Our man in Flanders
Too slow, too strict and above all too unfriendly: in recent years there has been a lot of criticism of the Flemish car inspection. The monopoly of the inspection stations is now partly broken, making the Belgian MOT more customer-friendly.
Specifically, it concerns the re-inspection of rejected vehicles and the periodicity of the technical inspection. In the last session of the current legislature, the Flemish Parliament decided to relax both aspects. Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters is thus responding to the request of the Flemish Ombudsman to make the Belgian MOT more customer-friendly and to the need to relieve the burden on the inspection centers.
Boiler pressure
It will not surprise anyone that the general periodic inspection is organized differently in the Netherlands than in Belgium. Although the technical rules are drawn up by Europe, the EU member states themselves decide on their content and elaboration. Belgium opts for official inspection stations that merely carry out inspections. In Flanders there are 43, which together carry out 3 million car inspections annually. This large number puts so much pressure on GOCA, the Grouping of Flemish recognized Companies for Car Inspection and Driving Licence, that waiting times for an MOT increase to an average of 38 days. If cars are also rejected for being ‘too dirty’ or ‘not vacuumed’, then you know that the machine is going wrong.
To take the pressure off, Peeters has now decided to adjust the periodicity of the Flemish car inspection. New cars still have to be checked after four years, but no longer annually after that if they have driven less than 160,000 km. That interval will shift to two years, which will significantly reduce the number of vehicles to be checked. It is equally important that the re-inspection after a red card no longer always has to take place in a GOCA inspection station. Repairs to tires, mirrors, lights and windows, for example, can now be handled by certified repairers, who can then immediately issue a green card. This not only saves time, but also the costs of a re-inspection.
Wallonia does not follow suit
Once at cruising speed, 300,000 of the 700,000 re-inspections would no longer be required in the official inspection centers, along with a lot of stress and dissatisfaction for those waiting. According to Belgian law, a repair with re-inspection must be completed within 15 days, but in practice this was not always possible due to long waiting times in the garages and at the inspection service itself. So everyone is happy, or at least you would think so.
Wallonia, which uses the same MOT methodology as Flanders, does not agree with this change. Walloon Minister of Mobility Valérie de Bue (MR) fears that her Flemish colleague’s decision will be at the expense of road safety. According to De Bue, it is even downright dangerous to skip a year, because it would worsen the safety of all road users. Judging from the comments under the weblog about the Walloon LEZ, the politician is making the right decision.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl