Auto Services Platform
Your garage. Your customers. Your platform.
Online MOT and service booking. Automatic reminders. Photo quotes customers approve from their phone. One system replaces your diary, phone, WhatsApp and spreadsheets — built for independent UK garages.
Built by operators in London. Used inside a real working business. We’ll show you everything before you commit to anything.
Forge Auto Services
Honest mechanics. Modern garage.
New MOT booking
LX19 PXR · Ford Focus
Tomorrow · 09:30 · Bay 1
What you’re losing right now
Three leaks every independent garage has.
The missed MOT reminders
Last year you MOT'd 800 cars. This year maybe 500 come back. The other 300 went to whoever was most visible when they Googled 'MOT near me' at 9pm eleven months later. At £54.85 each that's £16,000+ handed to a competitor for free.
The phone-tag dead time
Mechanic finds worn brake pads mid-service. Calls the customer. No answer. Voicemail. The car sits on the ramp burning 90 minutes of bay time. Twice a day, every day — that's a full day a week you pay for and don't earn from.
The lost out-of-hours bookings
A customer remembers their MOT at 9pm Tuesday. Halfords is open online. Kwik Fit is open online. ATS is open online. You're not — so they book elsewhere, and they probably never come back.
What we replace it with
One platform your whole garage runs on.
Online MOT booking
Customers book themselves, 24/7, in 60 seconds. The job appears in your admin board immediately.
See it in the demoService booking
Interim, full and major services through the same flow — no phone calls, no diary.
See it in the demoAutomatic MOT reminders
Every car you've MOT'd flagged when its next test is due. Customer gets an SMS + email with a one-tap rebook.
See it in the demoPhoto quotes, one-tap approval
Your mechanic uploads a photo, the customer approves from their phone. The end of the phone-tag day.
See it in the demoWorkshop bay display
A screen in the workshop: mechanics see the next job, customers see live progress.
See it in the demoCustomer & vehicle history
Every car, every service, every quote, every customer — searchable, and yours forever.
See it in the demoThe economic argument
What it’s worth to win back your MOTs.
| Cars MOT'd by you last year | 800 |
| Average rebook rate without reminders | 18% (144 cars) |
| Average rebook rate with our reminders | 38% (304 cars) |
| Additional MOTs recovered annually | 160 |
| Additional MOT revenue at £54.85 | £8,776 |
| Additional service revenue (60% need work) | ~£14,000 |
| Total annual upside | ~£22,000 |
Real numbers vary by location and customer base — this is a typical example for a 2-bay independent in outer London. We’ll model your own numbers during the discovery call.
We’re not Garage Hive. We’re not a Silicon Valley app that’s never been inside a workshop. We’re operators in London who built this for the garage we take our own cars to.
Every feature exists because a real mechanic asked for it. And when something breaks at 11am on a busy Saturday, you call the founder directly — same WhatsApp number, every time.
How it works
From first call to first online booking in about two weeks.
30-minute discovery call
We learn your garage, your bays, your service mix, your busiest days, your current chaos. No pitch.
You see your garage on the platform
Within 7 days we send a working preview at yourname.stepaheadworks.com — with your last 12 months of MOTs imported, so the reminder engine goes live with real data.
Launch with no downtime
We point your domain at the platform, train your team in a 90-minute session, and go live. Most garages run within 14 days.
Productised tiers
Three ways to start.
Essentials
Branded garage website, online booking for MOT and services, customer database, the MOT reminder system, mobile-perfect — launched in 5–7 days.
Contact us for current pricing.
Start a conversationWorkshop
Everything in Essentials, plus the full admin job board, calendar, vehicle history, photo quotes with one-tap approval, the bay display, and SMS notifications.
Contact us to discuss your scope.
Start a conversationMulti-bay Operation
Everything in Workshop, plus inventory management, multi-mechanic assignment, parts ordering, advanced analytics and multi-location support.
Contact us — quoted bespoke.
Start a conversationEvery project is preceded by a real conversation and a fixed-scope written proposal within five working days.
Honest answers
Questions garage owners actually ask.
Will we keep our existing customers and vehicle records?
Yes. We import them from whatever you use today — spreadsheet, paper, MAM, Garage Hive — during onboarding. Nothing gets lost.
Will customers actually book online, or still call?
Some will still call, and that's fine — you keep the phone. But within 90 days most garages see 50–70% of MOTs booked online, especially repeat customers who hate the phone-call dance.
Does this integrate with DVSA for MOT records?
No, intentionally — DVSA's MTS is the source of truth for actual results, and your MOT testing software stays in place. We handle the booking, the customer history and the reminders around the test.
Can my mechanics use it without training?
The customer side needs no training — customers use it. The admin and bay display are designed for a non-tech mechanic; a 90-minute session covers it.
What if my internet goes down during the day?
The bay display caches the day's jobs locally and the admin keeps working through short outages. Customer-facing pages stay live on the platform regardless.
Do I own my data?
Yes. Every booking, vehicle and customer record is yours. Export it anytime. If you ever leave us, you take it all with you.
Stop losing customers to whoever Googles best. Start owning every car you service.
- UK Limited company
- Response within 24 hours
- Fixed-scope proposals