My background is motorsport engineering. I’m also a long time Trade Plate holder/user and 'in the Trade' since the early 1970's. The limitations of the various common types of Trade plate fixtures have long been a frustration. ‘Dunlop’ holders suited most requirements in the 1970's but vehicle styling and body materials changes now limit their usefulness. The ‘strap on to number plate’ type fixtures are both untidy and slow to attach and in most instances they won't attach to tape adhered' number plates. Magnetic holders rely on having a steel panel to attach to and they attract magnetic residues which creates a paint scratch risk. The ‘vacuum sucker on number plate’ type holders have an integrated safety strap and spare parts are sold to support their use....all of which rather advertises their particular design issue.

I focused my motorsport acquired product design and development skills on Trade Plate fixtures setting myself a design target to make a ‘universal’ Trade plate Holder to fit the vast majority of available number plate shapes and sizes, irrespective of how they affix to the vehicle. The process has yielded two designs. The first is the 'TPH-1 Trade Pro' holder, a laser cut aluminium sheet based holder which has been tested on a daily basis on a wide range of vehicles and the design refined in response to feedback.

TPH-1 Trade Pro Trade Plate Holder kit affixes Trade Plates to number plates between 110 and 205 mm high and kits are available via our web shop at btrprep.com and EBay. The TPH-1 kit has one advantage over TPH-2 in that it can affix standard or 140mm high number plates onto vehicle number plates. This feature could be particularly useful for the caravan, camping trailer and commercial trailer rental markets. While TPH-1 Trade Pro satisfies a majority of user requirements, production costs are such that it isn’t commercially viable for volume production.

The TPH-2 Trade Pro Trade Plate Holder has been developed using the TPH-1 project identified user requirements and priorities with a view to volume production. TPH-2 is a 100% injection moulded product using ‘virgin’ nylon and polypropylene for durability as from experience I know Trade Plate Holders don’t have an easy life. Trade Plate Holders must be abuse tolerant. The time and cost investment to set up TPH-2 production has been substantial, with more than a year of design and development time and £15k invested in 1250kgs of production tooling.

TPH-2 Trade Pro Trade Plate Holders are fast, secure and easy to fit; customers will appreciate the professional Trade Plate presentation.

TPH-2 Trade Pro Trade Plate Holders assure that ANPR systems recognise your Trade Plate