My Cars App › HGV and lorries

HGVs, lorries and the annual test

The same app, the same reminders, for the vehicles most reminder apps ignore.

It is not just cars

My Cars App works for any UK registration — cars, vans, motorbikes and lorries. If DVSA holds a test record for it, the app will show it: status, expiry, and the full history with the mileage recorded at each test.

Most consumer apps in this space are built for cars alone. If you run a van for work, a pickup, or a lorry, you have generally been left to the trade systems or a spreadsheet.

Annual test, or MOT?

Both, and it does not matter which you say. HGVs and trailers have an annual test rather than a car's MOT, and DVSA themselves write it as “annual test (MOT) certificates” on GOV.UK. Everyone in haulage calls it the MOT. The app says MOT, and it means whichever applies to your vehicle.

Where the difference does matter

GOV.UK's free reminder gives lorries two months' notice rather than one, which tells you something about how much longer it takes to get a lorry booked in and fixed.
DVSA MOT history goes back to 2005 for cars and vans, but only 2018 for HGVs, buses and large trailers. Older test records for heavy vehicles are simply not in the data.
Lorries also have plating certificates alongside the test certificate. The app does not handle those — get them from GOV.UK.

A Scania lorry saved in My Cars App alongside its annual test and tax dates — A 44-tonne Scania, treated exactly like a car. Annual test, tax, the lot.

A Scania HGV in My Cars App with MOT overdue and NOT TAXED showing in red — An untaxed lorry with an overdue MOT — impossible to miss.

Road tax on a van or a lorry

Tax status and the renewal date come from DVLA for every vehicle, whatever its size, and you enter nothing. The cost is where vehicles part company. Cars are taxed on CO₂; a lorry is taxed on revenue weight and axle configuration, and a van up to 3,500kg pays a flat light goods rate regardless of emissions.

So for a lorry the app shows the status and the date, and says the annual cost is not available for this vehicle along with the reason. That is deliberate. An estimate built from a car's CO₂ bands would read about £20 a year against a real bill in the high hundreds or thousands, and a number that wrong is worse than no number. Vans and motorbikes do get a figure, from their own rate tables.

Running more than five vehicles?

My Cars App holds five, which suits a household or an owner-driver. A separate product for fleets is planned. If that is what you need, say so at contact@mycarsapp.co.uk — knowing there is demand is what decides whether it gets built.