60% of motorists would welcome the opportunity
to book their MOT up to a month before the due date

Published: July 2025

Almost two-thirds of car owners would prefer to book their MOT early if given the option, according to a new consumer survey. Taking the opportunity to bring more MOT appointments forward would help workshops balance out the peaks in workload typically seen during the plate-change months of March and September, creating capacity for pre-delivery inspections and the turnaround of incoming part-exchanges, positively impacting speed to market.

Our latest consumer survey found that 60% of UK car owners agreed with the statement: “I’d prefer to book my MOT up to a month (minus a day) earlier if I could still keep the original renewal schedule.”

Overall, 78% of the car owners surveyed were already aware that they could book an MOT up to a month before it expires and still maintain the original renewal schedule. However, awareness of this option was found to be lower among younger drivers, with 50% of 18- to 24-year-olds stating they did not know this was possible, indicating a potential demographic to target with additional guidance.

We are currently running ‘MOT pull forward’ campaigns for our retailer clients, where customers with vehicle MOTs due in August or September are sent personalised emails and SMS communications encouraging them to book early, with optional Safety Recall checks, where applicable, to strengthen the proposition. This is helping workshops balance the cadence of aftersales bookings and flatten out peaks and troughs in utilisation.

There is a very receptive market for these ‘MOT pull forward’ campaigns, and workshops can introduce time-limited incentives to further maximise response rates, for example by offering price promises on consumables such as tyres and wiper blades.

Our VoiceBox platform can automatically identify those customers who are due an MOT and deliver a tailored message encouraging them to make an earlier booking.

Our marketing platform, VoiceBox, which has been developed specifically for motor retailers and workshops, integrates with the retailer’s DMS to send AI-powered, personalised, and timely messages via email and SMS on behalf of both the sales and aftersales departments. It can access DVSA records to retrieve correct MOT dates and, with its Approved Partner status with Keyloop, can automatically update them within the DMS, offering significant time savings for data administration teams. VoiceBox can then be used to send automated messages to remind customers of an upcoming MOT or service, as well as ‘amber’ follow-up work where appropriate and interim seasonal campaigns.

Combining MOT and service bookings

In our previous consumer survey, 68% of UK car owners indicated they would be more likely to book their vehicle in for a service or MOT with a dealer that monitors the date on which it is due and makes the effort to contact them about it in advance. Only 5% of respondents said they would not be influenced positively by this type of bespoke reminder.

Conversion rates for booking prompts issued to customers are higher when forthcoming jobs are combined. Data from our 500+ UK retailer clients for the first half of 2025 shows that combined MOT and service reminders – when both appointments are due within 30 days of each other – achieve a 44% conversion rate.

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