Mandatory display of MOT certificates - did I miss a letter in the post?

With a ten year old Polo in the family, I’ve been used to taking it every summer for its annual medical MOT at the test centre in Lisburn or Boucher Road. The exhilaration of being confident that the car has recently been serviced balanced against the possibility that the garage missed something or the chance that the DVTA guys are more thorough.

They’ve been handing out certificates - the size of a tax disc that can be cut out from the printed sheet - for the last six years or so. And the certificate makes clear that while you might want to display the MOT pass certificate, it’s not mandatory.

Quite randomly, I read a news story online saying that the certificates had to be displayed by law from 1 May. What? Hadn’t heard that before.

4NI.co.uk fills in the detail

As if drivers haven’t enough of a ‘taxing time’ already, with a much more aggressive approach by the authorities targeting those who fail to pay their road fund licences, drivers in Northern Ireland will soon be facing a fine of £200 if they fail to display an MOT disc on windscreens.

The Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) is making it a legal requirement from 1 May to remind motorists when their vehicle is due for a test.

Brendan Magee, Chief Executive, DVA said: “Compliance with the vehicle test system is a major factor in ensuring that the vehicles used on Northern Ireland’s roads are roadworthy. The introduction of the mandatory display of the MoT disc will not only act as a reminder to vehicle users that their vehicle is due a test but it will aid enforcement by the DVA.”

Sure enough, there’s a news release on the DVTA website (dated 25 April 2008). But why haven’t I heard about this before?

A bit of googling shows that DVTA ran a public consultation back in October 2002 (five and a half years ago) around the mandatory display of MOT discs. No sign of any formal response to the consultation.

Under the Implementation and Publicity section of the consultation, it explains

As part of introducing mandatory display of the disc, the Department intends to promote a publicity campaign to give customers information and advice about the new system.

Umm ... think I missed the billboard posters. And didn’t listen when I took the car through the MOT test last July. And threw out the letter from the Driver & Vehicle Agency reminding me about the new legal requirement.

Did anyone else ignore all the warnings over the last twelve months? Or am I unique in not knowing that our car is crying out for a £200 fine? (I've emailed DVTA to ask about the publicity. Update - Friday 7pm - no response yet from DVTA, but their head of compliance was on the Nolan radio show on Thursday morning and confirmed that there would be a 12-18 month grace period where drivers not displaying the disc (but with a valid MOT) would be reminded about the need to display one, but not fined. Interesting to hear one caller who went through the MOT test in March but was neither told verbally about the 1 May legislation change, nor given any paperwork to explain what would soon be necessary! Apparently, sending out 600,000 letters would have been too costly.)

Update - Wednesday 7 May - DVTA Customer Services responded to my email. In terms of publicity:

"The Agency introduced voluntary display of MOT discs from 2002 and encouraged vehicle owners to display their MOT discs as a reminder that their vehicle test was due. The outcome of the consultation exercise you refer to was that respondents agreed that mandatory display of discs should be introduced. In order to do this, changes had to be made to primary legislation and these were completed in late 2007.

From late March/early April, the Agency has displayed posters and banners in a number of locations in advance of the implementation of mandatory display. Flyers informing customers of the need to display their MOT disc are being handed out to customers when they pass their test - this will continue for at least the next year.

Changes are also being made to the reminder and appointment notifications to inform owners of the need to display. We also engaged in a widespread television and radio campaign to inform customers of the change."

And in response to the question of whether there is "a year long grace period before people will actually be fined for non-display?" DVTA replied:

"Enforcement of mandatory display will be led by PSNI officers. They have indicated that a light touch enforcement regime will be applied and that for the introduction of the legislation advice and warning where necessary will be given."

Some other quotes from the consultation document:

4.3 The only additional cost which vehicle owners would have to bear would be the cost of displaying the disc. For cars this would involve the use of a plastic disc holder on the windscreen. For the first year of the new system the Agency will supply a free plastic holder to customers. For customers who need to display a disc on part of a vehicle other than the windscreen eg on motorcycles, disc holders can be purchased from about £10 upwards depending on style and colour.

