Vehicle testing
Advice and guidance on the annual MOT test for trucks, buses and vans
All exhausts are tested for security, leaks, effectiveness of the silencers and to make sure that fumes do not enter the cab. However, when it comes to buses and coaches a few extra items need to be considered to avoid failing the test.
The Department for Transport wants your suggestions about changes to roadworthiness tests for classic vehicles. Do you think that classic vehicles should be exempt? What criteria should be used?
Before you take a commercial vehicle for its annual test, you must have a plating certificate – also known as a ministry plate – that shows the permitted axle and gross vehicle weights.
Following a consultation, fees for HGV and PSV annual tests will fall from 1 October 2014 for customers who use ATF sites.
The European Union's roadworthiness package agrees the minimum standards for the annual test and roadside inspections of all vehicles within the Union. But how will we make those directives a practical reality for commercial vehicles on British roads?
We'll start to use new guide times for heavy vehicle annual tests from 1 July 2014. The new times are not absolute measures – each vehicle will still be given as long as it takes to have a quality annual test.
You will need Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) for trucks built in multiple stages or special types vehicles and trailers from 29 October 2014. This affects anyone who manufactures, builds and supplies these vehicles in low volumes.
We have this year updated the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness – essential reading for anyone whose responsibilities include vehicle roadworthiness.
We would like to announce a new service level for our Individual Vehicle Approval - IVA - scheme, drafted in partnership with trade associations.
After many months of careful planning, we have launched the Next Generation Testing (NGT) pilot in South Wales, Hereford and parts of the Midlands. The first Vehicle Standards Assessors and Specialist Vehicle Standards Assessors have begun work and we’re now testing NGT concepts in a live environment. Here we explain the concept behind this new …