On Wednesday, May 27, CITA held the second webinar on the “Impact of COVID-19 crisis on PTI activities”. As a corporate member of CITA, Anche attended the meeting and spoke about the pandemic situation in China.
The webinar was chaired by Eduard Fernandez, executive director of CITA. Mr. Franois Togny from Dekra shared the status quo of COVID-19 prevention and control in various regions and the OH&S (Occupational Health & Safety) actions. Test centers in France and Portugal in Europe have been in full operation; all test centers in the United States have been open except in Nevada; while the inspection business in Africa is still closed. Then Mr. Franois presented the specific procedures of Dekra OH&S. During the webinar, participants asked whether the WHO suggested the frequency to change masks. Franois pointed out that there was no official guidance document for the time being, and it should be changed every 4 hours according to the suggestions of medical staff.
Mr. Olusegun from Lacvis shared the situation in Nigeria. Nigeria entered a state of emergency on March 11 this year, and the testing centers were shut down as well. The validity of testing equipment calibration was extended to 30 days after the end of the state of emergency. At present, the inspection business has been restarted, and more than 5 million vehicles have exceeded the validity. Only inspections with online appointment were accepted and the inspection process were strictly controlled by means of online payment and social distancing.
Then, the representatives of 3DATX, Anche Technologies and Opus Group delivered speeches respectively. The representative of Anche shared the situation of test centers in China and the protective measures, and pointed out that the test centers have been fully reopened, but the strict prevention and control policies are still in place; most of the customers prefer non-contact payment methods such as mobile payment, which can reduce the possibility of cross infection.
Tom Fournier, CTO of Opus Group from the United States, also spoke on measures to contain COVID-19. He believed that the inspection demand was only postponed, not canceled; he expected that the demand would increase significantly in the middle of this year, and described the operation of testing centers in the Americas and parts of Europe. In response to the epidemic situation, Opus has also taken measures such as strengthening protective measures and changing the test procedures to reduce risks. Finally, he concluded that the epidemic highlights the public service function of testing facilities, which can be used as part of the social security network in special cases, and the long-term stability of the motor vehicle inspection industry has been further strengthened through cooperation between the industry and the government.
Mr. Muller, president of CITA, shared the information in Germany at the end of the meeting. The transportation department in Germany extended the deadline for motor vehicle inspection by 4 months due to COVID-19, and the owners who drove overdue vehicles during this period would not be punished. In addition, representatives from Ireland, Portugal and Costa Rica also joined in the discussion. The deadlines for motor vehicle inspection in various countries have been extended for 3-6 months respectively and the testing centers have been reopened conditionally. Mr. Muller and other participants also pointed out that it is still unclear whether the reopening of the test centers will face its peak or not, and called on testing enterprises to make response plans in advance in order to deal with such situations.
