The UK Government made it mandatory to register vehicles for their MOT tests after they complete three years of being on the road. The MOT is an annual test that vehicle owners have to finish annually. A study conducted several years back showed most vehicle owners in the UK did not bother getting their vehicles tested unless they were facing serious issues with them. The unfortunate drawback was that the lives of the vehicle owner and others on the road could be at risk, which is one of the main reasons that the MOT test came about, to make sure that the vehicles plying on roads were safe, roadworthy, and gave out reduced emissions. Furthermore, each car, bike, or truck on the road had to have a valid MOT certificate.
The tests were standard with people applying and registering their vehicles, a month before their MOT licences expired. The UK has a little more than 30 million cars that go through the tests every year. Multiple MOT testing centres across the country managed these tests with some of these centres also fixing the vehicles, along with the test, while others only handled testing them. However, the coming in of the Coronavirus caused a few issues with the tests, with the dates and timings changing because the pandemic caused some employment issues.
People did not want to leave their houses since there was a possibility of catching the virus, and adding to that the Government implemented remote working, staying at home as much as possible, wearing masks and other such norms to keep people safe. The last time that the MOT test was redone and improved was in 2018, and post the new test more than 10 million cars across the UK did not make it through. The Government did not want a repeat of the same, so they allowed people to test their cars, if they wanted, but did implement a six-month delay for people from 30th March to 31st July. Their only clause was that people had to make sure their cars were roadworthy if they wanted to be driven on the road. There were higher fines for people driving vehicles that were not roadworthy.
Even though there was a delay, June received almost 1.3 million MOT registrations since most people did not want to wait for the queues, post the registrations becoming mandatory again. To assist people with these tests, the Government implemented rules allowing people to book MOT or even check MOT status from the previous year, online. This made the entire process easier for a lot of the people who did not have to do to the MOT centre unless they had an appointment.
Some garages were assisting with these requirements further by sending people to the homes of their clients to collect their vehicles, get them tested and bring them back..
