business to advise customers of foreign legal requirements.
As I live on the Continent, my caravan has always had a different registration plate to those on the car, but no-one has ever asked for its registration when I've booked a ferry crossing as there's no requirement for the carrier to make any record of it or to pass it on to anyone.
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To register and display your UK plated/registered - caravan/motorhome trailer with a separate VRN - then if travelling through Southern Germany or Austria personally will cause you further issues especially if the autobahn police officers are fully aware of the UK VRN system. Don't forget Germany has 16 states, 16 different police forces - quite frequently southern states see things very different to more Northern states - but then I've only lived in Germany for the past 5 years.
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