Government urged to update MoT tests

The government has been urged to tighten MoT rules by introducing tests after two years instead of three. This is after official data revealed that one in four vans on the UK’s roads fail its first MoT.

Honest John Vans analysed millions of MoT records and found that just 75% of vans pass their first Ministry of Transport test at three years, with lighting, brakes and tyres the most common causes for failure.

MoT data from the DVSA for 2017 shows that a quarter of a million vans had their first test, with 61,000 failing due to potentially dangerous defects.  

One of the reasons vans have a poorer MoT pass rate is because they are worked much harder and driven over much great distances. MoT test data shows that a typical van clocks up 47,000 miles by the time it has its first test at three years, while the average car has covered 26,000 miles over the same period of time. As a result, 86% of three-year-old cars will pass the first MoT – a figure that’s significantly better than similar aged vans.

Daniel Powell, managing editor of HonestJohn.co.uk said, ‘Online shopping has fuelled record growth for the van market, as thousands of businesses try to keep up with the ever growing demand for home deliveries. This has created new businesses and added hundreds of thousands of new vans to our roads. Our MoT data shows that drivers are putting themselves and others at risk, often without knowing, so it’s imperative that vans get their first MoT before cars.

‘The introduction of a two-year MoT exemption would not affect the majority of responsible and honest van operators in the UK, who are meticulous when it comes to vehicle maintenance. Instead it would target drivers who do not take vehicle safety very seriously by failing to perform the most basic of checks.’