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castrolrob
Trade Member
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Posted: Tue May 25th, 2010 10:05 pm |
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unless you have a high thruput(unlikely when opening a new station)its not generally a paying spec altho i know a few old boys who make a reasonably comfortable living at it due to old/cheap equipment/owned property etc.keep in mind that something as simple as a blown gas analyser can put you out of business for days at a time,we run 2 complete sets of test gear and still encounter the occasional shutdown.this sort of redundancy has turned out to be vital for us but is bloody dear to run.as i have mentioned in other posts the only parts where you can earn any reasonable money at it(sva,cat c write offs,belt installation checks etc)are largely done by the ministry.they dont want the hassle of joe publics tests and if it was a paying spec then they wouldnt have farmed it out in the first place.dont get me wrong,you can make a decent living at it but most of the succesful test only businesses i have come across tend to be flow lane types with a large percentage of billy no stars staff in order to keep costs down.great in a city centre but perhaps not viable in say,lincolnshire.
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martins
Administrator
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Posted: Tue May 4th, 2010 11:45 am |
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In Holland, where there motorists have the choice of going to a government 'MOT' only garage or a commercial operation which does repairs, they generally favour the ones which do repairs. This is probably because in the event of failure there are more journeys involved - taking the vehicle to another garage and getting it repaired, then taking it back again to be re-tested. If you add to that the possibility that the repair wasn't adequate for the regulations, and another fail results; yet another journey back and forth.
As to whether an MOT-only business would be viable, that would almost certainly depend on where it was situated. In a prosperous area where cars are well serviced, the MOT will generally be straight forward (though not necessarily profitable - see below), while in or near sink estates they are likely to be problematic, therefore more time consuming.
Another factor would be density of Testing Stations in the area -VOSA does not impose any restriction in this respect – discounting would very quickly eat into the bottom line of MOT-only operations, and service businesses can make it up in other ways, so can discount to the bone.
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MOT Wannabe
Member
| Joined: | Sun May 2nd, 2010 |
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| Posts: | 1 |
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Posted: Mon May 3rd, 2010 09:29 pm |
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I'm a new member to the forum and have spent a good deal of time going through the various posts. I've also read up other forums relating to MOTs after thinking about starting up a business doing only MOTs 
Two things strike me from what I've found out so far online:
1. There are a number of businesses only doing MOTs and no repair work, with one large chain operating in the South of England.
2. Postings on forums tend to suggest that the business model of doing just MOTs isn't really viable 
My question to anyone who is willing to answer is - are these businesses likely to be making serious money or only just surviving?
I've downloaded a report from Companies House for the large South of England chain and it tends to suggest point 2 above is true, although the apparent lack of profit may actually be the costs of rapid expansion.
Any thoughts would be very much appreciated 
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