The Retail Motor Industry Federation, is launching a campaign to reduce the first MoT test date for large vans from three years to a year following revelations that every other white van in this class tested over the age of three years is unroadworthy.

Testing these vehicles at year one will bring these vans in line with similar vans over 3500kg; ambulances, taxis and minibuses.

The RMI said its MoT members were frequently seeing vans coming in for their first MoT with 200,000 miles on the clock, with some having done up to 300,000 miles.

RMI MoT is seeing continually rising failure rates with the latest results from VOSA revealing that on average 45.6% of class 7 vans fail their MoT.

The key defects that are causing these vehicles to fail MoTs are:

• Lights; 43% of all test failures
• Brakes; 41% of all test failures

John Ball, chairman of RMI MOT, said: “The Government needs to act on safety grounds as the current regulations are out of date. With new data available for the first time, showing that two thirds of the highest failing vehicles at first MoT tests are vans, RMI MoT believes there is a strong case for testing class 7 vehicles at year one not three.

“Testing annually from new would ensure that these large vehicles better meet ongoing legal safety requirements while also ensuring maintenance regimes are better adhered to. Annual testing from year one will bring these vehicles in line with similar vans over 3500kg, minibuses, ambulances and taxis. If we continue to leave things as they are, class 7 vans are a sector accident waiting to happen.”

The campaign is being supported by Brake.

Ellen Booth, Brake Campaigns Officer, said: “It makes no sense to exclude white vans from safety regulations brought in for other types of commercial vehicles.

“It means that unscrupulous businesses can scrimp on maintenance costs at the expense of public safety."