Last year, more than 300 motorists were issued with defect notices after being stopped in road checks, with 11 vehicles being taken off the road and scrapped.
The call for greater regulation follows the announcement issued by the External Relations Department yesterday that after Britain leaves the EU, Islanders will only be able to take their cars to Europe if their vehicles meet EU roadworthiness standards.
Miles Jude, general manager of Derek Warwick Honda and president of the Jersey Motor Trades Federation, said that the States should carry out the inspections to prevent the possibility of any garage charging for unnecessary work.
‘From the perspective of the motor federation, I do think there should be a Jersey MOT,’ he said.
‘It may seem that we just want to make money, but as traders we do not have the capacity [to carry them out].
‘There should be a government test centre and then any maintenance should be carried out by a garage.
‘In the UK I think there may be a few spurious operators who fail items on MOTs when they do not need failing just to create work for themselves, but there is a government-operated scheme in Ireland which seems to work well.’
Mr Jude added that he normally scrapped two vehicles every month which customers traded with his business through part-exchange deals.
The dealer also said that he thought the only reason an Islandwide-MOT test had not yet been introduced was that it was not in States Members’ interests.
‘When you look at a lot of the vehicles we take on part-exchange, a lot of them are completely unroadworthy and go directly to the scrapyard. We probably scrap about one or two each month.
‘I guess introducing MOTs is not really a vote winner for politicians. I do not think there are many States Members who have an appetite to put it forward.’
Annual roadworthiness checks are already in place for some of the Island’s largest commercial vehicles which exceed the Island’s maximum size or weight limits and which must hold a P30 exemption permit.
And in December it was announced that an annual roadworthiness inspection scheme was to be introduced for commercial vehicles over 7.5 tonnes.
The measure, called Vehicle Operator Licensing, was introduced after road checks uncovered a number of poorly maintained and dangerous commercial vehicles.
Smaller vehicles are also due to come under more stringent controls in 2019, when the rules are set to be imposed on vehicles weighing between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes.
