VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00?

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Tue 25 Mar 2008 16:18
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - oldnotbold
My garage man tells me he can't MoT the car right now as the VOSA MOT system is down. What a pain for him, and all the other businesses like his that now have to re-schedule work, and let down their customers. How often does this happen?
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 16:26
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - niceguyeddy
Dave the MOT man tells me that ours is working just fine .... however a pain in rear when they do crash which is at least once a week !!!!
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 16:27
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - Stuartli
It's something that can happen with servers, databases etc.

Also see:

www.motester.co.uk/mot-letters.html
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 16:31
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - Screwloose
It's something that can happen with servers databases etc.


Refresh my memory; how many millions did our prudent Government give Siemens for this crock of a system....? How many back-up servers was it, supposed, to have....?
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 16:40
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - oldnotbold
And it uses client technology (dial-up datacoms, floppy discs and dot-matrix printers) that went out with the Ark. Perhaps it's just as old-fashioned at the server end....?
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 16:40
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - niceguyeddy
Ive heard they bought the servers from the auction by the liquidaters of MG Rover ... apparently were still having a Government Enquiry into the Rover crash currently running at £12 million and rising .... WHY ????
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 20:17
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - martint123
Their procedures handle system failures. There is absolutely nothing to stop an MOT being done when the system is down. My last MOT was handwritten for just this reason - manually updated when the system comes back up.
It is a little more work for the garage, which maybe why you were told what you were told.
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 20:24
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - yorkiebar
Agree, mot's can still be done !
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 20:26
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - Hamsafar
I agree too, there is a contingency plan, unless something's changed recently. Find another garage, this one can't be bothered with it's customers.
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 20:25
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - jbif
Their procedures handle system failures.

Yes, new process since 18 June 2007

18-06-07 VOSA Reduces Need for MOT Emergency Testing
VOSA and Siemens launched a new MOT Computerisation business continuity procedure over the weekend which will make the need to invoke Emergency Testing (ET) extremely rare. Stand Alone Testing (SAT) allows garages to continue to test vehicles and issue standard documentation in the event of short-term database unavailability.

Under the new system test results are recorded onto the VTS device as normal where they are stored locally. They are then automatically uploaded once the central database recovers. This new functionality was trialled in 10 garages in the Leeds and Coventry areas before being rolled out nationally over the weekend.

Stand Alone Testing has not replaced Emergency Testing, but its availability should reduce the need to declare ET as often as before.

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Tue 25 Mar 2008 20:34
VOSA's MoT system down 25th March 16.00? - oldnotbold
I was told by the lad (who is not the owner, he might be away) that the manual testing procedure had to be authorised by VOSA, and would only be done if the system was down for more than XX minutes/hours. There wasn't enough time left today for that to be invoked, he said.
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