PSV MOT testing for coach and bus operators
A PSV test is priced on seats rather than axles, and it examines a whole side of the vehicle a goods vehicle does not have — the part your passengers sit in.
Seats set the class, not axles
Goods vehicle testing is priced by axle count. Passenger vehicles are not — the class follows seating capacity, which is why a minibus and a full-size coach are different numbers even when they arrive on the same morning and spend a similar amount of time on the lane.
Our PSV testing is banded at 22 seats: a vehicle up to 22 seats and one above 22 seats are two different classes, and a PSV retest is charged separately again at its own rate. Tell us the seating capacity and you will have the exact figure for your vehicle before anything is confirmed — the online booking shows it before you commit.
If your vehicle sits close to the band, count the seats as actually fitted and tell us the number when you book. A coach that has had rows removed or a wheelchair bay installed is not necessarily in the band its handbook implies, and it is a quick conversation on the phone rather than a surprise on the invoice.
Everything a goods vehicle test covers
A PSV is a commercial vehicle first, and the mechanical half of the test will be familiar to anybody who presents lorries. Braking performance measured on rollers, steering and its linkages, suspension and running gear, tyres and wheel security, the whole lighting system and its aim, oil, fuel and coolant leaks, exhaust and emissions, and the condition of the chassis and structure.
Braking deserves the same attention it gets on a lorry. A coach that stops well on the road can still be short on efficiency or out of balance across an axle once it is measured, and a driver has no way of knowing. If a brake performance test is not already part of your inspection routine, the annual test is a poor place to find out where you stand.
Corrosion is worth singling out on older passenger vehicles. Structural corrosion around suspension and body mountings, and around the floor, is one of the things that turns a straightforward test into a substantial repair, and it is found from underneath with a lamp long before it is found on a lane.
And then the passenger side
The part that makes a PSV test different is everything behind the bulkhead. Seats and their mountings and anchorages, floor condition, gangways, steps and their edges, handrails and stanchions, interior panelling and luggage racks, glazing throughout, and the driver’s area and its visibility.
Then the systems that exist because there are people on board: passenger doors and the controls that operate them, emergency exits and the means of opening them, and access equipment where it is fitted — ramps, lifts, and wheelchair spaces with their restraints and anchorages. These are the items that get overlooked precisely because they are not mechanical and nobody drives them daily. An emergency exit that has not been opened since the last test is the classic example.
Work through them before the vehicle comes in. Open every exit. Operate every door on its normal control and on its emergency release. Run the lift or the ramp through a full cycle. Check the restraints are all present rather than one being in somebody’s locker.
Presenting a coach well
Clean it inside as well as out. The underside and running gear have to be inspectable, and so does the interior — an examiner needs to get at the floor, the seat mountings and the exits without moving your kit. Empty the luggage lockers so they can be opened and looked into.
Seasonal fleets need more warning than they usually give themselves. A coach that has stood since the end of the season arrives with flat batteries, seized door mechanisms, corroded connections and tyres that have been sitting on one spot for months. Wake it up well before the test date rather than on the morning, and give yourself time to fix what waking it up reveals.
The same identification and paperwork discipline applies as on any other test: the vehicle must be identifiable, the details must match the booking, and anything unusual about its history is better raised in advance than discovered on the lane.
Testing a PSV with us
We are a DVSA authorised testing facility at Aston Fields Industrial Estate in Bromsgrove, close to M5 Junction 5 and M42 Junction 1, and PSVs are tested on the same lane as our goods vehicles and trailers. The workshop is in the same building, which is the part that matters after a fail: a defect found in the morning is quoted, authorised by you and put right without the vehicle leaving the site.
On the rules that belong to DVSA rather than to us — how soon a failed vehicle can be re-presented and what a limited re-examination covers — check the current DVSA guidance or ask us on the day. We are not going to print a figure that might have moved.
Tell us the seating capacity and we will price the test and find you a slot. Book online, or call 01527 870400.
Related pages
- HGV, trailer and PSV MOT testing at our Bromsgrove ATF
- What does an HGV MOT actually cost?
- What is an ATF, and why test at one?
- Book an MOT slot online
- Commercial vehicle repairs and servicing
Questions about your own vehicle or trailer? Call 01527 870400 and tell us the axle count, or the seating capacity for a PSV, and we will price the test before you commit to anything.