4.7 ... the level of non-compliance for MOT is considered to be higher than for motor tax, and this represents a significant loss of revenue to the Agency. Each 1% increase in compliance would result in approximately 4,000 additional vehicles being tested and additional income of about £100,000. This would allow fixed overheads, such as the cost of buildings, to be spread over more tests, thus keeping fees down for all customers.

5.2 However, there is no provision to create an offence of failure to display a disc, and without such a provision the effectiveness of mandatory display might be questionable. It is proposed, therefore, to insert a new Article into the 1995 Order to make non-display of the MOT disc an offence. This would be introduced as part of a Road Traffic Amendment Bill (primary legislation) in 2003/04.

5.3 This approach would allow a period of grace before anybody could be prosecuted for failure to display the disc.

Needing a new clutch not a new car means Aygo stays, but the Citigo was very tempting

My Aygo reaches its fourth birthday this summer and will be due its first MOT.

The clutch needs replaced. (I’m a novice when it comes to car mechanics. So I’ve been driving around for a few weeks – maybe months – with a clutch that’s slipping. I asked: What’ll happen when the clutch finally goes? It’ll rev like crazy and the car won’t go anywhere, the mechanic replied.)

The MOT and clutch led me to a mid-life crisis. Obviously “mid-life” more in terms of the car rather than me! It suddenly felt like a good opportunity change cars.

With a penchant for small cars – “City Cars” as the class is referred to – the Aygo was perfect … other than its ability to chew through window wipers, water seeping in under the driver’s door, having to scrape ice off the inside of the front window in winter, crunching every time you put it in reverse, taking two years to get the lock on the glove box lid fixed, and getting from first into second gear requiring a lot more force than it did when the car was new.

The habit of successive cars getting smaller was going to be hard to continue. Lengthwise, Polo > Mini > SMART roadster > Aygo. A two seater SMART was fun for six months four years ago, but not a long term solution. A Toyota IQ looks lovely, but comes with a price tag to match its high spec configuration.

The Volkswagen up!, SEAT Mii, SKODA Citigo seemed good candidates. They’re siblings made in the same factory, much like the Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 107/Citroen C1 cars. Same chassis, same enormous boots (compared to the Aygo), slightly different styling and options. All three have eco-models with Stop/Start technology that should save fuel and save the planet.

I test drove two of three variants this morning. The Volkswagen up! was a comfortable ride, light steering, nippy. Feels like a much larger car. Its downside was the garish dash – the demonstration model (an up! white) had a bright white dashboard to match the outer white paintwork. Sun glasses would be required to sit in it for a long ride. The Volkswagen badge on the front also pushes up the price.

All three cars have the option of a top-of-dash mounted GPS that also provides Bluetooth support. It’s removable and can be used outside the car. The touch-screen user interface was less than intuitive, though the voice-driven street finding was quite impressive.

The SKODA Citigo was an identical drive. Minor differences in the less in-your-face dashboard. Lots of difference in the price (lower) and options (better grouped). At school we told SKODA jokes. But it felt like a very solid car that I wouldn't be ashamed to own.

If anyone fancies sponsoring a blogger with a car for a year - not expecting any offers! - I’ll put up my hand for a SKODA Citigo SE, 5 door, GreenTech with a Convenience Pack (ie, parking sensors), Safety Pack, GPS and a spare wheel. And if winters are going to continue to feature snow, throw in a Winter Pack to heat the mirrors and front seats.

But back to reality. Neither dealer was going to have a five door car in stock before my Aygo needed its MOT on 1 August. And it wasn’t going to pass its MOT unless the clutch was fixed.

This whole vehicular crisis was born out of needing a new clutch. Over lunch it dawned on me that really all I needed was a new clutch, not a new car!

