The Central Registration and Identification System (CRiS) is the UK's national register of caravans.

History

CRiS was launched in 1992 by the

National Caravan Council The National Caravan Council is a trade body in the United Kingdom which represents members in the caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a ...

(NCC) in conjunction with Hire Purchase Information (HPI) in an effort to prevent caravan theft.

Operation

Since launch, all NCC member caravan manufacturers assign each new caravan a 17 digit

Vehicle Identification Number A vehicle identification number (VIN) (also called a chassis number or frame number) is a unique code, including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, towed vehicles, motorcycles, scooters ...

(VIN) with the number etched into the side windows of the vehicle, and stamped into the

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpa ...

. Upon purchasing a new caravan, the dealership registers the caravan with CRiS and the owner is provided with a Touring Caravan Registration Document which details the make and model of the caravan along with its VIN. It is also possible to register caravans built before 1992 retrospectively with CRiS. The CRiS registration can be checked when purchasing a second-hand caravan to verify the caravan is not stolen and also has no outstanding finance or been written-off. CRiS also introduced the supplementary VIN CHIP upgrade kit which adds a scannable

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of Barcode#Matrix (2D) barcodes, matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso#Denso Wave, Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optic ...

sticker,

tamper-evident Tamper-evident describes a device or process that makes unauthorized access to the protected object easily detected. Seals, markings, or other techniques may be tamper indicating. Tampering Tampering involves the deliberate altering or adultera ...

window stickers bearing the VIN of the vehicle, and an

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electroma ...

tag which is placed anywhere in the vehicle and can be read by law enforcement by a scanner. Unlike the V5C registration document used by the

DVLA The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA; cy, Asiantaeth Trwyddedu Gyrwyr a Cherbydau) is the organisation of the UK government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a database of vehicles for the entire ...

for registering motor vehicles, it is not a legal requirement to hold a CRiS registration for a caravan, however most insurers require a CRiS registration document in order to provide cover.

VIN encoding

The assigned VIN number whilst being unique to each vehicle also encodes certain information about the vehicle. For example, the VIN SGBS000BYA1234567 can be broken down as follows: Where manufacturer codes are defined as follows: {, class="wikitable" , - !Code !Manufacturer , - !AB , ABI , - !AD , Adria , - !AV , Avondale , - !BE , Bessacarr , - !BY , Bailey , - !CL , Carlight , - !CM , Coachman , - !CP , Compass , - !CS , Cosalt , - !CU , Sprite , - !EL , Elddis , - !EX , Explorer Group , - !FL , Fleetwood , - !LU , Lunar , - !SW , Swift Group and where year of build codes are defined as: * Letters N to Y denoting each year from 1992 to 2000 respectively * Numbers 1 to 9 denoting each year from 2001 to 2009 respectively * Letters A to M denoting each year from 2010 to 2021 respectively After 2021, the letters roll over back to N, and thus N-Y denote each year from 2022 to 2030.

References

External links

CRiS Website
Organisations based in the United Kingdom Vehicle industry