The Garage Equipment Association’s chief executive Julian Woods keeps workshops up-to-date with developments in the world of garage equipment.
UKCA marking: as I have raised the awareness of this subject on many an occasion, I felt it only correct to let the readers know of the government changes announced in late 2022. As many of you will recall following brexit, one of the many changes that was to be introduced in the UK was the stopping of the acceptance of the EU’s CE safety test/marking scheme and the start of our own scheme known as the UKCA mark. This was first due to be implemented at the end of 2021, but was deferred to the end of 2022. However, back in November the government again postponed the mandatory implementation of the UK scheme until the 31st December 2024. In simple terms, this means EU tested and certified items can still be imported and sold in the UK using the CE mark.
MOT changes
What other changes are we expecting in 2023? Well, one such area for our industry is the DVSA MOT testing scheme. Starting back in 2019 the DVSA started rolling out connected MOT testing equipment. The main purpose of connected MOT equipment is to help the busy MOT stations do the job mor easily and help drive down unintentional errors in data transferring. Since 2019, when the RBTs first went connected we now have connected decelerometers, connected exhaust gas analysers and diesel smoke meters. At the point of writing this article we are looking forward to the next pieces of equipment that will go connected, which will potentially be the electronic headlight aim test equipment, which will help analyse and test modern headlights or an ANPR camera to improve the registering of the MOT test.
We totally understand some people’s reluctance in the industry on implementing/investing in new technologies straightaway, but we are now coming to four years since the first connected equipment was introduced by the DVSA, so we do not need to think of this as new technology anymore but see that it’s technology that works and helps improve the MOT tester’s life, the AEDM’S job and the MOT business as a whole.
The GEA also holds the complete list of DVSA approved MOT equipment if you want to check your MOT equipment is still current and fully supported.
If you looking to replace/renew any of your garage equipment (not only MOT equipment) during 2023 remember to always use a GEA member company and ensure that the engineer doing the work on site is GEA accredited, always ask your engineer to show you their accreditation card when they arrive on site. GEA accredited engineers (and salespeople) have been independent assessed by the GEA as competent and that they work to an industry code of conduct.
