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VOSit SURVEY:
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THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNOBTAINABLE
One of the most common gripes we hear in the CM office is from operators and, more often, dealers, about the time they must wait for a test at a Vosa test station. In fairness, most operators have well planned maintenance schedules so tests can be booked well in advance, but the unexpected can happen.
Six months on from its savaging at the hands of the Transport Select Committee, there is a perception that as Vosa makes cuts, its service gets worse.Although Vosa figures point to increased productivity, the reduction in available test days offered under the 'designated premises' scheme can't have helped capacity, and the low morale among Vosa staff doesn't help.
CM decided to quantify the test waiting times by surveying test stations — and we'll repeat this survey on a regular basis to see if there is a trend in this measurable aspect of Vosa's performance. Contact details of the test stations were obtained from Vosa's website — www.vosa.gov.uk— so it was also a useful opportunity to test the accuracy of the site. As it turned out, apart from a couple of outdated entries and some layout inconsistencies, it was pretty good. We called all the stations that we considered to be full time, whether Vosa sites or designated premises. For the purposes of this survey we defined 'full-time' stations as those that open more than three days a week and more than two weeks a month.Almost all the stations in the part-time category are in the more remote parts of Scotland.
The calls were made within a two-hour period on the afternoon of 23 January, with a few difficult ones resolved first thing the following morning.We had an operator account and vehicle details available if the stations weren't able to quote a time without them, but we were conscious of overloading the system. Apologies if Vosa's server ran a bit hot for a short while.
Recording the times
the results are given as the number of working days before the next available appointment — the same or next day counts as one. Where a range of dates was quoted, such as a certain week, we have used the middle day of the alternatives.
We only failed to get through to two of the test stations, Berwick-upon-Need and Lochgilphead,Argyll, while two more, Shrewsbury and Chelmsford, were closed for refurbishment.A number of stations have their numbers listed on the Vosa wchsite but direct you to another station to make a booking. While the Vosa computers were struggling, we checked the times of a few stations through the agency's national contact number, 0870 606 0440, although this also went down later in the day.
While it was working we found the Vosa line very useful, hut it isn't particularly well signpostcd on the website.Telephone answering at test stations ranged from the personal attention of someone obviously had us talking to the right person in less than sitting within feet of trucks being tested a minute.
to the efficiently impersonal response of The request for an appointment also met Kidderminster's voicemail system, which with varied responses. Staff at some stations offered an LGV test or Vehicle Identity insisted ongoing through the full booking Check, announced we were being held in a process, complete with taking every last detail queue, apologised for the delay —and still of our borrowed account and vehicle; others seem to have developed their own shortcuts to bypass the official system and give a quick and easy answer.
However the answer was obtained, the lead times quoted were greater than we expected. The best responses included that of Llandrindod Wells, which initially told us there was a slot during the afternoon although by the time we called Wrexham to make the booking, this had turned into next morning. Sometimes we were just lucky; we phoned Nottingham to be told that a next-day cancellation was the only slot available this side of March.
get a local test in a hurry the first available date was 19 March, far enough away for the Vosa agent to have to double-check the date. Guildford was one of those stations that we gave up trying to phone direct,and this proved to be a trend: in general, the longer a station took to answer its phone, the longer the lead time for an appointment.
Concerned that our experience may not be typical, we spoke to some of the locals. Based across the road from the Guildford test station, lveco dealer Grays should have it easy. Service manager David Taylor told us: "It's not very good.We recently needed a retest for a slit in a tyre wall, but they couldn't look at it for four or five days."
Despite Grays' location, it frequently has to go as far as Southampton,Yeading or Newbury for a test." We just have to shop around." says Turner.This view is echoed by Mercedes-Benz dealer Rossett's at Aldershot. We learned that while the Guildford staff are helpful and make every effort to find alternatives, availability of dates is a problem. It is worth remembering that all test stations and the 0870 number have access to all Looked at by region, there was a wide variation in waiting times. But if you accept that five days is a reasonable wait, the picture is not too bad.The North-East and East are the best, averaging around the three-day mark.The North-East area is also the most consistent, with delays ranging from one to seven working days.The East was also consistent, with the sole exception being Royston. After initially suffering computer system problems it later came up with 15 February a 17-day delay.
Easily the longest waiting times are in the South-East area, with a highly unsatisfactory 12.1-day average. However, any suggestion that the most heavily populated areas have the longest delays is countered by Scotland's position as second worst, at 7.7 days.
We don't doubt that Vosa staff are doing "Guildford is presently covering for neighbouring station Newbury which is closed for refurbishment. This is affecting booking times but we have redeployed the staff to other locations to keep delays to a minimum. However, test availability in the local area is good and some local their best to perform an expanding role with shrinking resources, or that many stations are offering a perfectly satisfactory service. Neither does anyone expect test stations to keep surplus testers sitting watching Kilroy in case the phone rings. But some of the delays we have uncovered run not just into weeks but months, and this is totally unacceptable.
No justification
In any case, how can anyone in this low-margin and environmentally aware world justify sending a truck on a 100-mile journey to be tested when there is a Vosa test station outside its front door? While just over half of the network offers some kind of Saturday service for a premium (and one, South Molton, opens one Sunday a month), maybe Vosa's plan for a 24/7 service needs implementing sooner rather than later. • neighbouring stations have availability as low as three days.
"Our information on Lancing shows a forward booking time of seven days. The system sometimes shows the date as being some weeks ahead but staff can work around this to supply an earlier date."
• CM note: Despite this statement, Newbury test Station was still providing appointment dates on the day of our