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Changes will kill and maim motorists
Government’s proposed MOT changes will kill and injure
motorists, cost more money, increase pollution and increase the Government’s
motoring tax income by adding VAT to the MOT Test.
In a speech to the CBI on Wednesday 29th November, Chancellor Gordon
Brown suggested that changing the MOT Test to every two years with the
first Test after four years instead of three years would benefit both
industry and motorists as an example of de-regulatory measure. He also
asserted that road safety would not be affected. Gordon Brown is wrong!
Vehicle reliability and safety
Gordon Brown is confusing vehicle reliability with vehicle safety. All
vehicles have brakes which by their very nature wear out and are designed
to do so. Tyres also wear out, and bulbs inevitably fail in service.
On average 30% of all vehicles fail the MOT each year and 18% of three
year old vehicles fail their first MOT. The main failure items being
brakes, tyres and lights. All primary safety related items.
These failures are unconnected with vehicle reliability.
There are about 25 million MOTs a year. If the MOT becomes biennial
those 30% that fail will remain in service – 7.5 million faulty
vehicles on the road for an extra year with primary safety defects.
It doesn’t end there. Those original 7.5 million will inevitably
develop further safety related faults during the year – and by
the end of the second year, 30% of those that would have passed a year
earlier will now have those faults too, a further 5 million vehicles.
Yet Mr Brown says “No effect on road safety”!
The effect – increased road deaths and injuries
It is estimated that moving the MOT Test to every two years will result
in at least 28 additional road deaths a year – probably more –
and well over a thousand more people seriously injured on our roads.
To politicians these are just numbers, to those killed and maimed and
their close families this will have a serious and dramatic effect on
their lives.
Make no mistake, should this proposal take effect people who are now
alive and could expect to have a normal life expectancy will be killed
and thousands maimed in road ‘accidents’ by the end of the
decade as a direct result of a Minister ‘signing it off’’
except, of course these won’t be ‘accidents’, but
a direct consequence of Government policy.
Emissions
Currently vehicle emissions from both petrol and diesel engined vehicles
are tested annually during the yearly MOT Test. With the MOT emissions
check taking place only every other year, vehicles with faulty engines
will remain in service polluting the air for a further year before the
fault is discovered and remedied. The Government is already struggling
to meet its international commitments on pollution, yet this would be
a clear policy decision which would make a nonsense of international
obligations emissions obligations.
Cost
This proposal is presented as being unlikely to cost more overall than
the current MOT Scheme. Wrong! Taking into account the cost of each
road death and injury to the public purse, together with the cost of
redundancy amongst both MOT Testing Stations and the suppliers who provide
equipment, spares and other services, there would be an overall increased
cost to the country running into millions of pounds. On top of that
the PFI contract with Siemens to run the MOT computer would have to
be re-negotiated at a further estimated cost of perhaps £20M.
Vehicle maintenance
Currently the annual MOT is a strong driver of vehicle maintenance,
especially after the usual 3 year warranty period expires. It is common
for motorists to book their vehicles in for both service and MOT. With
an MOT Test only every two years, this annual incentive is removed.
As a result the general condition of vehicles on the road will inevitably
deteriorate further – the effect will be to multiply the deleterious
effect on road safety.
A tax revenue generator?
So why change? Apart from cynical political motives to seem to be ‘helping’
motorists reduce costs when petrol prices are soon set to rise again,
this may be an even more cynical move by the Government to generate
more tax. Perhaps the most subtle and cynical “stealth tax”
they’ve yet devised.
Coupled to the proposal to change the MOT periodicity is a proposal
to float the MOT fee so Testing Stations can charge what they like.
Because the fee will no longer set at a legislative level it will attract
VAT whereas currently there is no VAT on an MOT Test.
A potential effect of this will be that Testing Stations faced with
less MOT Tests, but unchanged overhead and staff costs will have to
increase the fee beyond the current level, plus VAT. The result? A VAT
‘tax bonanza’ for the treasury – is that why it was
Gordon Brown who made the announcement and not the Transport Minister?
Jim Punter
November 2006
Editor MOT Testing
Chairman MOT Trade Forum
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