The UK Government created the MOT test as a means to make sure that the vehicles that were plying on the roads were roadworthy, safe and produced emissions in proper quantities. One of the primary reasons they came about was that people would not get their vehicles tested otherwise unless they were facing some serious issues. However, with the MOT tests in place, people were forced to get their cars checked, at least once a year, in time for the MOT test or they would not be able to get through it.
The test consisted of various checks that cars had to go through, with the latest addition to them being emphasis emissions, where they significantly increased the number of tests that they were handling. Although this was significant, the changes made did affect the sales of vehicles, and people who were purchasing diesel-powered engines were automatically at a disadvantage. In the first year of the new tests in place, more than 10 million vehicles throughout the UK did not clear.
The MOT tests saw a few more changes made in light of the pandemic. In the initial stages of the virus hitting the UK, the Government still made it mandatory for people to get their vehicles tested. They were also forced to follow the rules and made sure they did not miss the date since they would receive fines and other issues. However, as the pandemic began getting worse, they created an extension to the rules and allowed people to delay their tests by six months. People who had to register their vehicles post the 30th of March could choose to handle it, or they would automatically get it pushed forward. They called of this delay on the 31st of July, bringing back their rules of people registering their vehicles on time unless their MOT registrations were delayed. While the Government was encouraging people about the delay, they did not make it mandatory, which meant that there were a large number of people who were still going ahead and registering their vehicles mid pandemic. June received 1.3 million MOT registrations.
There were additional changes made to the system, people could also book MOT online, so they would not have to come with others when they were at the garage. They could walk into the garage and get their vehicle repaired during the pandemic since garages had to stay open since they were marked as essential services. During the Coronavirus pandemic, the internet had become everyone’s favourite tool since it allowed interaction and coordination to a great degree without interaction with other individuals. People could check MOT online too for all the previous tests to better understand the parts of their vehicles that they needed to work on before going through the test again.