While a relatively expensive repair, it is a lot cheaper than a new car. And while a Citigo with a whizzy GPS and an engine that cuts out at traffic lights would be fun to drive, with a new clutch the old Aygo would still turn on a sixpence and could be “driven into the ground” as I stated when I bought it. After all, the Polo lasted with me and then Cheryl for eleven years.

So hopefully the clutch will be fixed next week – before it burns out – and the wee blue Aygo can be driven round for another few years before I need to go on another test drive spree.

But if you’re looking a small ‘city’ car, can I wholeheartedly recommend a SKODA Citigo SE GreenTech (with three years free servicing if bought before the end of September) from the very friendly sales staff at Mervyn Stewart on the Boucher Road. They came so close to selling me a car!

DVTA responded to questions about publicity around MOT certificate display and grace period

DVTA responded to a couple of questions about the publicity prior to the change in legislation making display of MOT vehicle test certificates mandatory for cars tested in Northern Ireland and a grace period before fines would come into effect.

I've added their answers to the original posting (the purple coloured text).

It’s been quite a week ...

Posts on the blog have been a bit sparse this week. It’s been a full on week, with lots of unexpected twists and turns, worry and relief.

There was Tuesday’s trip up to Mallusk to drop my car off for an MOT service. Driving anywhere near Mallusk before 10 o’clock in the morning was a major mistake. And the closure of the Hightown bridge made nipping across to Jordanstown all the more cumbersome too.

On Wednesday night I flitted across to Stansted, and picked up a hire car to drive to Ipswich. Pouring rain. It was a bright yellow Peugeot 1007. The yellow I can cope with. The 1007 was more of a problem.

The doors don’t open out on a hinge. Instead they slide back along the side of the car. Slightly surprised by the unusual mechanism, I ho9pped into the car, and sat in the drivers seat, with the rain belting in the open gap where the door used to be. But could I find a button to trigger the door to close. While it’s a neat idea - and should save a lot of door prangs in car parks – the layout of the controls on the 1007 leaves a lot to be desired.

Thursday morning found me talking in front of a lecture theatre. But knowing I’d be wearing a radio mic for most of the day introducing presenters and doing the links between the different talks following my session, I’d silenced my phone and taken it out of my pocket. Gets rid of that annoying doot doot doot over the PA.

So I missed the call at noon telling me that my daughter was being admitted to hospital, and only picked up a text about an hour and a half later. Time to try and get back to Belfast earlier than the 21:30 easyJet flight that would have got me home sometime after 11pm.

Making quick arrangements to get other people to cover the rest of the afternoon, made a hasty exit, got the earlier 18:30 flight, and made it to the hospital for 20:00. Of all the days to be aware.

There’s a whole blog entry – could be a whole Nolan show! – describing this particular hospital’s car park policy. Imagine you’re a parent bring a child to Accident & Emergency. You park, go in, your child is examined, and is unexpectedly admitted immediately. You spend the night in the same bed as the child, looking after them and comforting them in a new and unusual environment.

Problem is that your car is still sitting in the hospital car park. People come and visit, bringing their cars in and out, but yours is still sitting lonely and unloved. So when you’re discharged or are allowed to take your child home for a few hours, the hospital expect you to pay parking for the days that your car has unexpectedly been loitering in their car park. On top of caring for your child, you’re meant to organise someone to drive your car home – third party? – to avoid racking up charges.

Oh, and there’s a rumour of an exemption certificate that will waive the charges. But neither A&E nor the wards seem to hand them out. They recursively point to each other. And the security team’s script just says no.

Moral of story, get a taxi to A&E. It’ll work out cheaper if you’re admitted.

But I can’t bicker too much. The staff provide an excellent level of care was good, and overnight the little one’s temperature slowly dropped off to a normal level, and other than popping in three times a day for injections of antibiotics, she’s enjoying being at home, and even starting to get an appetite back.

