NGT has changed the way testing slots are booked (from annually to quarterly), among other administrative changes.
Ranked on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is completely satisfied and 5 is the opposite, 43% of respondents answered 4 and 5, compared to 27% replying 1 and 2; in addition, 30% of respondents selected 3, suggesting that they were neither completely satisfied nor dissatisfied. Nearly half of members polled (49%) found the new system less reliable than before, compared with 45% that found it the same, and 6% that found it more reliable.
Similarly, a plurality of respondents (46%) found managers less contactable than before, compared to 44.3% who report no change, and 9.4% who found managers more contactable.
Negative opinions of other aspects of NGT, including its relative flexibility, the helpfulness of testers, the customer focus of testers, the reliability of testers, were more muted; generally, about half of respondents found it was the same, and a majority of the remaining proportion found the situation had worsened.
The survey that received 122 responses (out of about 540 ATF operations) was presented in a mid-September meeting arranged by ATFOA chair Stephen Smith, director of Boleyn Recovery & Fleet Services.
In response, Bridget Rosewell, DVSA non-executive chair, admitted that there was currently a regional disparity of testers. She said that DVSA has been carrying out a nationwide tester recruitment campaign (including creating places for 40 apprentices), and expects to have new testers in work in a few months’ time. She said that a more regional-based structure of tester management is being implemented, that it is no longer approving new ATF applications to focus on improving operation of the system, and that various other improvement projects are underway.
At the meeting, some ATFOA members complained about tests being cancelled. Rosewell said that in April-July 2017 period, there were only 707 tests cancelled out of 33,000 (2%).
However, when Smith polled the 80 ATFOA members that attended the event, those who said that hauliers should never be allowed to test their own vehicles outnumbered those that said they should by two to one.