It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that government – no matter which side of the political divide that it sits on – is moving its processes and interactions with the public and organisations onto digital platforms.
The latest iteration of this is the introduction of digital training logs in relation to MOT tester training.
Alluded to in an April 2018 policy paper, DVSA digital, data and technology strategy, 2018 to 2020, it was outlined in MOT Special Notice 02-24, recording annual training and battery drain issues, on 1 April 2024 – and it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke.
The notice highlighted, among things, “changes to the MOT testing guide and inspection manual from 2 April 2024” … that “from 1 April 2024, MOT testers must record their annual training on the MOT testing service.” Note the date mismatch.
The change applies to all current testers and those returning from suspensions or lapses.
As the DVSA further detailed in a May 2024 blog, Making the move to digital for training logs, “since the 2022/2023 training and assessment year finished in April, we have added the functionality for you to record your training digitally via MTS.”
The DVSA sees the change as part of a sustainability campaign and feels that it should make life easier for testers. In particular, the DVSA reckon that “paper used for training logs can sometimes be damaged or lost, this change will make it quicker and easier for you to access your training from different locations when it’s convenient. It also makes it easier for you to show any DVSA colleagues your training log.”
The blog offers an overview on how training should be recorded on the MOT Testing Service (MTS) along with details on how a training record can be shared with others.
Worry over changes
However, it appears that not all are as pleased with the new process as the DVSA.
Some worry that the process will lead to duplication of data entry where a third party training system is used as MTS doesn’t allow automatic uploading of data; others worry about the cost of the new regime – paying outside bodies to calibrate equipment or having to test more frequently with an added fee.
One tester, Luke Thorold, summed the issue up, as he saw it: “…[data] being recorded twice, with the resultant loss of productivity because it needs to be typed up on the MTS. Allowing training providers the ability to port this across would save time. MTS already allows this with exams, my request is for it to be allowed on CPD too.”
Scott Ott felt the same: “I do my training online with MoTJuice. The training log is stored digitally on their system…could we make it possible for the record within the Juice system to be automatically uploaded to the DVSA system. This is what happens with our annual assessments so it shouldn’t be impossible.”
Another tester, Paul Walker, isn’t a fan of online learning, preferring instead one to one refresher courses “where you actually learned something. Online learning doesn’t work, you are constantly interrupted and learn nothing. Too much time is spent finding things on the computer, and nothing on the practical side.”
There are other similar comments. But in response to them all, the DVSA said “the request to centralise and record training in MTS came from the trade, so we have acted on this request from you and built this tool for you to make it easier to track training.”
But not everyone is unhappy with the new regime. John Nixey, owner of four-tester MOT station and garage in Oxfordshire, Motec, doesn’t see digital training as a bad thing and nor does he view it as overly time consuming.
“We use a company called CVTS. We get a station check once a year, and testers are checked every year too.” Their three-hour annual training is undertaken in a single three-hour block.
Nixey has no worries over recording the data, especially as his staff cannot test without recording the learning.
In terms of the actual recording of the data, he says “it takes minutes… it’s not a long winded process – just two or three minutes. It’s not a massive pain.”
As others identified, the data in CVTS isn’t transferred automatically to MTS, but as Nixey tells, all he has to do is log on and answer multiple choice questions – “it takes less time than it takes to do an MOT.”
Indeed, the training is now – in is view – less onerous than it used to be. From April 2023, the minimum amount of training required was reduced from three hours of MOT tester training each year and 16 hours in five years, to three hours of MOT tester training each year.
Even so, Nixey was prepared for the move to digital and says that “we knew it was coming years ago. We just had to get used to it and make the time to do it.”
As an aside, however, Nixey added that MOT testers would welcome an increase in fee as the rate hasn’t changed since 2010. “We’re doing so much more now… it should be around £90.” He explains that the government used to supply paper for handwritten MOT certificates, then it gave stations a computer and paper. But now it expects garages to supply everything. And that irritates Nixey.
Despite the howls and protests, the move to digitise government business is not going away. But with around 60,000 MOT testers in the UK according to a government post (May 2022, MOT fraud, a risk to road safety), maybe the problem isn’t such as issue since of the 48 comments made in response to the DVSA’s May blog, there were only 20 original comments. Either the other 59,980 testers didn’t know of the portal where comments could be lodged, weren’t worried, or didn’t care enough to post a comment.
Regardless, MOT testing stations and testers need to comply with the new regime.
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