Maintenance inspections intervals & MOT's

If you have your wagon MOT’d in between your maintenance inspections does it ‘reset the clock’ on those inspections?

For example;

Week 1 - Inspection
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4 - MOT (pass)
Week 5
Week 6 - Does the truck need inspecting again here? Its 6wks since the last one but the trucks passed MOT in the mean time which is surely a more stringent test and tests everything that a safety inspection would?
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10 - Or can inspection be taken here as its now 6 weeks since MOT

Thoughts?

I would still do it at week6 personally (well actually week7 if it was peviously inspected in week1). There are plenty of things that are not checked on an MoT but are on an inspection, well there are for me anyway. Things like power steering fluid, belts, brake adjustments, and so on, and also when they MoT it they don’t go round with a grease gun and grease everything up either.

As for the legal position, I don’t know if the ministry would be happy counting an MoT as an inspection or not.

Paul

I don’t know the answer, and obviously I’m new to all of this, but I couldn’t imagine taking the truck for MOT three weeks after the last inspection, I’d want it inspected/serviced then I’d be off up the MOT test centre straight away before anything had a chance to go wrong.

I asked this question to a Vosa Bod who was in the garage where our trucks go and informally he told me that Vosa would take a dim view of this. I argued the same point as the OP but he said they prefer to keep the MOT almost as an independant test in addition to the inspections.

To that end I book all of the inspections at the beginning of the year and where ever the MOT falls in its in addition to the inspections! Frustrating, but better safe than incurring the wrath of Vosa!!!

jdc:
I asked this question to a Vosa Bod who was in the garage where our trucks go and informally he told me that Vosa would take a dim view of this. I argued the same point as the OP but he said they prefer to keep the MOT almost as an independant test in addition to the inspections.

To that end I book all of the inspections at the beginning of the year and where ever the MOT falls in its in addition to the inspections! Frustrating, but better safe than incurring the wrath of Vosa!!!

This ^^^^^

I have service and inspection day before mot, then replan inspections. If it means one extra workshop day so be it, better than giving cause for finger pointing.

If some one wanted to be picky the could say mot was a vehicle inspetion but not by your approved agent.

Assuming you actually inspect the truck before the test ( and don’t just drive in to see if it will pass ) I can’t see how this can’t not count as an regular inspection !

when i first started out, i had a main dealer do my 6 weekly inspections and MoT’s

they planned it that they would do the MoT at the same time as the 6 weekly scheduled inspection

Now I always look at the MOT date of a truck and reduce one or two of PMI’s by one or two weeks so both the MOT and a PMI coincide in the same week.

One of my clients has just had a VOSA inspection and when the examiner asked why a truck went in early I explained this is what we did. His answer was good idea but what he did explain is how they look at it.

If for example a PMI ensures the truck is 10/10 when it goes back on the road and an MOT is looking for 5/10 then over the 6,8 or how ever many weeks your inspection period is the truck should only deteriorate to the MOT level. So if you include the PMI level into your pre MOT checks then you have killed two birds with one stone and kept the truck on the road as much as possible.

It looks easier to understand when you draw it as a graph…

With OCRS you’d have to be nuts to take a truck to test without a pre-MOT inspection. There’d be no safety issue with then resetting your next planned inspection to 6 weeks after the pre-MOT.

Thanks for the responses.

Seems like playing safe is the way to go, its not for me (those days are thankfully gone ) just a lad locally who wasn’t sure. I’ll advise adjusting MOT dates next year.

Ok, here’s how I do it.

All my inspections are at 8 week intervals. There is a 2 month window to get your vehicle mot’d, eg if your mot expires in December you have a window to mot it from 1st November to 31st December. At least one of the inspections should fall between those antes, so I get the vehicle mot’d in the inspection week. I normally send the vehicle in Saturday for inspection, and get it booked in for mot on the Monday morning. The truck is back working by Monday lunchtime so downtime is only 1/2 a day. This has worked for me for the past 15 years and keeps my ocrs green.

Don’t send your truck for mot without doing a full inspection first. You are risking failure if you do not prepare and check your vehicle beforehand. It is imperative that you get your truck passed first time to keep a good ocrs score.

If you inspect and mot your truck “in between” inspections, this is an additional check. I would still keep to your original inspection schedule.