And in amongst the drama, I got my car back from Mallusk – only took half an hour to get there, switch cars and get back home at Friday lunchtime. It passed its MOT, and its doors swing out like doors are supposed to!

This week has been a reminder that the best made plans and schemes are easily thwarted. And a reminder that life is precious. Humans are built quite sturdy. But we do break. And it’s a reminder that trusting God isn’t a part time decision when times are rough, or success is on our lips, but a decision that needs to span every day, and every circumstance.

(not so quick) Review of 2008

The most common question in our house on 31 December was

“What were your highlights of the year?”

Cue lots of head scratching, memories of holidays, trips away, and minor reminisces. But the question stuck with me today and I remembered more and more. So, quickly trawling back through a year of blog posts – which tend to cover major thoughts or events – here’s my less-than-compact review of 2008. (I'll add in some photos to break up the link-fest tomorrow.)

January started as snow fell fast on the first Thursday night, delaying return to work by a day and instead we spent Friday building snowmen with Littl’un. After posting an unfavourable review, we were invited back for a second meal in two rooms on University Road and enjoyed it a lot. Toby Hadoke provided lunchtime titters as he explained how Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf at the Out for Lunch festival, followed by a slightly bizarre “conversation” between local authors Glenn Patterson and Malachi O’Doherty. There was a rather full weekend that started with a conference in Windsor (including Evensong in Windsor Chapel followed by nibbles in the cloister) and finished with the building of seven of Ikea’s finest BILLY bookcases. Oh, and the yellow Mini went back and was replaced for six months with a second hand Smart Roadster and the first of many attempts to get a second key cut!

February saw in the Chinese New Year (year of the rat), voting for the next Presbyterian Moderator Donald Patton (and my rational desire of a Panini sticker book of PCI ministers), a Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (“brokenness ... offset with determination”), the launch of David Park’s superb book The Truth Commissioner, the relocation of the Jaffe Fountain, and a look at CCTV cameras around the Waterfront.

In March, AiB was two years old. Victoria Square opened to much fanfare, reasonable crowds, the sound of a hundred shutters taking photographs of the elaborate structure, and the (tedious) game of where and when will the Apple Store open started in earnest. There was mention of looming Muppetry in the Sesame Tree, a blogger meet-up in church followed by a great evening of Ladino music at the Los Desterrados concert in Belfast’s Synagogue and one of my photos from the night ended up in the national Jewish Chronicle – whose website is strangely theJC.com! The BBC’s Passion provided food for thought over Easter and there was a superb concert of Big Tunes & Anthems by Shaun Davey in the Waterfront on St Patrick’s’ Day. I also announced that single parents should be issued with medals ... at least annually and reviewed a purloined copy of the redesigned Third Way magazine (the one with that Ben Elton interview in it).

April was the month that Northern Ireland Post Offices came under threat. Philip Johnston returned to estate agency in East Belfast and rescued MCW Residential. Ryanair made dubious and unsubstantiated claims about their flightpaths out of Belfast City Airport over Belfast Lough and I favoured Ikon (later Mystery Worshipped) over the Celebration of Hope. Belfast Courts erected a squiggle. The bookworms - Samson and Goliath - finally appeared on-screen alongside Potto and Hilda in Sesame Tree. Belfast had a miniture flash mob. And car problems meant I caught the bus to work.

May saw little fanfare until the last minute when the display MOT certificates became mandatory. AiB started to scrutinise supermarkets’ pricing policies of different sizes of boxes of tea bags. We went to Streamvale Open Farm on a blistering hot May Day (summer came really early). Freesat launched, though it was hard to find any set top boxes in Belfast. And after April’s car problems, the Polo turned into a C-Max (with the inevitable second key fiasco). At the Eurovision Song Contest, Dustin turned out to be a turkey. AiB took illicit photos at the Barry and Basil Show up at Stormont and returned to the grounds for some Red Bull Soapbox racing. Cheryl threw herself off the top of the Europa Hotel. I mused on what makes a good or bad church website, and then reflected on Ofcom’s latest nations and regions market communications report.

