We posed the question on Friday – should MOTs in NI be privatised”? To which 76% of our readers, who responded to our poll, agreed.
However, Infrastructure Minister, John O’Dowd, was “emphatic” in shutting that suggestion down over the weekend. While it (probably) wasn’t directed at us, it was hard not to take the rebuttal personally.
And speaking in the Assembly on Monday, he said his Department will explore the introduction of temporary exemption certificates and proposals to consult on testing every two years.
He also alluded to the introduction of 55 new examiners by summer, as well as the opening of new MOT test centres in Hydebank and Mallusk that will provide extra testing capacity for 200,000 vehicles per year.
But one Armagh mechanic wasn’t quite buying the rhetoric and blasted the current system as “atrocious”.
Glenn Wilson, of James Wilson’s Garage in Keady, spoke to Armagh I about the frustrations he has encountered in recent years with a system that is threatening the very existence of independent garages like his.
“I have a staff member in the office who is full time trying to get MOT dates and cancellations just so I can get all my customers through their MOTs. That’s wages lost every week on things she shouldn’t have to be doing if the system was working as it should.”
Extending the testing period to two years…? It’s fair to say Glenn was less than amused at that proposal.
“An MOT every two years?! I think some of these people need to come to garages and see the state of some of the vehicles coming through our doors. And not to mention the state of the roads – it’s ridiculous.
“I’m full-time fixing problems related to the roads. I have a recovery truck and the amount of calls I get out because of damaged cars. The whole safety aspect is atrocious; they’d really need to sit down and sort that out first.”
Added Glenn: “MOTs, services etc used to cost around £300 a year but now, some of the cars that come through my doors – holy smokes! It’s because people are just not maintaining them every year. That cost will be £600-700 and that falls back on garages like me – people can’t afford those sorts of bills.
“What they’re doing is putting independent garages like mine out of business.”
Glenn emphasised his point by sharing a recent experience. He had booked an appointment at the Armagh test centre for Sunday morning at 10.30am. Thankfully he was able to get one of the few available slots. He was expecting quite the wait to be seen…
“I was the only one standing in that centre at 10.30am on Sunday morning but they were completely booked out apparently? I was expecting a queue out the door.”
For Glenn and many other mechanics who put their customer’s vehicles through their MOT, the system is a mess, but instead of sitting back and complaining, he has raised his head above the parapet to suggest solutions.
“I reckon there should be a system whereby a car is left in at the local garage and whenever it’s ready the mechanic can go online and pick a date for the next day or two. Done!
“Instead, you have people booking them two months in advance and forgetting about them, or re-arranging at the last minute. I currently have six vehicles sitting in the yard ready for the test and I can’t get dates for them.”
As for privatising, Glenn believes the Department should work closer with local garages. He also hit out at the wholesale suggestion that the system would be open to manipulation.
“Just like it is in Scotland, everything is on camera. There is no messing about whatsoever. Whenever people leave their cars in to be serviced prior to an MOT, are they trusting mechanics to do a good then? What’s the difference in trusting them then and during an MOT?
“At the end of the day, I run a respectable garage and there’s people saying everybody is corrupt! It’s absolutely ridiculous. In every walk of life you have the chancers, that’s just a simple fact but you can’t tar everyone with the same brush.
“After all, the whole thing is completely regulated. What’s stopping garages putting up an MOT lane here and employing staff to carry out checks.”
Glenn suggested that the government could still take a fee but most of their costs would be removed by privatising the whole thing.
“If it was privatised out to garages, the Department would have little to no overheads, no staffing problems and they can sell off all their premises and at the end of the day the cars are going through the test regardless.”
“I have 600 vehicles a year going through the MOT; that would be 600 vehicles less going through the Armagh test centre and that’s just my garage alone.”
While privatising is a n option, Glenn’s main concern was around safety of vehicles having to go so long without a test – and two years between testing, he suggests, will cause more problems than it will fix.
Minister O’Dowd, speaking on Monday, said: “There are no simple fixes, and I will have to consider the impacts of the [proposed] options carefully. I do not want to do anything that would add to the burden of hard-pressed households from increased insurance, nor reduce road safety when our current road death toll is already so high.”
