Improvements
in customer service from garages
Transport
Secretary, Justine Greening, announced a package of measures
today to encourage garages to provide improvements in the quality
of vehicle servicing. The Minister said "our garages are
crucial to ensuring that Britain’s roads continue to be
among the safest in the world. Most garages are doing good work
but the latest data shows that there is room for improvement".
Has there been an announcement of any MOT changes for historic
cars?
DfT has consulted on MOTs for historics and that consultation
only closed on 26th January 2012. A summary of responses is
due to be available within 3 months, but that's the only further
date given so far. Some say the smart money was on exempting
cars registered before 1960, but the end result is not certain.
See our earlier NEWS item on DfT MOT consultation. More
& More
Posted: 010212
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Transport
Secretary, Justine Greening, announced a package
of measures today to encourage garages to provide
improvements in the quality of vehicle servicing.
|
Data
from the Department for Transport executive agency
VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) shows
that more than a quarter (27.7%) of vehicles tested
in 2010-2011 had one or more car defects that were
either missed by MOT test centres or incorrectly
assessed. The VOSA data also showed that the roadworthiness
of one-in-eight cars (12.4%) was being incorrectly
assessed by MOT test centres.
As
a result, the Government will work with the industry,
motoring organisations and consumer groups to focus
on the reliability and standards of garages. The
Government has decided to:
•
Retain the existing rules on MOT test frequency.
• Release hitherto unpublished VOSA survey
data on whether the sector is complying with test
standards. This is published today.
• Work with motoring organisations to find
out what problems motorists experience and enable
them to share examples of good customer service
– in particular to find ways to make it easier
for customers to give feedback on their experiences
of garages in a way that others can see – potentially
in the manner of existing online hotel and restaurant
review websites.
• Encourage the take up of industry codes of
practice – and expand them to include MOT testing
– so that customers can find garages signed
up to schemes delivering the highest standards and
take action if they have not received the service
they expect.
• Help motorists to spot “clocked”
second hand vehicles, by changing MOT certificates
so that they carry the last three years’ mileage
information as well as the mileage on the day of
the test, and encourage car buyers to check full
MOT histories using the online MOT database.
• Arrange “mystery shopper” tests
to help improve performance in addition to those
already carried out by VOSA.
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See
the DfT press release - 1st February 2012 |
Many thanks to Chris
Hunt Cooke for spotting this NEWS item. |
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