I’ve been testing for over 25 years and seen MOT changes come and go but honestly, today’s MOT inspection manual is harder to use than ever.

At the moment, the focus now seems to be selecting the correct category.
We all try to test to the best of our ability, taking into account the constant changes and manual amendments.
We’ve got ‘dangerous’, ‘major’, ‘minor’ and advisory to choose from.
And here’s my first gripe, isn’t minor and advisory the same thing, just in a different context?
And for my second, why is the inspection manual so difficult to use?
The search function is hit and miss at best.
When you search ‘seat belt’, for example, surely everything that a seat belt is tested on should be listed in the search findings?
The annual assessment seems to be more focused on tripping up testers with word play rather than actually testing our knowledge.
Surely the focus should be on education and helping testers find the correct category that the component is in and what failure or advisory criteria it meets?
I’m interested to see if other testers have the same or different opinions on the current manual and annual assessment.
Share your comments below.
Home Page › Forums › Opinion: What was wrong with the old MOT manual?