MOT reminders: the due-date list, the rules, and who else is texting

To send MOT reminders that fill the diary, build a clean due-date list, time each message to the early-test window, and offer two bookable slots instead of repeating the deadline. A garage's most valuable asset is usually a list it has never audited: every vehicle it has seen, with a registration and a date. That list predicts a large share of next year's work.

Three details decide whether reminders work: whether the dates are right, whether the timing follows the rules for when a test can be done, and whether the message adds anything to the reminder that the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) already sends to the same person.

What we'll cover

• The list is the asset
• What the rules set
• DVSA already reminds your customers
• How to get the dates right
• Building it with CodeWords
• What a reminder should say
• Why service and MOT are different conversations
• Fails, retests and the second decision
• How to make the automation reliable
• Limits of MOT reminders
• What to build first
• Frequently asked questions

Key takeaways

• Audit the vehicle list before writing any message, because wrong dates and dead numbers damage the channel you are trying to establish.
• A customer can book an MOT up to a month minus a day early and keep the renewal date, and few customers know this (GOV.UK, 2026).
• DVSA already texts or emails the registered keeper four weeks and two weeks before the MOT is due, so your message should offer a slot, not repeat the date.
• Send the MOT reminder on its own and offer the service at the point of booking.
• Reconcile the list against public MOT history data every quarter.

The list is the asset

The list is the asset, so audit it before building anything. Count three things.

How many vehicles have a due date you trust? Count dates you would act on, not records. Many garages find a share of dates are missing, wrong, or belong to a car sold two years ago.

How many have a mobile number that still works? Landlines and dead numbers are dead rows.

How many have you seen in the last two years? Older than that and you are contacting strangers, which is a different exercise with different rules.

The audit takes an afternoon and changes what you build. A garage with 1,200 records and 400 usable ones (an illustrative case) has a data problem before it has a messaging problem, and sending to the other 800 damages the channel.

What the rules set

The regulation, not marketing, sets the useful dates for an MOT reminder. A vehicle needs its first MOT at three years old and then every year.

A test can be done up to a month minus a day before the current certificate expires while keeping the same renewal date. A certificate expiring on 15 May can be tested from 16 April without losing the anniversary (GOV.UK, "Getting an MOT", 2026). See GOV.UK.

Most customers do not know this early window exists. A reminder can honestly say "you can book any time from the 16th and keep your date", which converts better than urgency because it gives the customer something new.

The window also sets the shape of your sequence:

When	What the message is
Before the window opens	Information
During the window	A booking request
After expiry	A different message, because the vehicle cannot be driven to the test without meeting one of the narrow exceptions

DVSA already reminds your customers

DVSA runs a free MOT reminder service that texts or emails the registered keeper four weeks and two weeks before the MOT is due (GOV.UK, "Get an MOT reminder", 2026). See GOV.UK.

A garage sending at 28 days and 14 days arrives on the same two days as a government message saying the same thing. The customer is not short of reminders that the MOT is due. The customer is short of a slot.

So your message has a different job from DVSA's. DVSA tells the customer the date. Your message offers a time, at a place the customer has been before, with a way to say yes in one reply. Lead with the booking instead of the deadline, and consider staggering your sends away from the government's dates.

How to get the dates right

A bad date is the commonest cause of a bad reminder. Four situations produce one.

A sold vehicle. The customer sold the car in March and hears from you in September. Ask once, and mark the record.

A test done elsewhere. The customer went somewhere cheaper last year. Your record says one date; the certificate says another.

A vehicle tested early. If the customer used the early window, the anniversary holds. If the customer tested outside it, the date moved and your record did not.

Class and age exemptions. Not every vehicle is on a standard annual cycle, and a reminder about a test that is not due reads as carelessness.

The public MOT history service shows the current expiry for a registration. Reconcile your list against it before each send, and repeat the check every quarter. This is the highest-value maintenance job on the whole system.

Building it with CodeWords

CodeWords connects to 3,000+ integrations (CodeWords integrations page, 2026), and each connection is made once and reused.

1. Open CodeWords and start a new automation.
2. Describe what should happen in plain language to Cody, the automation builder: which vehicles are due when, when each message goes, what it offers, and what stops the sequence.
3. Authorize the connections to your garage management system, your diary, and your WhatsApp Business Platform account.
4. Describe the exceptions: a vehicle already booked, one tested elsewhere, one sold, a customer who has asked not to be contacted, and anyone who replies with a question.
5. Run it on one month of due dates before turning it on for the whole list, and check every reply by hand for that first month.

You describe the outcome; Cody builds it, connects it, and deploys it. The Free plan costs $0, Pro costs $39 per month and Business costs $100 per month (CodeWords pricing page, 2026). Details are on the pricing page.

What a reminder should say

A reminder should be short, specific, and answerable in one word.

The vehicle, by registration. People own more than one car and remember registrations better than service dates.

The expiry date, and the date from which the customer can test while keeping it.

Two actual times. An offer converts; an invitation to get in touch does not. Two named slots this week and next make the biggest difference between a reminder that books and one that is read and forgotten.

