June 24, 2021
With VE’s back on the road after lockdown, armed with information which enables them to make targeted inspections, and their new powers of “immediate cessation” – it’s more important than ever for MOT business owners to have (and be able to demonstrate to the DVSA) complete control of MOT compliance across their business.
The DVSA want to raise standards within the MOT industry. The most effective way to get everyone’s attention would be to make an example of one of the biggest operators. Just imagine the effect of the DVSA ordering a cessation of testing at one or even all of the MOT centres of a flagship dealer. The fallout and publicity generated would galvanise huge swathes of MOT sites into action!
The risk of any potential shortcomings being unearthed by a VE inspection was best described recently by a group Aftersales Director as being “catastrophic” to the dealer group’s ability to trade without serious interruption.
As a MOT business owner or MOT manager, you need to make sure you are fulfilling your responsibilities to comply with the MOT testing service requirements.
This document summarises what the DVSA expect at each level of your business.
If you do not meet the standards, “DVSA can ban you from running an MOT centre for up to 5 years in the most serious cases of you failing to meet the required standards.” (DVSA “Manage your MOT centre” guidance)
Not only that, but the MOT Testing Guide (section D1) clearly states that the MOT business owners (AEP’s) are “legally responsible for the entity” – this extends to being criminally responsible for lack of control over your VTS that led to death or injury on the road. Just think about that for a moment… YOU could end up being criminally convicted because you weren’t aware of the actions or failures of one of your testers.
“Authorised Examiner Principals (AEP’s) are legally responsible for the entity. Every partner in a partnership, every director in a company, or the Sole Trader in person, must complete and submit separate AEP personal details using a VT01.”
This usually catches most people out, especially at the biggest companies and in partnerships with non-operational partners.
The DVSA want to find a single person of responsibility across multiple MOT sites. If they can target the AEP’s or AEDM of a multi-site business, they can target all sites for which they are responsible. This would enable them to effect huge change with the least effort, and the effect across the industry would be seismic!
Especially in a business with multiple MOT testing sites, managing all the functions of MOT compliance can be a challenge…
The answer is to have suitably trained and upskilled members in your MOT management team, who know what the DVSA are looking for and are responsible for compliance at each site. This creates a complete “span of control” from the top to the bottom of your business.
Combine this with a Quality Management System which gives MOT business owners, often busy with other areas of their main role, visibility of each MOT site’s progress towards DVSA compliance.
We can help you across your business no matter the size.
It is a mandatory requirement that you appoint at least one MOT Site Manager at each VTS (MOT Testing Guide, section M).
The DVSA are looking for a day-to-day manager who is actually on site and hands-on with running the VTS. They are particularly concerned when they see that site management duties have been given to an After-Sales Manager, who they suspect does not have the skills or the time for the job. It is better to give the Site Manager role to your top MOT tester. At least they will know and understand the world of MOTs. You will need to appoint more than one to cover holidays and absences.
Manage your MOT Centre – Put management Systems in Place – section 4
MOT Site Managers ensure compliance at a VTS level, as they are responsible for managing each MOT testing site and its testers. By appointing and training the right people as MOT Site Managers, you have a person accountable for compliance at each site, creating that span of control across your business.
According to the “Manage your MOT centre” Guidance, the DVSA say you should: “put management systems in place to run your business.”
“Going forward, much of DVSA’s focus in identifying how well garages are managing quality will come from reviewing their quality management system.” (MOT Testing Guide, section B6)
A Quality Management system enables AEDM’s to have an accurate & up-to-date view of exactly how compliant the MOT testing sites across the whole group (no matter the number of sites), actually are.
As a manager of or within an MOT business, you need to be able to make decisions. To make decisions you need information, and the better the information the better the decisions.
I will go into more detail about TQI’s in a separate article – subscribe to email updates below to make sure you don’t miss this.
With MOT Juice in your corner, training a crack team of MOT compliance managers, combined with our first class MOT Quality Management system to give everyone visibility and control, you can have (and demonstrate) complete control of your business.
You can sleep easy in the knowledge that when the VE calls, you have your span of control and first line of defence in place, to protect your reputation and MOT income for the future.
