Fleet MOT patterns are back to normal and did not spike in September, despite warnings of a “flood” of demand.
According to DVSA estimates, an additional 580,000 MOTs were needed this month due to the MOT exemptions granted earlier in the pandemic. But despite the deferrals, there was no substantial jump in the number of fleet MOT tests undertaken during September, new figures from Epyx show.
Its analysis of information held on its 1link Service Network platform revealed almost 52,000 MOT tests carried out during the month. This is close to the c.49,000 processed during the most recent pre-Covid September in 2019.
Debbie Fox, commercial director at epyx, said: “Our figures show that this was a very normal month for fleet MOTs and indeed, if you look over the statistics across the entire pandemic, company car and van operators appear to have continued to book MOTs in a relatively normal manner.
“There was a significant dip when Covid first hit in April 2019 and then unusually large numbers of bookings in the following September and October that appear to be compensating but, very quickly, the situation normalised.”
Fox added that the use of 1link Service Network to manage the service, maintenance and repair of four million company vehicles meant the company was perhaps better placed than any other source to spot patterns in fleet MOTs.
“Our conclusion is that the vast majority of excess MOT demand forecast by the DVSA must have been among private motorists. Fleet MOT patterns appear to be now following a very normal annual pattern and have been for almost the last year.”
