MOT ally

 
 

MOT ally

14 Jul 2008

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MVRA joins the fight against 4-2-2 proposals to help save tester jobs

THE MOTOR Vehicles Repairers’ Association has thrown its weight behind the fight against 4-2-2 MOT proposals.

The organisation – now known simply as the MVRA – is the latest group to begin lobbying the government against the planned changes.

The MVRA’s chief executive officer Mike Monaghan said the group was concerned about the safety implications if the proposals were given the go-ahead. He said it was particularly concerned about the following issues:

  • Moving to the 4-2-2 structure would almost certainly compromise the safety of the vehicle’s driver, any passengers, other motorists and pedestrians.

  • A vast majority of older vehicles are not serviced on a regular basis and the annual MOT inspection is the only regular safety check that is carried out.

  • Moving to a two-yearly MOT inspection will put older vehicles in a much more vulnerable position with mechanical defects potentially going unnoticed for an extra year – unless the failure of a critical component causes an accident.

  • The adoption of 4-2-2 would diminish the public’s confidence in the MOT scheme.

  • This change will also result in huge losses of skilled employees from the industry – the network of MOT garages will inevitably shrink and MOT testers will be made redundant.

  • The MOT scheme is the only strategy that is being used to keep defective and dangerous vehicles off the public highways (22% fail rate on 25 million MOT tests per annum); moving to 4-2-2 will increase this sector of vehicles.

Mike said approximately 13% of all MOT failures were currently linked to high emission levels and that moving to a system that did not monitor these more strictly would be a backward step as far as the environment was concerned.
“We, like many others in the industry, are frustrated that this issue has not received the attention it deserves,” said Mike.

“We hope that our concerns about the proposed 4-2-2 testing structure will be taken seriously at the highest level. I’m convinced that this change would have a serious and detrimental effect on motoring in this country.”

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