Worked setups · MOT and service garages
Each car its own record with an MOT date that reminds rather than refuses, a ramp and an MOT bay as pools, a lease company as the payer, and the DVSA's own rules answered unprompted.
Worked example: Foxholes Garage. A fictional independent garage in Ludlow, Shropshire: three ramps, one of them the class 4 MOT bay, two technicians and a service adviser on the desk. MOTs, interim and full services, diagnostics, brakes and tyres on cars and small vans; two courtesy cars; collection and delivery within ten miles. Customers come to the garage, many own more than one car, and a company-car driver's bill goes to the lease company.
Proven in a full run on the live system on 4 September 2026. The businesses on these pages are fictional — worked configurations we built to run BLAM8 end to end on the live system, not customers. Every step described happened in the run it cites.
1 · The diary
The work happens at the garage, so the diary runs per service with the drop-off shape a customer actually experiences: an MOT is a 45-minute waiting slot at a clock time on the single MOT bay, a service is a leave-it-with-us day on one of two ramps. The setup assistant proposed the hours (Saturday mornings for MOTs only), 24 hours' notice, the seven services with prices, the two resource pools — one Class 4 MOT bay, two general ramps, never double-booked — and collection and delivery within ten miles at £15. Each service is linked to its pool, and the horizon runs 60 days for the plate-change months.
exact time
£45 — the legal maximum is £54.85. A waiting appointment on the MOT bay.
whole day
£120, leave it with us.
whole day
£199 up to 2.0 litres, from £249 above; £99 electric.
whole day
£165 together.
exact time
£60 for the first hour.
whole day
Never priced before the car has been seen — quoted first, then the go-ahead.
exact time
Quoted by size.
Timing is what the customer is offered: an exact time for an appointment they come to; morning or afternoon for work at their address where you manage the hour; a whole day for a day-long job. The diary reserves the real length either way, so it can never double-book.
2 · Before a booking is made
Seven details, four recommended by the setup assistant in the garage's own words and three added by the owner — the last service stamp as a photo for services only, a yes or no to a road test for diagnostics and repairs, and the courtesy car. The cars themselves are not on this list: each is a dependant record on the customer's card, with its registration, make, fuel, a note of where the locking wheel nut key lives, and an MOT date that expires without ever blocking a booking.
| Detail | Needed | How it's gathered | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reason for visit / what the car is doing | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Symptoms, warning lights, noises — briefs the technician before the car arrives. |
| Drop-off or collection and delivery | Required | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Drop it off from 8, or collected and returned within 10 miles for £15. |
| Approximate mileage | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | '60-odd thousand' is enough — keyed as a number, never re-asked. |
| Work authoriser and PO or fleet reference | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Services and repairs only: who signs off extra work on a company car. |
| Photo of the last service stamp or digital service record | Optional | As an attachment — a photo or scan | Services only, as an attachment — kept on the record, never claimed as read. |
| OK for us to road-test it? | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Diagnostics, brakes and tyres only — some faults only show on the road. |
| Courtesy car needed? | Optional | Asked in the reply, or reused if already known | Two cars, first come; £10 a day, free with a full service. |
The agent asks only for what is genuinely missing, never re-asks something already in the thread or on the customer's record, and refuses to book until every required detail is present. Documents are requested as attachments and their contents are never claimed as checked — a human reviews them.
3 · The CRM that fills itself
Plus Won and Lost. A contact quiet for 5 days is flagged for a nudge.
Who pays / account
The customer, their employer or the lease company — filled from the first email.
Authorisation reference
The PO or fleet reference the payer wants quoted before work starts.
Preferred contact
How they want to hear the car is ready or that work needs authorising.
Extracted from the emails as they arrive, plus the contact's phone number. A returning customer is never asked for any of it again — by email or on the portal.
4 · What the agent knows
Eight notes, one per kind of fact, written by the setup assistant from a chat interview that opened with its own three questions in the garage's terms. In the run the agent did the DVSA arithmetic on the early-MOT window, quoted every price, asked the lease company question before the visit, and told a customer with a spongy brake pedal not to drive the car in — all unprompted.
MOT £45 (the legal maximum is £54.85). Interim service £120; full service £199 up to 2.0 litres, from £249 above, electric £99; MOT and interim service together £165; diagnostics £60 for the first hour; labour £75 an hour; collection and delivery £15 within 10 miles of Ludlow, free with a full service; courtesy car £10 a day, free with a full service. All prices include VAT.
Nothing beyond the booked work is started without the customer's say-so: the price first, then the yes, and the invoice matches what was agreed. A car that fails its MOT with a dangerous fault cannot be driven away until it is repaired — said before the test, never after.
Brakes, steering or a red warning light reported means: don't drive it, we'll collect it — never 'pop it in when you can'.
