NCT backlog and 3500 late cancellations or no shows per week. Why can't they do drive in tests?

There are 49 centres in Ireland, if we take a 8 hour 5 day week with 1.33 tests an hour

49 * 40 * 5 = 9,800 hours per week / 1.33 = 7,368 tests per week excluding retests, that is with one lane per centre, so double that to 14,736 assuming two lanes and only two testers per centre.

14,736 x 52 = 766,272 tests per year assuming there are only 98 NCT testers in 49 centres with 2 lanes each working 40 hour weeks.

In reality there are more than two testers per centre and most probably have more than two lanes.

If we had 4 testers per 49 centres with 2 lanes it goes to a capacity of 1,535,544 per year

in 2022 there were a total of 1,395,505 tests carried out, well below the theoretical capacity based on 4 testers with 2 lanes, yes I know there are retests to consider.

Additional capacity could be cleared instantly by moving all psv vehicles to cvrt centres, so all taxi's hackneys etc that are subject to an annual test from new and are taking capacity from the nct from day one on the road, these are in reality commercial vehicles and should be in a separate test stream to private vehicles.

why dont they start taking a deposit. that would stop most of the messing about

In Dublin? Which center?

The whole online booking system is a joke, and I reckon they are holding back appointments so that they don’t have to give away free ones!

At the start of Feb, I went to book my car in for its first NCT, due by end of March. The nearest date I could get on the website was end of July. (This is for Galway, Ennis or Tuam centres)

So I phoned them up instead, gave them the reg and due date and I was then able to choose from many dates/ times in March.

So I don’t fully buy the ‘people aren’t turning up’ argument, or else those spaces that I was offered over the phone wouldn’t be showing up as availability so far in advance.

Also this got me thinking, do Applus have financial penalties built into their contract if they can’t provide the service they were contracted to?

If they didn't keep failing more than half the cars they might free up a bit of room. I find it hard to believe that many cars are regularly failing every 12 months. We all know it for what it is.

I was booking one online for the father's car recently. Initially like everyone else I found that you couldn't get a booking for less than 6 months out. Before going down the route of ringing them to be put on the priority list I did a bit of the usual checking late in the evening to see if any cancelled slots became available. I found that they are releasing a good few slots for 2 or 3 days from the day you check at around 11:30pm every night ie. if you checked tonight you would find slots on Feb 20/21/22. They disappear fairly fast though so obviously people are checking regularly. I managed to get a slot in the afternoon 2 days later for the father. This was the Limerick centre but I did notice that similar slots appeared for nearby centres in Ennis and Nenagh too at the time.

Obviously that may not work for everyone at short notice but if your car is ready to go and your flexible then they can be got with the a bit of effort and patience. While I was booking the father's car I managed to find a slot 3 days after my own car's due date at the end of June so took that. Of course none of this should be this way but it is what it is right now.

So every single week 3,500 people who went to the trouble of booking the test in the first place are deciding they won't bother showing up? Absolute nonsense.

OP, I think applus are just trying to blame the drivers for a 6 month NCT wait. The reality is they probably assume a few people every day will be no show and so slightly overbook. They do apply a fine if you are no show. To not pay the fine you need to change your date 5 working days not including weekends so basically a week before hand. They suggest people contact them and rebook but don't give enough notice in some cases. I am sure even with 24 hour notice they can get another person to book and show up.

The root cause is they don't have enough "mechanics" and they can't get enough due to lack of pay and conditions and the housing shortage. They said they were getting some Spanish mechanics as they are a Spanish company. It's fairly simple maths. Apparently the government are looking to apply penalties and they are in dispute. It's crazy there is no at least basic work around by now. People here have suggested workable solutions, things like 14 months nct instead of 12 is a quick fix.

My issue with NCT centres like everything else in this country is it been run by a private company who are milking it. Less than half of all vehicles in the country are passing. So most people have to fork out €83 or more every 12 months. The complaints are everywhere and even figures showing high failure rates released not so long ago. All these people need to rebook their tests which is adding to the mess.

Quickest way to get a date is make friends with someone in a test centre

If you book online, you pay in full upfront, even if the date is months away.

I had a booking for a date in Feb, booked and paid last August. Car was sold in October, I got my fee back once I cancelled the test.

Standards aren't very high in the first place!

From the NCT website, there were 64 thousand failed tests last year.

26 thousand were either tyres or bulb alignment. Both of these can be checked easily enough.

Failing on tyres is pure laziness IMO, yet it's the biggest cause of failure.

Either way it'll fail on tyres and they'll need replacing. There's not so many dodgy cars nearing end of life to make that number of tyre failures and checking tyres takes all of three minutes.

So is the free test automatic?

"According to the NCTS Customer Charter if you request an NCT appointment within 4 weeks and it cannot be provided, you are entitled to have the test carried out for free."

Does anyone know here when applying for a test online the next available date is July. It does have the link for the priority list also. If applying through the priority list do you need to also have a regular booking or does the priority list cover that?

to get the free appointment you need to use the link on the website or give them a call.

They will get you an appointment within a month. I have done this so many times.

The free appointment does not apply to the regular booking which can now have a 6 month wait time.

There is a clear defined difference and this is why they are not paying out because until you ask them for an appointment within a month, you are not entitled to the free test because they WILL give you a test within the month.

That’s the crux, it’s not a blanket free test. It’s only free if certain parameters are met.

1) it’s after your due date.

2)after calling you can only get a date 30 days later.

So if to you rang 3 months early, and wanted a test early it won’t be offered to you within the month if they are tight. It will be offered to someone whoes NCT will be out before yours.

which makes sense on a few levels