Trade plates: adding them and using them on test drives

Trade plates let you record which plate went on an unregistered vehicle for a test drive. This article covers adding plates, assigning one to a test drive, and what shows where afterwards.

Before you start

If you can’t see Trade Plates, it’s probably your user role. Adding, editing and deleting plates can be limited to managers. Your account manager can change this for you.

Add a trade plate

1. Choose New Trade Plate.
2. Pick a Location. Choose All locations if the plate can be used at any branch. (On the edit screen, this option is called All.)
3. Enter the plate number. You can use letters, numbers, hyphens and spaces.
4. To add more than one plate, choose Add Another Plate Number. You can add up to 10 at once, and they all get the location you picked.
5. Choose Create. If you came here from a test drive, you’ll go back to it.

Edit or delete a plate

• Edit: use the pencil icon on the plate’s row.
• Delete: use the bin icon, then confirm when you see Are you sure?

Deleting a plate doesn’t remove its number from test drives that already used it.

Assign a trade plate to a test drive

Open the test drive. In the vehicle details, Trade Plate shows Not set until you pick one.

1. Choose Set Trade Plate. The Select Trade Plate window opens.
2. Search for a number or pick one from the list. Plates are grouped by location, and plates set to all locations appear under No Location. You can pick any plate on the list, even one from another branch.
3. Choose Save.

No plates listed? The search will show No trade plates found. Choose Add Trade Plates on the vehicle card to add one. You’ll come back to the test drive afterwards.

Keep in mind:

• You can’t type in a one-off number. The plate has to be added to the list first.
• Once a plate is saved on a drive, you can swap it for another plate, but you can’t clear it.

What happens after you save

The plate number is copied onto the test drive. If you rename or delete the plate later, drives that already used it keep the original number.

Loan cars

Loan cars don’t have a Set Trade Plate button. If a loan car already has a trade plate and no rego of its own, the trade plate shows as the registration on the confirmation screen and in the customer’s agreement email.

Reports

Go to Test Drives and open Reports. You can add a Trade plate column to a test drive report. It’s only included if you add it.

You’ll need two-factor authentication turned on before the Reports screen will open.

Limits and known behaviour

• Only the 25 newest plates appear. This applies to both the plate list and the picker on a test drive. Older plates are still saved, but they won’t appear until some newer ones are deleted. There’s no next page.
• No duplicate numbers at the same location. Another location can use the same number. If you add a duplicate, you’ll still see Trade Plates Created Successfully, but the duplicate won’t be saved. Check the list after adding plates.
• Removed locations. If a location is removed, plates that belonged only to that location become available at all locations.