October 14, 2022
Each month, members of our tribe submit real life scenario based questions to inform our ongoing CPD training. Undertaking training within industry community and in a peer-to-peer format has been proven to help create a well-rounded training experience, which is important to us at MOT Juice.
We sometimes include a survey in our CPD, to learn how effective the training is or canvas opinion on a controversial subject. These surveys provide us with valuable data to help us continue providing top-notch training specifically relevant to your needs as testers. Additionally, where required, we feed information back to the DVSA to affect policy change or gain clarification on particularly sticky points.
Thanks to all of our tribe who have sent in questions. This month we are focussing on a question from Mick C at VW who asks:
“Hi . I have just tested a van that has been driven hard (abused) and looks like they like using the hand brake at high speeds so the tyres are heavily flat spotted, so much so that its jumping around in the brake tester. With no fails for flat spotted tyres, what else can I fail it on?”
In the research I looked at tread depth which must be around the entire circumference of the tyre, so I am thinking does the flat spot go below 1.6mm tread depth in the primary grooves, if so then we could fail it on tread depth.
I also chatted with Ryan here at CCM who loves a ‘challenging fail’ and we chatted about brake fluctuation. If we assume the misshapen tyre causes brake fluctuation on the brake roller, then would that be a fail for excessive fluctuation? We also looked for the old term (which I am sure used to exist) ‘tyre misshapen’ but that no longer appears to feature in the testing manual.
We put this research and ideas to the community to gauge opinion on best way to deal with this situation.
Almost half of respondents (48%) decided they would carefully assess tyre depth and only fail if they could find flat spots which were below the required 1.6mm tread.
Just less than a quarter (22%) of respondents decided they would fail on excessive brake fluctuation.
Just less than a quarter (22%) of respondents thought the best thing to do would be to pass and advice.
1-in-20 testers (5%) decided they would refuse to test the vehicle in the first place on the grounds that it would not be fit to be driven.
3% of respondents decided they would fail it anyway and it is unclear on what grounds they would have issued the fail.
What was interesting from this survey was the significant split in opinions on how testers would deal with this situation. How would you deal with this situation? Leave us a comment below.
Can you think of any other grounds from which you could conjure up a fail with regard to this scenario? We would love to hear your thoughts on this. Leave us your comments below.
See more live polls on the Juice website now
All the best. Team MOT Juice.
