In the UK unless you have a valid MOT, your van insurance is not valid, and as such if you have an accident, your van insurance company is unlikely to pay out. In fact, being without a valid MOT certificate is illegal under Section 47 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Any driver who gets behind the wheel of their commercial vehicle faces being saddled with a £1,000 fine and a charge of six to eight penalty points on their licence.

It would be natural to think that such potential penalties and consequences would be enough to keep any driver from flouting the law regarding MOTs, yet despite this a new piece of research has revealed that every year in Britain millions of miles are driven without a valid MOT.

In fact, the statistics reveal that one in six (17 percent) have inadvertently been behind the wheel of their vehicle without a valid MOT for a week on at least once occasion during the past five years and that one in 12 (eight per cent) have driven without a valid MOT for six months or more.

Men already pay more on average for their van insurance for women, so it is unlikely to encourage insurers to hear that they are more prone than women do drive without a valid MOT (20 per cent compared to 15 per cent). Similarly, younger drivers, another group who have difficulty finding cheaper motor insurance, are considerably more likely to drive without an MOT than those who are a little older.

Furthermore, Londoners, who already pay more for their premiums on average, are most likely to have driven without a valid MOT (32 per cent), compared to 25 per cent in the North East, 20 per cent in the North West and 19 percent in Yorkshire.

iVan’s view

There is no more important aspect to life as a motorist than keeping safe on the road. Having a valid MOT is one of the fundamental steps to ensuring this; without an MOT you can have no guarantee that your vehicle is roadworthy.

However, the drivers of commercial vehicles may sometimes be hesitant about booking themselves in for an MOT as it may interrupt their business activity for a short period. However, skipping an MOT is not only unsafe, but it is also a false economy and in the end could even prove to be a fatal blow to a business.