Pre-booked cover for garages around Blackpool, Preston and the Fylde coast, so your MOT bay keeps earning while your tester is away
An MOT bay only earns while there is a tester stood in it. When yours is on holiday, on a training course, or off for a longer spell, the bay sits idle, the diary gets cleared, and the tests go to the garage down the road. Some of those customers come back and some of them do not.
WS MOT Services is a relief MOT tester covering garages around Blackpool, Poulton-le-Fylde and Preston, and out across Lancashire. We work in your bay, on your equipment, under your VTS, so the tests carry on as normal and your customers never notice the difference.
Class 4, Class 5 and Class 7. That covers cars and light vans, larger passenger vehicles, and goods vehicles from 3,000kg up to 3,500kg. We do not test motorcycles. A normal day works out at around eight tests, though that depends on your bay and how your diary is filled.
Cover is arranged in advance and built round your diary. Holiday cover, training days, a longer absence, or a stretch where the numbers simply do not work without a second tester. We are not a same-day emergency service, so the earlier you know your dates the better, and a standing arrangement for the same days each month is no trouble at all.
Closer to home suits everybody, so the regular patch is Blackpool and the Fylde coast, across to Preston, and out to Garstang, Lancaster, Chorley and Blackburn. We are based on the Fylde coast ourselves, so for most Lancashire garages we are a short run rather than half a morning. Further into the North West is worth asking about, and we will tell you honestly whether it works.
Over forty years in the motor trade, twenty of them as a Master Technician with Peugeot, and a qualified high voltage technician for electric and hybrid vehicles. The car in this photograph came in for its MOT with a rear trailing arm rotted through, the spring pushed out of the bottom of it, and the whole lot held together with a phone charging cable. Whoever tests for you while you are away is testing in your name, on your VTS, and that is not a corner worth cutting.
Qualified with the IMI Level 3 Award in MOT Test Centre Management, the qualification DVSA requires of an Authorised Examiner Designated Manager, so the standards side is not guesswork.
Every Authorised Examiner has to have their testers checked by a competent person, typically one check per tester every two months. We carry those checks out for garages across Lancashire as an independent third party, which is particularly useful if you are a single tester site with nobody to check you. We will not do both at the same garage, since a QC check is only worth having if the person doing it is independent. See our MOT quality control checks page.
WS MOT Services sits alongside WS Logistics under WS Group, both of them serving the motor trade and both of them run by the same person. If you also need vehicles collecting or delivering, whether that is dealer stock, a customer car or something that will not drive, that is the other half of what we do. Have a look at our vehicle transport services.
What is relief MOT testing? It is cover for a garage’s own MOT tester. Instead of closing the bay while your tester is on holiday, on a course or off for longer, a relief tester works those days for you, testing in your bay under your VTS. The garage keeps its own testing going and the customers still get their MOTs.
Which classes can you test? Class 4, Class 5 and Class 7. Not motorcycles.
How far do you travel? Blackpool, Preston, the Fylde coast and the rest of Lancashire is the patch. Nearer to home suits everybody, since a tester sat in traffic is no use to your diary. A bit further into the North West is worth asking about.
Can you cover at short notice if my tester goes off sick? Usually not on the day, because cover is pre-booked and the diary is normally full. It is still worth asking, and if we cannot help we will say so straight away rather than leave you waiting.
How is it charged? As a day rate, so you know the cost before we start rather than paying per test. Tell us your dates and where you are and we will give you a figure.
Whose equipment do we use? Yours. We test in your bay, on your ramp and your equipment, under your VTS, exactly as your own tester would.
Know your dates? Get them booked in. Email ws-motservices@outlook.com or call 07385 672501. WS MOT Services, part of WS Group.
