Terry Collins: AA Principal Policy Advisory discusses WOF extension proposal

Opinion remains split on whether we have to renew our vehicles' Warrants of Fitness,  too often. 

Proposals up for consultation from today would further stretch out WOFs for light vehicles, to once every two years. 

The one-year rule would continue for vehicles older than 10 years. 

AA Principal Policy Adviser Terry Collins told Ryan Bridge that they've surveyed their members to get their thoughts.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everyone hates getting a warrant of fitness, don't you, So
why is anyone going to say that spacing them out
is not a good idea? Buy a new car. You
can keep your first warrant of fitness for four years.
Cars age between four and ten years that only need
to take every two years. This is the government's proposals. Currently,
all vehicles registered after the year two thousand you need
a yearly WAFT. Terry Collins is Principal Policy advisor at

(00:23):
AA and joins me this morning. Hey Terry, Yeah, good morning, right,
any problems with this.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, and we surveyed our members and unfortunately what they
said to us is a third of a support, a
third of pose, and a third are unsure. So it
leaves us kind of wondering what having a look here,
I know, and I think that's to do with perhaps
some of those age or the length of time that
the warrants men done. What we know is about forty
percent of the vehicle's fail the warrant when it gets

(00:50):
inspected for the first time. And I think with the
shorter periods and this is the work that we have
to do further work on is that a lot of
people go oh, I get more warrant on every six months.
Looks like the times are going out the warrants next month.
I wait till you get the warrant so I can
extend my warrant period out with the good tires as
long as possible. If we move to a year, people
may go, well, it's seven months there before I get

(01:11):
my world. I'd better put those tires on now instead
of waiting, because they'll be completely baled when they're done.
So we've got a work around those psychological triggers of
the ages and what they will do. But I mean,
in my own personal circumstances, I've got a ninety seven motorcycle.
I've got every six months, how do you ride it
over winter? I put the most expensive tires and look
after it. You think it just seems crazy to do

(01:33):
it every six months. But as I said, we've just
got to work out because of that high failure raid
on first expections about what this age difference is going
to do.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Do we basically are we saying we kind of need
the reminder of it almost we do.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
And what's coming through as our members as they do
like to have the reminder, and they do like the
have of all things paper and the digital one. They
come to rely upon looking up in the window, seeing
when it's due and then arrange accordingly with it. We
do know with the newer vehicles they've got service plans,
so they're regularly going in every fifteen thousand kilometers or
something like that and getting inspected. So the road worthy

(02:10):
is a strong case for longer period we.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Can They completely unrelated and very quickly in the UK
used today on the show, we were talking about headlights
have gone led and the UK government's investigating them because
they're too bright for people. It's dangerous.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Do you have any Yeah, we're getting that. There's a
number of studies done on it. What happens and particularly
as you age, your ability to handle the light changes.
And two things have happened. One is we've made it
brighter LEDs and we've put them in taller vehicles our
SUV so we've moved away from the big sedan to
the taller suv. So we've elevated the lights and.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
We've made we need do we need to do something?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, Look, we follow international standards and we go to lighting.
So I think the UK looking at it, they're a
major car manufacturer. Just like the Japanese and the Americans,
everybody's looking at the actual feature right now. And the
bright lights, well they're annoying. Here's the kicking they are.
But they work really well for you if you're driving.
They just don't work very well for other people who

(03:11):
are also on the road. So I said, we've got
to get somewhere in the middle, which is.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
A bit of a problem. Terry, appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you. Terry Collins, Principal Policy Advisor for the AA.
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio