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Post by scubaman on Sept 5, 2007 20:58:39 GMT
After watching the latest DVD from VOSA and talking to other stations from around us I have had various reports on what he is looking for, Has he visited you yet and what did he pick up on ?any tips to improve will be appreciated.
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spanner
Nominated Tester
Posts: 191
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Post by spanner on Sept 6, 2007 22:00:11 GMT
We hot a phone call on Monday afternoon to say our Risk assesment would be Tuesday morning 08:30.
The assesment went well I think with no real problems. Started off with a test performance report he'd taken off the computor. Going over what your average time taken to test a vehicle is against national average. Pointing out any abnormal values. From there it went like a normal 6 monthly site visit used to be, checking your posters on wall - all MOT documents - testers manuals - special notices etc.
Next it was checking toilet - reception area - office - workshop - forecourt - and lastly MOT test bay. Basically the toilet etc he was looking to see if it was reasonably clean for say a woman going into. They don't expect us all to have reception areas with coffee machines and TV etc so don't panic.
Questions questions oh man some were laughable.....
wanted to know how often we swept garage forecort? ...... er hello RAIN does that! did we do regular checks on building structure? Maintanance on equipment? How you book work in? What do you do with and where do you keep the vehicles documents? Car keys - lables/tags on them? did we do tests to trade? discounts? work bonus system? use seat covers? do we give estimates for repairs before works carried out? if we recieved a complaint how would we deal with it? May ask you if you can show how to update calibrations or add new equipment on pc or how to check for and find a special notice. Ask how you'd do an under bonnet check on brake system - what you looking for etc. Suppose they could ask about anything but thats the question I was asked at the time. You may be asked to check something on a car .
Only 2 small problems he picked up on as far as I know and those were - 1) Our testers poster didn't have our photos on it. New one he got us to order on pc before he left. 2) we hadn't printed off some of the special notices.
Be prepared though to say goodbye to any work for most of the day. 08:30 we started with him and finished at 13:00 on the dot. Thats a small garage with just me and the boss so god knows how long it takes in larger places.
All I can say is don't panic if your like us (small garage) don't worry yourself thinking you have to be like the flashy main agent type garages. I know thats what the dvd leads you to believe but it's not the case.
Perhaps Admin could put this in a new thread titled "Risk Assesment" or something so we can swap info. Admin: DONE
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Post by scubaman on Sept 13, 2007 20:53:09 GMT
Yes Yesterday the day finally came. As said he pointed out abnormal values off the performance reports and made sure that we where carried out testing on those points correctly. checked all paperwork. Checked the reception area toilet how cars where booked in asked a few questions about free retest items and gave us good guidance on where we could improve. Being honest I am glad someone has came round to check on us because I haven't seen anyone for almost a year (well I don't think so!!!! maybe some incognito tests) since we started. Overall we seemed to get on well and had some good comments that we shall react upon. overall he was with us for around 3.5 hrs but he did turn up unannounced...
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motdave
Nominated Tester
Posts: 242
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Post by motdave on Sept 13, 2007 22:14:44 GMT
Had ours this week, too!
Turned up without warning. Straight into the questioning.
Smart Card security. What's the latest Special Notice ? How do you know that all NT's have read it ? Told to keep a log of everything to do with the running of the VTS. From when walls were last painted or trolley jack wheels greased to who cleaned the toilets & calibration due dates of MOT equipment.
Keep a customer suggestion / comments book. If your customers are happy with your work & never complain, then ask them to comment as such. Don't need to only note the ones that complain.
No-one will know what colour traffic light they are until at least March 2008 when all the results are collated.
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Rob
Nominated Tester
Posts: 279
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Post by Rob on Sept 14, 2007 6:09:24 GMT
Was it your own VE or a random bloke from VOSA?
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motdave
Nominated Tester
Posts: 242
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Post by motdave on Sept 14, 2007 6:28:59 GMT
Was it your own VE or a random bloke from VOSA? It was one of our regular VE's that we see regularly (about once every 2 yrs!) He arrived on his own. He seemed a bit cheesed off with the monotony of this task. He'd been taken off his normal life-saving duties of road-side inspections of dangerous vehicles and was now asking questions, ticking boxes & giving guidance - a job he felt an outside agency could have done.
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Post by scubaman on Sept 14, 2007 7:06:29 GMT
WE have a new VE as the original one has retired. maybe thats why we haven't seen anyone till now?
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spanner
Nominated Tester
Posts: 191
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Post by spanner on Sept 14, 2007 21:30:53 GMT
It was one of our regular VE's that we see regularly (about once every 2 yrs!) He arrived on his own. He seemed a bit cheesed off with the monotony of this task. He'd been taken off his normal life-saving duties of road-side inspections of dangerous vehicles and was now asking questions, ticking boxes & giving guidance - a job he felt an outside agency could have done. Same here even sounds like same bloke. Same story anyway, had to cancell all other work for next 4 months. He too did the roadside checks mainly HGV's. Was fine by me I know him well since he was one of my Tech college teachers back when I started in 83. We had feared getting complete strangers dressed in suits as per DVD
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Rob
Nominated Tester
Posts: 279
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Post by Rob on Oct 2, 2007 18:29:24 GMT
We had ours today, I got a phone call at lunchtime to tell me that the VE from my old garage (an absolute b*****d) had turned up. Everything went reasonably smoothly though, he seemed fairly certain we would be given a green assessment but said "It's not up to me".
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Rob
Nominated Tester
Posts: 279
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Post by Rob on Feb 29, 2008 7:31:59 GMT
At an MOT seminar last night they told us the final results from the assessments won't be out until November at the earliest. The did say however if you get someone from VOSA ringing you up for a desk based assessment you can more or less guarantee you're green.
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