If you don’t inspect your truck and just fling it through a test in between inspections, the mot will not count as an inspection.

You can get the truck MOT anytime in the month so a bit of forward planning should allow you to book it whenever suits you, I like an MOT to land on say a Tuesday and the inspection on the Monday.

Edit: I just read the guy above lol basically that^

what if

you only have 1 truck
what cost of an inspection from main dealer (lets say 130 as per mercedes glasgow inspection only nothing else)
inspection every 6 weeks

A- TAKE IT TO VOSA (OR VOSA APPROVED STATION) GET MOT EVERY 6 WEEKS

B- GET STOPPED GET PG9 FOR WHATEVER GET PULLED UP INFRONT OF COMMISSIONER WHOEVER ABOUT INSPECTIONS

C-INSPECTIONS DONE BY VOSA CANT BE WRONG

D-WOULD COMMISSIONER PULL THEIR OWN STAFF FOR FAILING INSPECTIONS?

TRAILERS1:
what if

you only have 1 truck
what cost of an inspection from main dealer (lets say 130 as per mercedes glasgow inspection only nothing else)
inspection every 6 weeks

A- TAKE IT TO VOSA (OR VOSA APPROVED STATION) GET MOT EVERY 6 WEEKS

B- GET STOPPED GET PG9 FOR WHATEVER GET PULLED UP INFRONT OF COMMISSIONER WHOEVER ABOUT INSPECTIONS

C-INSPECTIONS DONE BY VOSA CANT BE WRONG

D-WOULD COMMISSIONER PULL THEIR OWN STAFF FOR FAILING INSPECTIONS?

The problem would be if some thing is found wrong it would get a MOT fail and effect your OCRS score, even though the truck is in test, then extra time and cost for retest.
Picking up a fault on a normal inspection is not a problem, find it, record it, fix it, record as fixed, showing VOSA your system works.

TRAILERS1:
what if

you only have 1 truck
what cost of an inspection from main dealer (lets say 130 as per mercedes glasgow inspection only nothing else)
inspection every 6 weeks

A- TAKE IT TO VOSA (OR VOSA APPROVED STATION) GET MOT EVERY 6 WEEKS

B- GET STOPPED GET PG9 FOR WHATEVER GET PULLED UP INFRONT OF COMMISSIONER WHOEVER ABOUT INSPECTIONS

C-INSPECTIONS DONE BY VOSA CANT BE WRONG

D-WOULD COMMISSIONER PULL THEIR OWN STAFF FOR FAILING INSPECTIONS?

Don,t think you understand the concept of preventative maintenance. The main dealer will not only check your vehicle meets the minimum standards the mot expects you keep the vehicle to but will check eg. fluid levels, clutch wear, fix that small oil leak that although wouldn’t fail an mot, would develop into a bigger leak and possible pg9 if left. They would hopefully let you know your tyres are getting low on tread, or low on pressure which isn’t checked on mot. The aim is to keep your vehicles running profitably for longer with a minimum of repairs and downtime.

I would favour the introduction of a system where small operators, particularly, owner drivers could take their vehicles for MOT quarterly or every 8 weeks depending on mileage. Tachograph records could also be checked at the same visit. OCRS could be abandoned for operators on this scheme.

This would stop them having to be pulled at roadside checkpoints. where an owner driver can far less afford to sit around for a couple of hours. It would also provide an additional stream of work to keep all the ATFs that keep opening viable.

The vast majority of operators do want to be compliant and have no wish to operate unsafe vehicles to save a few extra quid but do live in fear of falling victim to some sanction by VOSA unwittingly. Also many of the regimes demanded by VOSA really don’t suit an owner driver like daily checks where as the sole driver they virtually become a pointless check-box exercise.

It would also be better for own account operators like horse boxes and race teams where vehicles are used so sporadically that the existing regimes really don’t work well.

This would also be better for VOSA from a PR point of view as they would have more of an ongoing and constructive relationship with operators rather than the occasional roadside pulls that can often end up be a tense and bad-tempered affair for both sides.

coiler:

TRAILERS1:
what if

you only have 1 truck
what cost of an inspection from main dealer (lets say 130 as per mercedes glasgow inspection only nothing else)
inspection every 6 weeks

A- TAKE IT TO VOSA (OR VOSA APPROVED STATION) GET MOT EVERY 6 WEEKS

B- GET STOPPED GET PG9 FOR WHATEVER GET PULLED UP INFRONT OF COMMISSIONER WHOEVER ABOUT INSPECTIONS

C-INSPECTIONS DONE BY VOSA CANT BE WRONG

D-WOULD COMMISSIONER PULL THEIR OWN STAFF FOR FAILING INSPECTIONS?

