HGV/PSV MOT testing update

Department for Transport (DfT) and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) held their weekly meeting with industry on 9 July to provide an update on how the restart of HGV/PSV MOT testing (on 4 July) has gone so far and the progression of the legislative changes for Certificates of Temporary Exemption (CTE).

DVSA said that the restarting of MOT testing has progressed, with only a few minor issues, and that by the end of the week it will be operating at 75% of its 2019 capacity. DVSA will be increasing this for next week, with the aim of getting to around 90% capacity.

DVSA shared its plans to increase testing capacity for August and onwards. Providing the legislation takes place and is implemented in September, it should have sufficient capacity to meet anticipated demand from September. However, there is some concern as to DVSA’s capacity to meet the August demand, and FTA has underlined that if any May CTE tests, which expire at end August, fail to be tested in August, we expect DVSA to issue the vehicles with a further CTE.

DfT informed the meeting that the main legislative change (the Bill) is progressing well through the Parliamentary process and that work on the secondary legislation (the Regulations) is in hand. Providing the Bill gains approval, DfT says it is confident it will be able to meet the regulatory requirements and be able to start issuing the necessary CTEs in time for September.

FTA raised members’ concerns about the lack of clarity at Authorised Testing Facilities (ATF) regarding the process they should be following and the information they are supposed to be sharing with their customers. DVSA accepted that its communications could be better and agreed to look at improvements.