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MOT reminders: the repeat work a garage already owns
Most advice written for garages is about finding new customers. This is about the ones you already have, and a diary that repeats itself whether or not anybody does anything about it.
As ever: sources and dates on everything, and a section on where we are the wrong choice — which here includes a free government service that already does part of the job.
The dates belong to the vehicle, not to you
The MOT cycle is fixed in law, which makes it the most predictable thing in the business.
The first MOT falls on the third anniversary of registration, and after that on the anniversary of the last test. Source: gov.uk, Getting an MOT, checked 8 August 2026
A test can be done up to a month minus a day early without moving the date. That is the whole opportunity — a legal four-week window in which you can take the booking and the customer keeps their anniversary. Source: gov.uk, Getting an MOT, checked 8 August 2026
So every car you tested last spring has a date this spring, and that date is already known. Nobody has to create this demand. Somebody has to remember it.
Why March and September run the year
New registrations bunch into two months, and everything downstream inherits the bunching.
380,627 new vehicles were registered in March 2026, out of 614,854 across the whole first quarter — one month carrying more than the other two together. The SMMT calls March the busiest month of the year. Source: SMMT March 2026 registrations release, read 8 August 2026
Those cars reach three years old in a March. Their MOTs then land every March after that, and the September plate does the same thing six months out of step.
Which means a garage's quiet weeks and its flat-out weeks are not weather or luck. They are the plate cycle, arriving on a three-year delay and then repeating for the life of the car.
The part that makes this harder to sell you
The DVSA already sends free MOT reminders by text or email a month before a car, van or motorcycle is due. In Northern Ireland a reminder goes out by post seven weeks ahead. Source: gov.uk MOT reminder service, checked 8 August 2026
So a reminder from your garage that arrives at the same time as the government's is noise. To be worth sending, yours has to land earlier — inside that legal early-test window — and carry something a DVSA text cannot: an actual slot, a courtesy car, the service that falls due at the same time.
That is a real constraint on the idea, and you should hear it before anyone sells you software for it.
What you are allowed to send
Worth ten minutes, because getting this wrong is a different kind of expensive.
Under the PECR rules you can email or text your own customers about similar services if they bought from you, you gave them a clear way to opt out when you took their details, and you give them one in every message. The ICO calls it the soft opt-in. It does not cover bought-in lists or people who have never used you. Source: ICO guidance on electronic mail marketing and the soft opt-in, read 8 August 2026
That is the shape of the rule rather than legal advice, and the ICO's own pages are short and readable.
Where LoopSuite is the wrong choice
You want text messages. We work in email. For a reminder that has to beat a free government text to the same phone, that is a genuine disadvantage and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Source: gov.uk MOT reminder service, checked 8 August 2026
Your garage system already does it. We have no connector to garage or job-management software, so we cannot read service history out of one. If your existing system holds the MOT dates and can mail from them, use that. Source: our own connector status, 8 August 2026
You want the vehicle lookup done for you. We do not pull MOT due dates from any vehicle register. Renewal Reminder works from dates you have confirmed, which means somebody has to put them in once.
What we do
Renewal Reminder tracks the recurring dates you have confirmed and warns you before they lapse. For a garage that means a list of who is due next month, rather than a scramble through last year's job cards in the week you needed it.
Review & Referral Requests asks for the review after the work, which is the other half of a repeat book — the part that brings the neighbour in.
Both land paused until you turn them on, and you choose which account they may send from.
The honest scope: this is a memory and a drafting job, not a vehicle database.
Questions
When is a car's first MOT due?
On the third anniversary of its registration, and after that on the anniversary of the last test.
How early can an MOT be done without losing the date?
Up to a month minus a day before it runs out. Test inside that window and the renewal date stays the same, which is exactly why that window is when a reminder is worth sending.
Does the government already remind my customers?
Yes. The DVSA sends free reminders by text or email a month before a car, van or motorcycle is due, and by post in Northern Ireland. Anything you send has to arrive earlier and be more useful than that.
Am I allowed to email customers about their MOT?
Usually yes for your own customers, under what the ICO calls the soft opt-in, provided you gave them a way to opt out when you took their details and give them one in every message. It does not cover people who have never used you. Read the ICO's own guidance rather than a blog post.
Can LoopSuite look up MOT due dates for me?
No. There is no vehicle register lookup. It works from dates you have confirmed, so somebody has to enter them once.
Can it send text messages?
No, email only. For MOT reminders specifically that is a real limitation and worth weighing before you decide.
Every claim about another product above carries the source we checked and the date we checked it. If one of them is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.