One way to accept. A word, not a form.

The sender. A message from an unsaved number reads as spam whatever the content, so name the garage in the first line.

Leave out any claim about what happens if the customer does not book, invented urgency, and any assessment of the vehicle's condition, which a due date cannot support.

Why service and MOT are different conversations

Send the MOT reminder on its own, because an MOT and a service are different decisions. Garages that merge them often lose both.

An MOT is a legal test on a fixed date, and the customer knows they need one. A service is discretionary, has no deadline, and needs a reason. In a combined message the service dilutes the item with a deadline, and the customer books the test somewhere convenient without considering the service.

Offer the service at the point of booking, where it is a sensible question about the same visit, or afterwards against the vehicle's own service interval. Use two separate triggers, two separate messages, and a rule that they do not both fire in the same fortnight.

Fails, retests and the second decision

An MOT failure needs its own process, separate from the reminder. The reminder gets the car in, and the failure is where the money and the goodwill sit.

A customer who fails arrived expecting to pay for a test and is now asked to approve repairs. That decision is made under time pressure, often on the phone from work. The process should state what failed, what it costs, what is advisory instead of a fail, and what the retest arrangement is.

Two details to get right. Separate the fail items from the advisories in whatever you send, because one combined list makes the bill look arbitrary. And say clearly what happens if the customer declines: the vehicle, the certificate and the retest, stated plainly.

How to make the automation reliable

A reliable MOT reminder system checks its data at send time and hands every reply to a person.

Reconcile the list quarterly against the public MOT history data.

Suppress anyone already booked, checked at send, not at build.

Stop on any reply and route it to a person.

Record the outcome per vehicle, so next year's message knows whether last year's worked.

Watch the opt-outs. A rising rate means the cadence or the content is wrong, and it costs you the channel before it costs you bookings.

Limits of MOT reminders

Reminders cannot fix every problem in a garage.

A reminder cannot create capacity. If the diary is full in the fortnight before every expiry, earlier contact moves the queue.

Some customers always shop on price, and a reminder competes with a price difference down the road.

The date can be wrong in ways you cannot see until the customer tells you, so the reply matters more than the send.

Contacting long-lapsed customers is a different exercise, with marketing rules attached.

Messaging platform rules and pricing change, so recheck a sequence built a year ago before a big send.

What to build first

Build the audit first. Count how many vehicles have a due date you would act on and a number that still works, and reconcile a sample against the public MOT data. No messages, no templates, no integration.

Two habits make the difference. Put two actual times in the message, because a reminder without an offer is one more notification on a phone that already has one from the government. And check the list against reality every quarter, because the fastest way to make a customer feel like a row in a database is to remind them about a car they sold.

Frequently asked questions

When can a customer book their MOT without losing the renewal date?

A customer can book up to a month minus a day before the current certificate expires and keep the renewal date. A certificate expiring on 15 May can be tested from 16 April with the anniversary preserved. Most customers do not know this early window exists.

When should reminders be sent?

Send the first reminder around the point the early window opens, with a follow-up inside the window. Both messages should offer a named slot instead of only stating the date, because an offer converts better than a deadline the customer already knows.

Does DVSA already remind my customers?

Yes, DVSA already reminds customers. Its free service texts or emails the registered keeper four weeks and two weeks before the MOT is due. Your message should therefore offer a booking instead of repeating the deadline the customer has just received.

What makes a reminder convert?

A reminder converts when it carries two named times, one word to accept, the vehicle registration, and the garage's name in the first line. An invitation to get in touch converts worse than an offer of a specific slot. Test one change at a time, so you know which change moved the booking rate.

Why do reminders go to the wrong people?

Reminders reach the wrong people because of sold vehicles, tests done elsewhere, dates that moved, and class or age exemptions. Reconciling the list against public MOT history data each quarter removes most of these errors before they reach a customer.

Should the service reminder go in the same message?

No, send the service reminder separately. The test has a deadline and the service does not, and combining them dilutes the item the customer was going to act on. Offer the service at the point of booking instead. Keeping them separate also lets you measure each reminder on its own.

What should a reminder never say?

A reminder should never describe the vehicle's condition, because a due date cannot support that claim, and should never invent a consequence. State the expiry date and the early-test date, then offer a time. Keep every statement something you can verify.

How should an MOT failure be handled?

Handle an MOT failure as its own conversation. Separate the failure items from the advisories, price each one, and say plainly what happens to the vehicle and the retest if the customer declines. Do not extend the reminder sequence into this decision.

How often should the list be cleaned?

Clean the list every quarter. A list where a third of the dates are wrong produces messages that make a regular customer feel anonymous, and that costs more than the bookings you miss. Reconcile against public MOT history data each time.

What if the diary is already full before every expiry?

Earlier reminders then move the queue instead of growing it, and the constraint is bay time, not messaging. Check capacity before crediting or blaming the messages for a flat month, and consider adding slots in the early-test window. Check capacity before each send, so you never invite bookings you cannot honour.

Related reading

• What the garage diary actually sells
• Why customers stop coming back
• Estimates, approvals and authority