Aftermarket June 2022

T he automotive sector has reacted with alarm to suggestions that the government might move the MOT to a biennial frequency in an attempt to help with the cost of living crisis. The government is considering a number of measures that it believes may help alleviate the impact of rapidly rising bills for households. Among these, the BBC has reported that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps suggested reducing the frequency of the MOT to every other year. While many people face spiralling energy costs, with gas and electricity bills set to soar again into the thousands for many in October, the suggested change to the MOT would save motorists at most £27.43 per year, based on the maximum £54.86 MOT fee. Moving to a biennial MOT could mean 2.57 million cars and vans are on the roads with dangerous defects. According to DVSA figures, in 2021 30.25 million Class 3 & 4 MOTs were undertaken in the UK, with 30.23% of vehicles failing their MOT first time. 8.49% of vehicles failed the test on at least one dangerous item. This has been looked at a number of times since 2005. Just to catch everyone up, the frequency of the MOT was reviewed between 2005 and 2008, with competing proposals for either a move to a 4-2-2 or 4-1-1 testing regime. This was seemed too risky in terms of road safety. Later, in 2011, then-Transport Secretary Philip Hammond again suggested moving away from the 3-1-1 system, but this proposal was later overturned by his successor Justine Greening. Between 2015 and 2018, the industry was again united in its opposition to a mooted move to a 4-1-1 pattern, which was ultimately dropped after a sustained cross-industry lobbying campaign. Having faced down multiple government attempts to reduce the regularity of the test in recent years, many of the representative organisations in the sector are understandably wary of such a move. Dangerous, unwanted and unreasonable IGA Chief Executive Stuart James observed: “In our opinion this whole plan is dangerous, unwanted and unreasonable. This proposal has been scrutinised at least four times that I have known of in the last 15 years, and every time it has been deemed detrimental to road safety. “It is a fact that in times of economic hardship, motorists cut back on servicing their cars and it is the annual MOT that has kept the UK’s road safety at high levels thanks to the vital safety checks it carries out. Saving the cost of an MOT biennially is not worth the price of national road safety.” Stuart added: “This proposal will also fail to save motorists any money long-term as defects will go unnoticed for longer, which at best will cause more damage to vehicles and increase repair costs, and at worst cause unnecessary breakdowns and accidents.” 8 AFTERMARKET JUNE 2022 BIG ISSUE www.aftermarketonline.net GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS MOT FREQUENCY REDUCTION By trying to get to grips with the cost of living crisis, will the government risk a road safety catastrophe by moving MOTs to a biennial frequency?