DVSA shares its ongoing work with ATFs
Gordon Thomson, head of vehicle testing policy at DVSA, brings us up to speed with the latest developments on the agency and its ongoing work with ATFs.
Those of you that follow my blogs on the DVSA website will know that the agency has been working to modernise and streamline how we work with ATFs. Key to achieving our vision is ensuring that using the vehicle testing service is as easy as it can be – both for ATFs, and for the vehicle operators who use their services.
During 2024, we plan to improve our digital services to make it easier for ATFs to request resources and communicate with us through our new MyVT online service. We want to move towards a model where testing days and hours are agreed with ATFs and changed by exception, rather than continuing on a quarterly basis.
This will allow more flexibility and give longer term certainty for ATFs to take bookings. And of course, temporary or short-notice changes will still be able to be agreed as needed. As always, we would welcome any feedback on our proposed approach – as we move through that system development, we will conduct user research to ensure that the service reflects what works best for our customers.
Specialist approvals
Another big focus over the next few years will be improving the application, payment and booking processes for technical tests such as on Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) and Dangerous Goods (ADR) tests – using the new MyVT service.
This move away from paper-based processes will help develop an intuitive online service in vehicle testing for applications, simplify the process and make the information required for each test and vehicle type clearer. Online payments and bookings will make it easier for customers and reduce the telephone contact through our customer service centre saving time.
We’ll be sharing more about this project in the new few months.
Working in partnership
We want to continue to work closely with our stakeholders and ATFs to increase choice for customers.
We will continue to prioritise areas of the country with fewer ATFs – in particular for ADR customers – bringing more ATFs onboard, where required.
Our vision recognises that we need to continue to work in partnerships to deliver our goals. The relationship with ATFs is a good example of such a partnership – and we will need to continue to develop that partnership to ensure we can, together, deliver the best possible service to vehicle operators. That means that we will continue to listen to feedback and work with ATFs in recognising best practice to deliver the service.
