figure of £79 million has been quoted.
So what’s happened with regards to MPTC’s?
Some have been built and some are still in the pipeline, but there’s no money left. The whole point about the MPTC’s was as stated above for motor cycle testing and yet due to the small number of bike tests they are not cost effective, so car tests are having to subsidise the running costs.
What are the running cost after all the DSA borrowed the money to build MPTC’s, well the truth is the MPTC’s are leased at an extremely high cost.
I give you two examples of the annual lease costs;
Uxbridge £154,500
Birmingham GG £124,088.44
These are just the lease costs, plus we now have to add business rates, utilities and wages. An awful lot of tests need to be undertaken at these test centres to break even. With the DSA having a policy of trying to take the test to the public, such as Halfords and other private business premises what happens to MPTC’s? Well in the short answer is they will have reduced income and will eventually be a loss maker which could lead to a rise in test fees.
Many motor cycle instructors have been badly affected by the move to MPTC’s. Some now have to travel long distances just to reach a MPTC. This has greatly increased not only their costs but also those of the trainees. This also leads to an increase in the carbon foot print of the test centre.
Casualty figure down
Great Britain is world leader in road safety. Fresh evidence of this fact comes from the latest road safety figures for 2012. This quote comes direct from DSA’s own facebook page.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/245383/rrcgb2012-00.pdf
If the above is correct and I have no way of verifying the figures, why are the government and the insurance industry so keen to copy schemes from around the world such as ‘Graduated Driving Licence’ surely these are not the role model we should be coping.
One fatality or seriously injured person as a result of a road incident is one too many. At Dib-Unite we will support any initiative that has the possibility to reduce road accidents, but just fiddling with system is not what’s needed the whole system needs breaking down, assessed and reassembled so that the outcome is fit for purpose.