Leading national garage chain, HiQ, is championing the Government’s decision to maintain the frequency of MOT testing after warning it would have ‘hit the pockets of motorists harder than ever.’
The decision to make a U-turn on the proposal to change testing from 3-1-1 to 4-2-2 came from Transport Secretary Justine Greening, who stated that the Government would instead work with the industry to focus on reliability and standards of garages.
For HiQ, this is welcome news as the brand continues to position itself as a category leader in self-regulation and transparency.
HiQ’s fast fit manager, Stuart Carr, said: “The decision to maintain MOT testing frequency is a positive one not only for us as a garage franchise, but for motorists in general.
“If the decision had gone ahead, we raised huge concerns on the grounds of safety and the negative cost implications it would have had on motorists driving around with defects for longer.”
The garage industry will now be under the spotlight to deliver a satisfactory service to motorists and each will have to publish MOT performance data to help improve standards.
“We are committed to raising standards across the network and have already invested in customer feedback initiatives such as customer surveys and mystery shopping exercises.” Stuart continues.
“We self-regulate and train our technicians through the Automotive Technician Accreditation (ATA) programme whereby individuals commit to operate through an ethical code of conduct. This is done through our HiQ training Academy.
“We also invest in an online recommendation tool so visitors to the website can rate their HiQ experience and give honest feedback for everyone to see.
“These are just some of the tools we have in place to ensure honesty and transparency across the entire network and though we welcome the decision to keep MOT testing the same, we never complete any unnecessary work.”
