Re: Any smog techs test your own vehicles? Conflict of interest?
Posted to Emissions Forum on 3/23/2013
2 Replies
Robert,
It's a California thing, and it's been around for over
fifteen years. My version of the story follows:
DCA and BAR found evidence of cheating in the smog check
process, and invented the Test-Only designation, in an
attempt to correct it. When a vehicle fails a test
miserably, it becomes 'directed', which is the new term
replacing test-only, but not changed over in the EIS
software message yet. Their reasoning was that test-only
centers would receive the gross-polluters, as well as a
significant percentage of vehicles with a high statistical
tendency to fail, and that the test-only center would have
little incentive to improperly test vehicles, since they had
no stake in the repair process, or lack thereof. The
technician license was the same, but the station license was
different. It was not a brilliant success in that arena.
Many people here still call it test-only, but that is no
longer accurate, because a large number of test-only centers
can no longer certify 'directed' vehicles, due to a computer
algorithm known as STAR, which can permit or dis-allow
access to 'directed' traffic certification for a station,
based on statistical 'evidence', collected and collated from
a distance, and enforced without due process. This is their
response to evidence that test-only centers appear to be
just as likely to improperly pass a vehicle as
test-and-repair centers, and their mandate is to prevent
that. Improper fails are given FAR lower priority, for
reasons unclear to me, since it seems to me that they are
supposed to protect customers.
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/03_BARPrograms/Smog_Check.html
Sincerely,
Michael Barry Technician Quick Stop Smog & More Sacramento, California, USA
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