Everyone has been through the mill over the past 18 months – whether it has been a business folding, furloughing staff or equipment breakdowns, you name it, someone has had to deal with a huge amount of stress to get to where they are today.

However, as we emerge from the pandemic, it is great to see so many success stories, including those from the DVSA’s fourth annual review released last month.

The published document celebrates the ‘Beat the Rush’ campaign set out last Autumn, to encourage vehicle owners to bring forward their MOT test to spread the demand for MOT servicing. The end of the MOT exemption caused an enormous backlog of vehicles in need of MOTs, and the DVSA “created a toolkit of resources for garages to help them communicate with their own customers, and successfully promoted the campaign via our own social media, DVSA direct emails and our Matters of Testing blog”.

Other successes included the increase in action on serious fraud, dishonesty & negligence, new regulations for tyres aged 10 or more years old, the review of the heavy vehicle testing model and the DVSA’s “digital transformation”.

DVSA’s accounting officer and chief executive, Loveday Ryder, stated: “Over the coming year we will be developing our next strategy and we will need to keep in step with customer expectations, technological innovations, and new ways of working.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were already facing a period of rapid change.

“As we emerge from the pandemic, we will continue to improve the experience for our customers and help the country build back better – being fairer, safer, stronger and greener than before.

“Following a DfT-led review of our heavy vehicle testing services, we will be working with vehicle operators and authorised testing facilities (ATFs) this year to prioritise where we improve, develop and implement an action plan.”