Association of Car Fleet Operators (ACFO) director Stewart Whyte said: “This is puzzling given the broad acceptance of the duty of care and the responsibility about the need to have roadworthy vehicles.”

He suggests van MoT failures are more likely to be in small firms, including “one-man-bands” than fleet companies with 10, 20 or 200 vehicles.

He said the demography of the van market is loaded towards small fleets of one or two vehicles and so there was a “retail philosophy at that level” towards running older (and hence perhaps less reliable) vans.

Mark Cartwright, who leads the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) Van Excellence Code project has a similar view, saying: “The large van fleet operators that characterise FTA’s membership haven’t reported a rise in MOT failure rates, it is likely that this recorded rise is representative of the smaller-scale van operators maybe feeling the pinch.”

He said the FTA’s recently launched code should help to drive up standards of van best practice across the sector, with the knock-on effect of better levels of vehicular maintenance and roadworthiness.

And while some transport businesses have of course had a tough time recently, Whyte does not feel it is entirely to blame for the rise in failures.

Some companies had been doing so poorly that there are a lot of vehicles with lower mileage.

However, he says some failures “are down to higher mileages and some vehicles were being worked hard,” with service intervals stretching and “less professional” attention between MoTs.

Another potential reason was the boom in sales of vans three to four years ago by companies seeking to cash in on new demand for online sales, vehicles that are now starting to develop faults through wear and tear.

Author: Keith Nuthall