Discounted MoTs led to fee freeze, says Minister

In a recent speech Roads Minister Robert Goodwill indicated that the number of garages that reduce the MoT test fee influenced his decision to freeze the maximum charge until 2015.

He said, “Some of the decisions taken to reduce the cost of motoring this week have not been popular such as freezing the MOT fee. But I know that many test stations discount the fee. In fact only 12m of the vehicles on the road paid the full fee.”

The Minister identified discounting as, “a very good way of getting people through your doors.”

However the IAAF has long been proposing fixing the test and retest fees which, says, the Federation, is the only way in which the actual costs of the test can be covered.

IAAF chief executive Brian Spratt says, “It would remove the doubt that exists in the minds of motorists that a garage will ‘find’ a problem needing rectification in order to compensate for a discounted test fee, and doing away with free retests may encourage motorists to maintain their vehicles more regularly.”

“As an industry we kick the stool out from under our feet by discounting the fee. When we then go to the government to ask for a rise they don’t take us seriously,” Mr. Spratt said.

Mr Goodwill has promised to, “Fight ‘tooth and nail’ to prevent European proposals that threaten to split testing stations from repair garages.” He also said that he will resist any measures to introduce so-called ‘caravan MoTs’.