Don,t think you understand the concept of preventative maintenance. The main dealer will not only check your vehicle meets the minimum standards the mot expects you keep the vehicle to but will check eg. fluid levels, clutch wear, fix that small oil leak that although wouldn’t fail an mot, would develop into a bigger leak and possible pg9 if left. They would hopefully let you know your tyres are getting low on tread, or low on pressure which isn’t checked on mot. The aim is to keep your vehicles running profitably for longer with a minimum of repairs and downtime.

I don’t really agree with this and we do inspections and workshop services. I don’t think the mixing up of six-weeklys and general servicing maintenance is a good idea. A lot of what you mention are really driver’s daily check fodder.

Own Account Driver:
I would favour the introduction of a system where small operators, particularly, owner drivers could take their vehicles for MOT quarterly or every 8 weeks depending on mileage. Tachograph records could also be checked at the same visit. OCRS could be abandoned for operators on this scheme.

This would stop them having to be pulled at roadside checkpoints. where an owner driver can far less afford to sit around for a couple of hours. It would also provide an additional stream of work to keep all the ATFs that keep opening viable.

The vast majority of operators do want to be compliant and have no wish to operate unsafe vehicles to save a few extra quid but do live in fear of falling victim to some sanction by VOSA unwittingly. Also many of the regimes demanded by VOSA really don’t suit an owner driver like daily checks where as the sole driver they virtually become a pointless check-box exercise.

It would also be better for own account operators like horse boxes and race teams where vehicles are used so sporadically that the existing regimes really don’t work well.

This would also be better for VOSA from a PR point of view as they would have more of an ongoing and constructive relationship with operators rather than the occasional roadside pulls that can often end up be a tense and bad-tempered affair for both sides.

sorry, but, this post has got to be rated high up in the top ten of the total ■■■■■■■■ post of the year

why would anyone want to get a vehicle MoT’d every 6 or 8 weeks?

as was mentioned earlier in the thread, the 6 weekly inspections are far more involved than an MoT

OCRS is a fair system, and works for all operators, how would it be fair for small hauliers and O/D’s to be exempt from it?

and, can you imagine the headache involved for VOSA to manage that system

as for it benefitting the smaller operator by not getting pulled by VOSA, there we go again, another load of ■■■■■■■■, VOSA will pull anyone whoever they feel like, just because a company is on green OCRS, that does not mean hey will not get pulled, it just means they are less likely

as for it being “often end up be a tense and bad-tempered affair for both sides”, i can honestly say, out of all the times that i, personally, have had encounters with VOSA, whether it be at a roadside inspection or a pre booked MoT, it has never been tense or bad tempered, often, it is down to the attitude of the driver that antagonises the situation

you also go on to say, that small hauliers can ill afford to sit around for a couple of hours at a roadside check, there again, i have only ever been held up for about 15 minutes per time, and the longest ever was little over 30 minutes

just how long do you think it would take for a vehicle to go for MoT every time?

you WILL lose the vehicle for at least half a day every time, thus, costing the small haulier more money

needs a little more thought before posting me thinks

Own Account Driver:
I would favour the introduction of a system where small operators, particularly, owner drivers could take their vehicles for MOT quarterly or every 8 weeks depending on mileage. Tachograph records could also be checked at the same visit. OCRS could be abandoned for operators on this scheme.

It would also be better for own account operators like horse boxes and race teams where vehicles are used so sporadically that the existing regimes really don’t work well.
.

I don’t really see how it would help race teams, thats people like me, we already have a 12 weekly inspections agreed as part of our O’licence. Being done by our local commercial vehicle garage is great I can fit in the inspection at short notice to fit round our work and as well as checking our vehicle are safe and legal they keep an eye on other things that could cause us problems like breaking down on the way to a circuit. When it comes to the annual test I have to try and book the almost 2 month in advance to get the dates that suit our schedules I’d hate to have to plan for that every 8 to 12 weeks.