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It is obviously right and proper that heavy duty trucks, trailers, buses and coaches should have a safety inspection each year – but we need a thriving repair and maintenance to deliver them. It is a positive development therefore that, for the first time since 2010, the 400 or so Authorised Testing Facility sites which host annual MOTs will be able to charge a higher service fee.

While the change might be challenging for some operators, much has happened in the past decade and a half to make the change necessary – needless to say, inflation, but also the Brexit referendum, the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine war and more recently the Iran conflict.

The change, which takes effect on Monday 6 July, means that for trailers, safety inspections will rise from £40 to £50, for HGV from £55 to £70, and for buses and coaches from £70 to £90.

Over the years, the mandated part of MOT inspections has been tinkered with multiple times, and has kept much better pace with inflation. Pairing both elements with inflation each year would potentially allow for longer term planning, and certainty, for businesses on all sides of our industry.