This decision has not been thought through properly at all. This week alone, we have MOT’d several cars with bald tyres and broken springs, we all know how dangerous this could be to other road users and pedestrians.
This will only lead to, people who don’t really want an MOT doing, to them not having one at all for another six months, by this this time, their cars will be death traps. This doesn’t make any sense at all.

Trevor
Autopoint Bham Ltd

i couldnt agree more! I only work on motorcycles and march and april are my busiest months of the year.
A 6 month extension is ridiculous considering this initial lockdown is for 3 weeks! I think there suggestion of 6 weeks is sensible at the moment. Many people with motorcycles only ue them in the summer months and we all know there will be people who will continue to use un safe vehicles to “save money” . Then when october and winter comes around many bikers will simply sorn there bikes over winter and wait until next summer to MOT them. This is going to have a huge on going impact all year, even if this only lasts a few weeks.

Also, There is also alot less risk of catching covid 19 mot testing motorcycles, as you are not in an enclosed enviroment like you are with a car or van. We have been making all our customers wait outside and pay by card only and it was working pretty well.

It is believed many people have no idea what ‘roadworthy’ means. If the car starts and drives away that’s it!

This ruling will have a massive impact on our business. We are only open from next week for NHS and regular customer emergencies. We have now Furloughed our employees and can see the impact that this ruling will have on when we can re-instate them or not, whatever the case may be.

It is a very worrying time as we also just missed out on £10,000 grant, out rateable value is 13,000 and the cut-off is 12,000 so no extra help apart from getting into debt.

This is a hard enough trade to be in at the best of times, so much competition, recession, we are in a poor area etc

Hope the IGA is able to help our trade.

Good luck to everyone.

Astonishing decision however disgraceful and disbelief – l own and operate a small family mot repair garage in a village surrounded by other villages the average year of the vehicles we test is 10 years plus, the failure rate is high, roads in village areas are poor which in-turn damages tyres suspension steering, this is the totally wrong decision – vehicles untested possible up to 18 months unbelievable.
I am a NT QC AE been in this business for over 45 years so have a little knowledge of the reasons why vehicles MUST be tested yearly.
How is DVSA allowing this ? Who is responsible for this insane decision?
If people are allowed to get shopping go to work they certainly can go to there local MOT garage.

Of course vehicle owners that MOT is due just after 30 March 20 with love this, they simply will do anything NOT to spend on there dangerous vehicle however if it’s a £200 piece of clothing that’s a different matter.

I own an MOT station & workshop. Where MOT’s are 75% of our business. We all need to stay safe and getting through this unprecedented situation was going to be tough. But I felt if we were care full, maybe we would get through it, with maybe 6 to 12 weeks of hardship. The announcement of the six months of no MOT’s will for us be crippling.
With some 19,000 MOT stations in the country. Could the IGA not set a petition page that we could all get onto and express our concerns and maybe with enough shouting from all the independents. We could get this ruling overturned.
Remember it will have to be the independents, that will have to do the shouting. As the big high street names, will want to see, there smaller competitors go out of business

The garage owner I work for has decided to stay open regardless, put simply if he closed, it would never reopen.
This is naturally because of the unfortunate and sad circumstance of the outbreak and that if he does borrow to close, the lack of work from essential Mots will not Be there to allow the swift recovery needed when reopening.
I believe he feels he has been put in a corner with no choice but to stay open for all types of work to keep the business from going under.
I would like to isolate with my family but he needs me to work or I risk losing the job I enjoy.

Does anyone even know how it’s going to be applied. Is it vehicles expiring in the next 6 months that get an extension or is it all vehicles? Will we do nothing until September then double testing for the next 6 months? Will Mots end up being a winter thing?

We think this new move on car MOT’s has not been thought out properly. Obviously, we must all do everything we can do to follow social distancing rules and smaller garages can probably do this better then larger ones.
We only have two members of staff and we are now operating by appointment system only, and getting customers to leave cars on forecourt and not to enter workshop or reception area. We will ring them when the car is ready, take payment over phone by card, and then leave vehicle out for them to collect. This will avoid any contact between customers and our staff. All hygiene procedures are also in place.
Fortunately, we are not a high volume MOT station, but we agree with everyone else that a large percentage of drivers will take advantage of this and not have their cars MOT’d but continue to drive them regardless of whether their car is roadworthy or not.
Also, in 6 month’s time when they have to have an MOT, there probably will not be enough test stations left to cope with demand. The knock on effect is going to be tremendous.
I can understand the extension for coaches, buses and lorries, after all they are all fleet vehicles which have to by law have regular safety checks anyway for the Operators Licences, but not for personal cars.

The trade has just died a death this week, one MOT and that was it. Jobs cancelled left, right and centre and no trade MOTs as dealers have closed. I feel sorry for the smaller outlets with not enough rateable value to get a grant as this will be a huge kick in the teeth.

I got a call from our tyre supplier who we pay monthly on account asking that i pay cash for every individual tyre. They’re getting worried and I wonder who will be next to ask for payment on delivery.

I’m sitting it out for four weeks and then reviewing what to do with my staff who are a great bunch of lads but I feel i will have to put some on furlough unless things change.

Finally, to stop MOTs for 6 months is crazy why didn’t they say six weeks with a rolling review??

Hello mark ivinson – You need to go back to York Council and challenge them on not providing the small business grant. Our garage is over £13,000 RV and we had no problem getting the £10,000 grant. The important thing is you must be getting the Small Business Rate Relief on your business rates. See https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878082/small-business-grant-and-retail-leisure-hospitality-grant-guidance-for-businesses-v2.pdf.

Also, if the majority of the work/service you do is to the general public you should be classified as a retail business. This means that for this year you will pay no business rates and your retail classification should be back dated to 2014/15. We got re-classified as retail by our Council. This mean’t we are paying no business rates for this year and we had a £3,800 refund for overpaying in the previous years. You must challenge your Council.