"Lift the 300 Inspection Limit"...Automobile Maintenance Industry Calls for Eased Regulations

Calls to Ease Monthly Inspection Limits
Industry Also Proposes 'Annual Self-Measurement of Pollutants'

The automobile maintenance and inspection industry has requested that the government ease environmental regulations on small-scale air pollutant emission businesses and improve the comprehensive automobile inspection system.

A vehicle is waiting at an auto repair shop in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The Office of the Ombudsman for Small and Medium Enterprises announced on June 30 that it held a field communication meeting with automotive maintenance and inspection associations at Dream Square in Mapo District, Seoul, to discuss industry difficulties and regulatory improvement tasks. Fourteen participants attended the meeting, including Choi Seungjae, Ombudsman for SMEs, and Kwak Youngcheol, President of the Korea Automobile Inspection and Maintenance Business Cooperative Federation.

The industry argued that improvements to the comprehensive automobile inspection system are urgently needed. Under the current system, designated maintenance companies with two certified inspectors are limited to conducting a maximum of 300 inspections per month. Despite the fact that demand for automobile inspections fluctuates greatly depending on the season and region, this uniform upper limit regulation is applied, increasing the burden on the field.

In particular, when the number of inspections approaches 300 per month, businesses must either suspend inspections or hire additional short-term staff. Conversely, during periods when inspection volume declines, they are burdened with maintaining the staff they have secured. For small and medium-sized inspection stations, it is realistically difficult to hire skilled inspectors on short notice or to keep idle staff for extended periods, which significantly increases management burdens.

Accordingly, the industry proposed increasing the monthly maximum number of inspections for businesses with two certified inspectors from the current 300 to 500. In the mid- to long-term, they suggested abolishing or significantly relaxing the upper limit system, allowing market mechanisms to determine inspection volumes.

There were also calls to ease environmental regulations on small-scale air pollution emission businesses. The industry argued that requiring businesses to manually record relevant data daily, even though real-time monitoring is possible with Internet of Things (IoT) measurement devices, constitutes double regulation.

Currently, automotive repair painting facilities operate in enclosed spaces to block hazardous substances such as hydrocarbons (THC) generated during painting work. In order to strengthen the management of air pollutant emissions, small-scale businesses classified as Category 4 or 5 emission sites are now required to install IoT measurement devices by December of this year, which has increased the burden of installation and maintenance costs.

In addition, under current regulations, even if these businesses install IoT measurement devices, they are still required to conduct self-measurements of air pollutant emissions once every six months through an external specialized company. Since a new regulation has been introduced, the industry believes that the existing regulation should be eased by reducing the self-measurement frequency to once a year.

President Kwak stated, "Automobile inspections should transition to a system that reinforces the quality of inspections and strengthens post-management and oversight of inadequate inspections. While safety must be ensured, it is necessary to rationalize regulations so that the operation of businesses is left to the market and the field."

Ombudsman Choi Seungjae said, "We fully understand the burden on small and medium-sized automobile inspection businesses in terms of workforce management," adding, "We will work closely with relevant ministries to enable more flexible operations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.