April 12, 2019
Barry Babister from MOT Juice provides guidance on how you should prepare your MOT for the inevitable DVSA site review with regards to your MOT tools and equipment.
Barry is a director at MOT Juice and at CCM Garages which own and operate 5 mot bays.
Every MOT bay is required to retain and maintain a bunch of mandatory miscellaneous MOT tools and equipment.
First, let’s get the words from The MOT Testing Guide 6th Edition (revised November 2019)
5.6 Miscellaneous Equipment
In our experience, the tools are somewhere in the MOT bays but no one is ever quite sure exactly where they are especially at the precise time that a Vehicle Examiner asks to see them all.
Here is the guidance given by the DVSA to the Vehicle Examiner.
4.19 Garage Hand Tool Management (VTS)
Are the garage hand tools and workshop equipment stored in a systematic fashion?
Look for evidence that equipment and tools stored tidily and in a readily accessible manner when not in use in appropriate storage facilities e.g. toolboxes, racking and/or shadow boards used, tool retention is monitored.
The last 4 words of the above paragraph ‘tool retention is monitored’ are important. This is because the Vehicle Examiner would like to see a monthly site audit that cross checks that all the tools are available and in good working order. They will also want to see you have a system for alerting and recording if any tools are missing or need replacement or repair.
Remember if the VE finds that your tools are not present he will increase your VTS risk score. You could well fall foul of incorrect test methods too. Not all testable items can be tested correctly without the correct tools.
Whilst we are on the subject of mandatory tools, don’t forget to calibrate that tyre tread depth gauge and record the calibration. For best practice do it every month and for basic compliance every 6 months. Remember that testing with an un-calibrated piece of mandatory equipment attracts serious penalty points. The points can be applied to each individual MOT test carried out using that piece of equipment since its last calibration date expired.
If you don’t fancy building your own site audit system then why not try a free demo of the MOT Juice system as it covers all this and more.
Click here for access to our free to use MOT Juice Demonstration Account
If you would like a simple reminder poster and checklist to put in your MOT bay then click the buttons below. There is a choice of two lists. One which can be used as a check list and one that can be used as a memory jogger.
simple misc equipment reminder poster
the ultimate checklist of misc equipment
Need to talk to a human for more information? Lines open Mon-Fri 9-5 on:
Comments (2)
Ian
19 Oct 2023 - 10:57 amI notice that you recommend calibrating tyre tread depth gauges and we’ve received comments in the past from on-site inspectors to this effect. However, the DVSA list of approved equipment does not specify a calibration periodicity (calibration period – N/A). I can understand checking for damage, wear & tear etc, but calibration?
David Lennon
15 Nov 2023 - 4:54 pmHi Ian,
The periodicity of a tread depth gauge calibration can be found in Appendix 2 of the MOT Testing Guide which says “Tyre tread depth gauges require a periodic accuracy check at least every 6 months.”