Justine Greening and the department of transport have recently out lined new improvements to be made to the way garages in the UK provide customer service, changes included transparency and value-for-money measures.
The new guidelines have been created because of an evaluation into MOT testing standards and frequency, the veiws of a wide range of organisations including couriers were taken into account during the process.
Data from Department for Transport executive agency VOSA showed that more than a quarter (27.7 per cent) of vehicles tested in 2010-2011 had one or more car defects that were either missed by MOT test centre’s or incorrectly assessed.
The data also showed that the roadworthiness of one-in-eight cars (12.4 per cent) was being incorrectly assessed by MOT test centres.
As a result of the finds the government is now looking into the industry and consumer focus groups to find way to increase credibility. reliability and better standards into garages in the UK. The government has decided to:
- Retain the existing rules on MOT test frequency since the evidence shows that vehicle defects are being missed and roadworthiness mis-assessed.
- Shine a light on the performance of MOT testing stations by releasing hitherto unpublished VOSA survey data on whether the sector is complying with test standards. This is published today.
- Work with motoring organizations 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.
Justine Greening said:
“Our garages are crucial to ensuring that Britain’s roads continue to be among the safest in the world. Most are doing good work but the latest data shows that there is room for improvement.
“I want each motorist to be confident that a visit to the garage ends with their car repaired to a high standard by reputable mechanics rather than uncertainty about cost and the quality of service.
“Giving drivers the very best information about garage performance is absolutely key to achieving this goal. It means that responsible garages will be well placed to reap the commercial benefits of transparency. Garages where performance is not up to scratch will find themselves under pressure to do more for their customers.”
With the tories ditching plans for two-year MoTs to replace the annual checks after a study found millions of inspections were wrong.
Transport Secretary Justine Greening acted after Which? said mechanics incorrectly assessed or missed problems in 27.7% of cases last year – some 8.3 million cars. The report has found vital issuses which will help businesses trade better with garages and know what services they are paying for.
With courier companies up and down the country relying on garages to secure vehicles and ensure they are road worthy the figures stated in the report make bad reading for the courier industry. As the courier industry is one of the industries which provide garages with regular custom will couriers now start to get clear and transparent honest services?
Garages over the past decade have had bad press as some garages have charged customers for work they didn’t do or work they didn’t need to have done. The trust issues have forced many people and business to use more expensive garages to insure vans, cars and motorbikes.
It’s great to see that the government has now court up with changes that should have been implemented 15 years ago. With more and more eco friendly vehicles on the roads the government should also look into ways to protect eco drivers from overpriced garages and maintenance cost.
Shouldn’t the ones who are reduce emission be the ones who are looked after most, especially the courier who use low emissions vehicles.
ethicalcouriers 