In June, the Post Office consultation results were published and Belmont Post Office was confirmed for closure. More on tea bags. The NI peace process was compared to a game of chess and there was a visit to Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich over on the Falls for a spot of Irish chorale music. We went to France, didn’t book seats in advance for the TGV, didn’t climb the Eiffel Tower, and I didn’t enjoy the experience of ordering (and eating) profiteroles that arrived filled with cottage cheese and served with lettuce. Meanwhile a Lexus SUV tried to drive over a Porsche Boxster and a Toyota Celica in the Lisburn Road Co-Op car park. And a Sunday morning visit to Summer Madness with Littl’un was good despite the atrocious weather.

At the beginning of July I ordering a new car for delivery in August and I noticed that my cars have been shrinking over time. Belfast rolled out it’s new branding. I met someone I’d previously blogged about and he unexpectedly remembered what I’d written. Always write to be read! I discovered just how deafening Lambeg Drums could be in a small community hall at the beginning of a cultural exploration of all things orange while a Swiss journalist and his family stayed with us over the Twelfth. So we took in the Belfast launch of Orangefest (and an interview with First Minister Peter Robinson) before things hotted up with a tour of East Belfast bonfires. The next morning witnessed the main Belfast Twelfth parade (all two hours of it) before discovering what happened afterwards at the field. The Belfast County Grand Lodge never did come back with any comment about the "Peace Keepers" toy guns on sale at the Belfast field. Being part of a photographic exhibition – Add to Set – as part of the Trans Festival in the Waterfront Hall was an unexpected (and undeserved) opportunity and a great end to a busy month.

In August I handed back the Smart Roadster and picked up the Toyota Aygo after a short delay. (Though I never bored you with the tale of the subsequent key cutting!) Tech Camp dominated the start of the month with a superb scavenger hunt and visits galore, more stop-go animations than I could fathom, and including an interesting one to SARC and a brilliant (and unexpected) one to the production company behind Sesame Tree. Other excitement included attending a wedding that was being filmed (for an as-yet unbroadcast late-night TV series), the new Broadway underpass on the Westlink turning into a gigantic swimming pool and Dalek cookies. Meanwhile, the Apple Store was furtively built and photographed while a Sheffield car park turned into another photo opportunity.

September's Creative Camp Belfast was excellent. The big red switch was thrown on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (which spun off a rap and a hymn). I bought some monster ginger, the Proms came to Belfast City Hall ... oh, and AiB blog visit stats went through the roof as the Apple Store finally opened in Victoria Square (and I snuck in for a tour before the queue). The Independent newspaper went full colour (but had teething problems in Northern Ireland).

In October, AiB went along with The Slugger Awards in the echoey atrium of W5. There was an architectural focus on Micro Compact Homes and a walking house. Sir Jeremy Isaacs had interesting things to say about diversity and Public Service Broadcasting at the Belfast Festival, while “Oxymoron” was defined as “a DUP minister for culture” at a conversation hosted by William Crawley between authors David Park and Glenn Patterson. The Festival forgot to say that the John Cage concert at SARC had been postponed … but the when it did go ahead it “asked more questions than it gave answers” (but was never blogged about).

November again witnessed one of the side effects of blogging - the random invitations that occasionally arrive. So I donned my tux and bow tie to attend a free local showing of the new Bond film Quantum of Solace and met more Aston Martin owners that I realised existed in Northern Ireland. Obama won the US Presidential election, CNN experimented with holograms, and McCain gave a concession speech that will surely not easily be bettered. Vodafone’s Liveguy was nearly persuaded to come to Northern Ireland to hand out free 3G-enabled netbooks - but in the end didn't. There was a great Thanksgiving dinner. The Presbyterian Mutual Society came into the news when a minority of its members stopped acting in the mutual interest of all its members. And I went to see Hunger.

