DVSA highlights MOT improvements in its first annual review

Report reveals MOT cost savings for agency and motorists but what about test stations?

DVSA highlights MOT improvements in its first annual review
The DVSA highlights improvements made to the MOT testing service in its 2016 to 2017 review.

The DVSA has published its first annual review, which reports on recent changes to the MOT testing service, MOT training and outlines future plans for the agency.

Gareth Llewellyn, DVSA accounting officer and chief executive said: “We have invested in further improvements to the MOT system including, for example, helping garage managers with simplified processes, improving provision of information to help testers to conduct the test correctly and building an MOT reminder service for the public.”

Since the launch of the new MOT testing service, the DVSA has made 25 improvements.

These include addition of technical information for vehicles and making it easier for testers to find and add defects they’ve identified on a vehicle – they’ll also be able to remove defects when they’re carrying out a retest.

Llewellyn added: “We also rolled out the new MOT training and assessment model.

“The MOT testing service received recognition as one of the ‘best agile projects’ in government from the Government Digital Service.”

MOT fraud

In the last year, the DVSA has investigated 511 garages and 483 testers – it stopped 45 garages and 111 testers from testing.

In the report, the agency said: “In some of these cases there were administrative errors, but the more serious cases involved testers who’d issued MOT certificates without actually testing the vehicle.

“In the most severe cases we took the testers to court, and some received prison sentences.”

Cost savings

The DVSA’s income from the MOT service has remained steady, however expenditure in the current year has reduced following the implementation of new IT software in 2015-16.

The new MOT testing service contributes to a £22.8 million saving, of which the agency says it will reinvest into further service improvements.

The future

The agency has built and tested an initial version of an MOT reminder system for motorists, which is expected to be launched within the next year.

Motorists will be able to sign up to receive email alerts, which will be sent four weeks before their MOT test is due, then two weeks before.

The agency has said it will investigate how new technology can streamline the processes for the commercial vehicle testing service.

“We want to improve our testers’ access to vehicle information at the time of testing, and capture and produce test results digitally,” the report claims.

“We also aim to improve the service to our customers by simplifying the current payment process, making it easier for them to make payments and view their account in real time.”

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13 Comments

  1. Its a joke, every test station I know have had to absorb all the costs that have provided the agency savings, and now they want to reduce the price ! the test no longer represents a safety check, not in the true sense, it’s been watered down because their are not enough testers coming through the system and they need to make the training simple so they can recruit non skilled fitters to MOT to keep the scheme working in the future

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  2. Well done DVSA IM SO GLAD YOU ARE SAVING MONEY what about us mot stations having to do cut price mot’s which i had never done years ago but i have no choice as DVSA WILL NOT PUT A FIXED PRICE ON MOT’S

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  3. All vosa has done is pass the cost on to the mot station. No price increase in 6/7 years – this makes them look good but isn’t very fair on us we have absorbed the cost of running a station; my rent, electricity rates, wages and water rates have all went up. I am glad that i have only 10 years to retirement this is just getting silly.

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    • Even if Vosa increased Mot fees, sadly garages will price discount despite increased overhead costs. It is beyond me how some dealers and garages can charge as low as £15, which remains root of the problem and not Vosa.

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  4. garage trade own worst enemy,if they all had stuck to the correct test fee,they would all make more money, because they dropped the price to gain more customers, you all eventually make less because they all do tests for less. you can only blame yourselves for this

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  5. Amazed to hear “The MOT testing service received recognition as one of the ‘best agile projects’ in government from the Government Digital Service” when I hear that we currently have legions of mot testers who have not passed their yearly assessment exam for carrying out MOTS. Why have those people not been struck off ? Why are obviously cheaply and poorly run testing centres where the testers have failed to obtain their current year assessment still carrying out the annual safety check on cars been driven on our roads. (Still getting dazzled by headlights)
    Amazed to hear “The MOT testing service received recognition as one of the ‘best agile projects’ in government from the Government Digital Service” when my email inbox has been filled over the last few years with messages stating “service unavailable”
    I wouldn’t be amazed to hear the new MOT testing service contributes “less than a pound” to the £22.8 million savings “claimed”.

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  6. Having quickly browsed the report I could not find the DVSA advocating discounting the MOT ? Is this really their policy ? All the DVSA staff I have met are all dead against discounting the MOT test. I agree with Alan Kean the DVSA should insist on the full fee being paid and would like any information regarding the DVSA advocating discounting the MOT test.

    Also page 21 refers to their use of intelligence from their 3 units to help track offenders. Can I suggest they provide a link for us to report people who insist on driving away a failed car from any test station as we have had to recently watch a young mother whos car failed badly on brakes and had 4 bald tyres drive away. This was after I showed her the article from Garage wire explaining she could be fined £2500.00 and have 6 points on her license.

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  7. there is more load on testers but even more on AE
    and garage owners. More costs. I don’t discount mots but there are some locally that do – a price rise would be welcome but discount mots would have to be stamped on. The price for upgrading/replacing equipment has risen, I just had to repair my gas analyser recently, 700 pound for a pump.. it’s only 10 years old.

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  8. It is crazy, we have no point of contact when problems arise within the testing station, the costs are rising all the time regarding calibration, wages etc. To top it all to train a new tester we now have to pay in the region of £700 to make them qualify!

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  9. DVSA taking the mickey out of honest testing stations

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  10. It is a joke, the saving have been made by pushing the costs onto the test stations, the training, calibrations/repairs, the supply of equipment. The training is poor in comparison to the old system, year one and two both have CPD training – why?. Some subjects in training may take years to come around. the old training you could speak to the trainer and ask questions on things and would go through a practical test, you only get this if you pay a lot for classroom training, but as most only complete E-learning this is not possible. The e-learning does not show you wrong answers so you don’t know which questions were wrong so cannot learn from wrong answers. I think DVSA are asking for trouble with the new training and I think the people who haven’t completed the training should be banned as an open book 50% pass mark test should be no problem for any tester

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  11. I agree the training is a joke, it seems anyone can become a tester. The people making the money are the ones jumping on the bandwagon offering the training – such as the motor factors. the old story is we who get our hands dirty and do an honest job and test are loosing out, we discounted tests to forty pounds and have now had no choice but to bring the price down again to twenty-five as other garages are charging this, and some are now offering a pick up and delivery service for free; but having seen some of the test results they are hammering the cars on things that shouldn’t even fail when speaking to the local vosa guys they know the dodgy garages – some will test without it even going on the ramp if left all day and for sixty pound you’ll get a pass but they say it’s hard for them to catch them as there are only three examiners in our area due to cuts .
    Back to the training issues, we took an apprentice with 2-year certification, never worked in a garage didn’t know which way to put on wheel nuts they all pass the exams or else the training college doesn’t get their money. The whole set up needs to go back to basic, proper apprenticeships and a licence to work on cars. I can only dream as I’m now 67 years old and still hoping for things to get better, had my own testing centre for 37 years.

    Also there are a lot more testing stations around me than when I first started (and more garages); but less shops, less factories, less people. Perhaps it is time to retire.

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  12. This is one critical area of the motor industry that’s regulated so thank you DVSA and for taking action against those who evidently cheat the system. If garages are then allowed to compete they can only do this by being better, cheaper or different from others. Being cheaper is the easy option but it’s not the only one. Upsell with car servicing/other services perhaps? Just a thought.

    Reply

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