Computerised system in place in all 18,500 testing stations

The £230m MoT computerisation programme has been successfully rolled out to all 18,500 testing stations across the UK.

The system has been developed by supplier Siemens Business Services (SBS) on behalf of the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa). Previously, the MoT process was entirely paper-based; motorists were issued with a written certificate and testers posted paper forms back to Vosa.

MoT garages are now all connected to a national network and input information directly into Vosa’s central database.

The main motivation for the project was to make better use of testing data, says Vosa private vehicles sector director Alex Fiddes. ‘With the central database we can now identify who tested which vehicle and where, which helps us manage the scheme more effectively,’ he said.

‘It can also be used to provide information to other organisations for additional services – such as the DVLA’s electronic vehicle licence programme.’

The system will also help prevent unauthorised testing as it is only accessible using a smartcard authorisation system.

The biggest challenges were the scale of the programme and the cultural issues around introducing the system into an environment where people may never have used a computer before, says Fiddes.