What is it?
The Mileage Check tool is an improvement on the DVLA MOT history checker. Within this tool you are easily able to identify previous mileages, year on year, for every year the vehicle has had an MOT. This tool both simplifies and enhances the information found on the DVLA site, combining the data into easily understandable segments.
Why would a declared milage be incorrect?
Declared mileage is the amount of miles the policy holder states they will travel during the policy lifespan. As you can imagine, the more miles per year, the higher the risk of crashes, accidents, and ultimately claims. For example, a van insured for 5000 miles will be half the on road risk compared to a van insured for 10,000 miles.
Policy holders aren’t stupid, and they know that insuring themselves for less miles a year will usually results in the reduction of the insurance premium. What they don’t usually know however, is that any claims made outside of the declared annual milage will most likely be voided, or an additional charge is made to the policy holder to cover the extra cost. This is why it is imperative that the policy holder is aware of their previous milage, and the implications of being under insured.
How do I use it?
To use the ‘Parking Location’ tool, simply head over to ‘Validation Tools’.
The tool will look like the below:
From here click the drop down arrow:
Within this tool we have multiple different pieces of information. As you can see on the example, the declared annual mileage is down as 18,000 mpa. Given that the ‘Last Year’s Mileage’ has been found as 23,928, we can tell there is a mismatch here. Mismatches will always be made obvious with the red ‘Mismatch’ icon – as seen below:
However, for this example we can also see the keeper date:
This article was written on 06/03/2024, and as a result that keeper date has not yet been a full year. This means that some or all of the milage found can be linked to the previous owner. For you, this means that you should be speaking to your policy holder, and discussing the mileage they intend to do, as the found result on the MOT checker is not specific to that policy holder.
One handy function of the mileage tool is the milage calculator:
You should use this tool when calculating the mileage with your policy holder, remember, they aren’t experts. You should use this tool to work out weekly or daily mileage, and then ensure that meets the drivers needs.