Aftermarket July/August 2022 Issue

pandemic and prior to the enacting of the 2020 MOT Exemption. With this in mind, how do you fill your workshop during these quieter months? Remember, it is not all about the testing. Do not forget about the remedial work that these tests bring. Servicing work will drop off as research has shown that customers like to have their vehicles MOT’d and serviced at the same time, reducing the inconvenience of being without their vehicle. At CCM, we used this as an opportunity to broaden the types of services we provided. Quieter times What do our MOT testers do now in these quieter times? The pressure our testers will be under once we hit the upturn in tests numbers is huge. So why not use the time in these quieter months to complete the training and the annual assessment. During the pandemic, the annual assessment was extended by one month, this was not the case this year and approximately 1200 testers failed their annual assessment and were suspended. At CCM, we use MOT Juice for all our MOT training needs. They provide a system that looks after all our tester training and annual assessments, creating a record for each tester. As a manager, I can see instantly who is up to date with training and who is not. These are the top reasons why testers fail their assessment. Run out of time: Every assessment is 60 minutes long. MOT Juice list all the research documents that you need alongside the questions, so no time wasted trawling through paperwork A few years ago, Barry, one of the owners of CCM, identified a niche in the market regarding MOT Tester training. Having recognised the lack of such a platform where all this information could be stored, MOT Juice was born. Barry’s knowledge of MOT testing is tenfold of almost everyone else, and he has used this to produce software that enables any garage to get the absolute best for their Testers and testing stations. It helps you to keep abreast of station compliance duties, logs and records, all QC checks, site audits, reminder of calibrations due and stores certificates. With three sites at CCM, it is imperative that we are up to date on the DVSA requirements across our business and MOT Juice makes this process easily manageable. New trend How are independent garages managing their workload with the new trend in MOTs and how do we keep our workshop and Testers busy in these quieter times? Those garages that had a contingency plan in place, managed to survive but it was down to vigorous planning and arduous work. They were also having to adjust and evolve as they went. There was no right or wrong. It proved to be difficult, as once it was established that garages could remain open, you had the dilemma of whether ethically it was right to. Please refer to Fig.1. Many of us were initiative-taking at the time, encouraging motorists to book early and use that month before the MOT was due while still preserving the anniversary of the expiry date, We were also explaining the legal requirement of the motorist to ensure that their vehicle was road-legal. The data shows the trend of MOT bookings has changed. We need to adapt. Please refer to Fig.2. April, May and June will be lower on MOT tests than was the case pre- 12 AFTERMARKET JULY/AUGUST 2022 BUSINESS/THE GARAGE INSPECTOR GRADUATES www.aftermarketonline.net MOT TESTER TRAINING CCM is pretty hot on MOT Tester training, as Tina points out. So hot in fact, that it became a whole separate business for the owners of the garage BY Tina Drayson, CCM As a leader it is your job to support, train, coach and encourage to make each member a better version of themselves ”