June 17, 2022
The general trend of disciplinary action has been notably increasing over the last five years. Still, the data for disciplinary action in 2020/21 testing period was alarmingly high; on average, 42.5% higher than the previous year. With the withdrawal of authorised examiners up by 38.4%, the disqualification of testers up by 28.2%, and the number of warnings up by a whopping 51.7% across these two groups, are we in the midst of a serious crackdown?
These four bar charts representing data published on 24th March, 2022 show the increasing trend of disciplinary actions against AEs and Testers over the last five years. There is a clear leap in actions during this most recent year of data.
The computerisation of the MOT scheme first began in 2005, and since then, a lot has changed in the assessment of testing quality. The DVSA can now assess exactly how your MOT testing station is performing by looking at the live data which you record about the tests you carry out. If they note anomalies, such as too many failures, completing tests too quickly or anything else that makes them raise an eyebrow, they will likely send a VE to pay you a surprise visit. This increase in disciplinaries could even be the result of automatic flagging by the DVSA system scanning for certain anomalies, another level up in the technical management of the scheme.
So modern regulation will be driven by data, and the data does not lie! When the VE visits or calls they WILL KNOW what to look for. Depending on the results of superficial checks, and, let’s be honest, the mood of the VE, they may follow up with interviews and a possible deep dive audit of the VTS’s overall systems and processes. In this case the VE will scrutinise all your documentation and evidence of compliance. Any transgressions noted by the VE will translate into penalty points. If the penalty points for your VTS reach 500, they will either suspend you or even ban you from the MOT scheme. So, the question is, do you feel confident that all of your compliance documentation is thoroughly evidenced and easily accessible?
You could purchase a membership to the trade body as an insurance policy; however, many Testing Stations decide against this due to the high annual cost of membership. If you join the membership scheme once you already have disciplinary issues, it is unlikely they will fund representation for those cases, leaving you with two expensive bills to cover.
You could engage an MOT consultant to help you represent yourself in the case of disciplinary action. However, due to the bespoke nature of this arrangement, the costs can sky-rocket, often costing up to £1000.
Or, for a reliable and cost-effective method of protecting your business and all your staff, you could buy an annual membership for the all-you-need compliance software provided by MOT Juice.
MOT Juice provides an easy-to-use, complete and comprehensive compliance and training suite to ensure that your VTS and MOT scheme employees remain compliant in all areas of DVSA regulation.
Our system can analyse your test data for you, flagging any MOTs that could warrant further investigation, e.g.:
– MOTs carried out via an unknown IP address
– MOTs conducted outside your usual opening hours
– Unusually quick MOTs, well below your site averages…
…alongside a range of other, fully customisable, test log filters – helping to ensure you stay compliant during this time of ever-increasing DVSA surveillance.
If you are interested to discover more about how MOT Juice can help you, sign up for our free 30-day trial of the whole system here.
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