December was the month in which David Cameron came to town and answered questions about The-Thing-With-No-Name set by local punters. The doors closed on Woolworths for the last time. Bells were rung for climate change outside St Anne’s Cathedral. A carol service was enjoyed, a cake was superbly decorated and an old Mac turned up in a stocking.

A busy and varied year ...

Doing the SMART thing?

Company car schemes are good and bad. At their best, they’re convenient and admin-light with car tax, MOT, servicing all someone else’s problem. The flip side is that they’re basically a big hole into which you drop money and have nothing to show for at the end of four years. Oh, and they give you the loan of a car to sweeten the four year payment plan! And standard commercial leases – often for much shorter period – are no better.

The little yellow Mini that has been a joy to drive – and pretty easy to find in airport car parks – celebrated its fourth birthday in early January and on Wednesday I left it back to the workshop so it can be auctioned off.

Now I’m no petrol head, and have no real interest in cars other than I like them to be reliable, hassle free, reasonably comfortable and get me from A to B with as little fuss drama as possible.

So maybe that’s why last Autumn I didn’t quite generate enough enthusiasm to get around to placing an order for a new car to be delivered in January, allowing for the 12-16 week lead time. That, and a moment of wondering whether being a one car family would be possible.

But in the end, I wimped out of the eco-friendly sacrificial ideal and looked at the reallocation list ... cars not yet four years old but left back by people leaving the company that are available for shorter periods until their auction date.

Two choices: a Honda estate or a SMART Roadster. Umm ... a practical family car that’s nearly as long as a bendi-bus – though is still expensive even with the reallocation discount – or a two-seater that’s even more impractical than the Mini Cooper which used to be advertised as the car that can accommodate a strategically folded cow in its boot!

Slight snag that the Roadster is a soft top and had been sitting outside unloved and exposed to the November/December elements for about six weeks, resulting in mouldy seats and a general dampness. Dried out and cleaned, it didn’t look too bad when I swapped keys on Wednesday afternoon, though I have had to cook the owner’s manual on the bedroom radiator to dry out the soggy pages.

My first reaction on getting down (very much down) into the Roadster was that someone must have stolen the clutch pedal! It’s advertised as a semi-manual/semi-automatic – which translates to it being an automatic with a handbrake. Not being schooled in driving an automatic, I’ve now retained by left foot to sit still and enjoy the ride, instead of jabbing on the brake pedal. And I’ve learnt to be patient at roundabouts – as you inevitably brake coming up to the give way, the car will start to change down gear, just at the moment you put your foot down to power away ... except the car’s still in-between gears!

Ten minutes into my ownership, there was an awful moment going up the M2 sliproad at Mallusk where the car refused to go any faster than 20mph despite my foot being right down to the floor. Arghh ... I’d knocked on the speed limiter (how was I to know there was one) when I’d turned on the wipers.

And having driven up from Belfast on Friday morning, I arrived at Magee College in Derry to discover my bum was wet. If you sit long enough, the damp still inside the drivers seat rises up and meets your trousers ... might need to keep the seat heaters on for a week or two.

But after the 150 mile round trip to the north west, we’re now on friendly terms. The car stereo is fine in a car park or at low speeds, but the small speakers are drowned out byt he roar of the engine which is just behind the front seats. It has all the attractiveness and styling of a De Lorian – and probably much of the same build quality. (Leaking soft top is a feature, part of its charm rather than a problem that gets fixed.

Our child seat miraculously fits the passenger seat – and meets the safety constraints of being snug, secure and far enough away from the airbags – and I’m growing used to its “smart” automatic headlights and “smart” wipers that come on when the car decides they’re needed. And most of all, I’ve learnt to keep the seat heater on! Though I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to putting my laptop bag in under the bonnet ... where most cars have their engine!

Better start thinking about what I do in August when this car goes back ...