The UK has one of the best road safety records globally. This is because of robust legislation, enforcement, and a lot of effort on the part of the road transport sector. There is still of course more to do, as can be seen from the latest PACTS report.
A critical part of the UK’s safety regime is the MoT test. Industry insiders will know that the introduction of the Authorised Test Facility (ATF) programme marked a significant shift in the way the Test was delivered, but that was some years ago.
So, the SMMT and other stakeholders have been working with DVSA on a review of the MoT regime. The final report is due to be published this spring, and you should start to see incremental improvements in service delivery soon, with a more significant roll out of a new software system towards the end of the year. The main aim and end result is to provide a much better end-to-end service, keeping this country moving during such challenging times.
In the meantime we continue our work with DVSA, catching up on the testing of vehicles that were exempted because of last year’s suspension. Addressing this backlog is quite some task and it’s essential that we all work together to ensure things are brought back on track: as normalcy returns, no vehicle should be allowed to go beyond its normal test date – helping maintain our overall exceptional safety record.