An MOT can be done up to a month minus a day before it runs out and keeps the same renewal date — the customer is always told when that window opens.
New customers give the registration, the approximate mileage and what the car is doing; the service book or digital record is photographed at the first visit and the MOT and service dates noted for reminders. Company cars: who authorises work and any PO or fleet reference, before the visit.
MOT yearly; full service every 12 months or 12,000 miles; interim at 6 months or 6,000 miles for high mileage; a reminder a month before the MOT is due. Replaced parts are kept for the customer to see; parts and labour guaranteed 12 months; the customer is updated during the day and told when the car is ready; no road test without permission.
Payment on collection by card or bank transfer (cashless); lease companies and account customers get an itemised invoice on 30-day terms; parts over £250 need a 50% deposit before they are ordered.
Class 4 cars and small vans only — no motorbikes, no vans over 3,000 kg, no motorhomes. Monday to Friday 8am to 5:30pm, Saturday 8am to 1pm for MOTs; 24 hours' notice; March and September MOT slots go a fortnight ahead.
5 · The journey we proved
The run on the live system on 4 September 2026, in order.
Customer
Emails: the Golf's MOT runs out on 28 September and it's due a service — is it worth testing early or do I lose the days? My partner Sam's Fiesta needs an MOT too, I'll dig out the reg. What do you charge, can we drop both on the same morning, and the Golf is a company car through Fleetline who pay for servicing.
BLAM8
Answers the DVSA rule with the dates worked out — 'your early-booking window opened on 29 August… the new certificate runs from 28 September regardless' — quotes the prices, explains the Golf is a leave-it-with-us day while the Fiesta's MOT is a 45-minute waiting slot, asks who authorises work for Fleetline and whether they use a PO, and asks only what's missing per car, including a photo of the last service stamp as an attachment. Fleetline lands on the customer's card as who pays.
Customer
Sends the service stamp photo, then the details: YK19 HDF, a 2019 2.0 TDI on 60-odd thousand, MOT and interim service; Fleetline's fleet desk address and a PO to follow; Sam's Fiesta MK17 LPQ, petrol, MOT due 14 October; Tuesday 15 September for both, Golf dropped at 8 for the day, Sam waiting with the Fiesta; wheel nut key in the glovebox.
BLAM8
Keeps the photo on the customer's record and says so. Books the Golf's MOT and interim service for the 15th — every detail keyed by its label, the photo satisfying the document — with the Golf as its own vehicle record (registration, model, fuel, where the wheel nut key lives), and binds Fleetline's fleet desk to the job as the payer who approves work.
Customer
Tuesday 15th for both please — and since yesterday the Golf's brake pedal has gone spongy with a grinding noise from the front. Still OK to drive it in?
BLAM8
'Please do not drive the Golf in… we'd strongly recommend letting us collect it… once we've inspected the brakes we'll give you a full quote before touching anything.' Holds BOTH cars on the 15th in one reply — the Golf for the day, the Fiesta as a 45-minute waiting appointment at 8am — each on its own vehicle record; the brake symptom is written to the Golf's record as a known issue.
Customer
Collect it tomorrow then — key with reception at the business park. Fleetline's PO is FL-88213, invoices to their fleet desk. Sam is still fine for the 15th.
BLAM8
Says honestly that tomorrow is inside the 24 hours' notice and offers Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday for the collection, held until the next evening; restates the quote-first rule and that the customer will be kept updated and told when the car is ready; puts the collection charge on Fleetline's invoice under the PO.
Customer
Monday 7 September please — the key will be with reception from 8.
BLAM8
Turns the offered Monday into the booking and releases the other two days. Approved: the Golf is confirmed for collection on the 7th with a calendar event, the Fiesta's MOT stands on the 15th, and the Golf's 15th slot is cancelled from the diary by hand.
Customer
Opens the portal with the reference from the email footer, greeted by name with the Monday collection.
What this run showed us we still owe this trade
Built since · 4 September 2026 — One hold per visit — a second vehicle on the same email is its own hold, up to three.
Built since · 4 September 2026 — An expiry that doesn't block is a recall: when it is due within a month or has lapsed and nothing is booked for that car, Today carries the card in the owner's words.
Built since · 5 September 2026 — A redraft that comes back empty is filed as a failed draft with the reason on the thread — write the reply or redraft.
Built since · 6 September 2026 — The agent moves the customer's own booking from their email: in time it moves in place and keeps its reference; inside the notice rule the old booking is cancelled as a late cancellation and the new time held for approval, or the move is free — the business's setting. A whole series is still rearranged by the business.
Connect your mailbox and tell the setup assistant what you do. It proposes the diary, the services, the checklist and the pipeline for you to confirm — nothing is saved until you press Save. Free 14-day pilot, no card.
BLAM8 assistant