January 17, 2023
No guidelines are 100% bulletproof. There will always be some room for subjective interpretation.
We’ve collected some potentially ambiguous statements from the DVSA MOT Testing Guide here, so we can all merrily muse over them together.
One of the Testers from our Tribe recently highlighted the semantic problem with the following Testing Guideline detail:
So, by completing the annual exam, I get a level 2 sanction and am suspended from testing for 28 days?
This one has a few of us confused. Semantically, we expect the example in brackets to confirm the point before it (I.e. an example of how a tester is” not completing the annual assessment as required”). Instead, the example in brackets alludes to the requirements for completing the assessment “as required”, contrary to what many of us expected.
How do you read this? Does it make sense to you?
Another member of our Tribe recently highlighted the ambiguity around Number Plate modifications:
“Registration plates must not:
…have any feature or fixing that has the effect of changing the appearance or legibility of any of the characters including the use of tints or films”.
Whilst tinted film does change the appearance of the plate a little, arguably, it doesn’t affect the legibility of the characters. It is unclear from this guideline whether tints and films might be permitted or are never permitted. If the latter is true, then explicitly banning films and tints would be a more straightforward guideline.
Would you pass a plate with a tint or film?
It has been pointed out to us more than once that it would be more accurate if the DVSA put an actual number on the minimum time a test should take:
“…the issue of a VT20 or VT30 to vehicles which have attended a VTS in which their start and finish test time recorded in the MOT testing service would not allow a full examination to be carried out.”
Providing real-world numbers is always a great way to take subjectivity out of the equation.
What would you consider to be too quick for a test?
This last one is my personal favourite:
Is anyone else picturing this in their mind 😉
Rather than this?
I know I was 😉 Hehe.
Let us know any ambiguities you’ve spotted in the MOT Testing Guide. Leave a comment below. It’s always better to puzzle these things out in community; isn’t that right, Tribe?
