Making sure your fleet of vehicles is roadworthy at all times is one of the biggest priorities when it comes to running a successful business.
With the colder months drawing in, Winter, in particular, is a time to pay even more attention to the upkeep and maintenance of your fleet.
For every fleet manager, daily vehicle Inspections and walkaround checks are essential to the upkeep of your fleet - not only do they guarantee the safety of your drivers and other road users, but also help to increase productivity.
Preventative maintenance
Implementing a long-term preventive maintenance plan for your fleet can significantly improve the safety of your vehicles and minimise any potentially costly issues and repairs which may arise.
A major part of a preventive maintenance plan for fleets is to include regular vehicle inspections. Regular inspections enable you to identify important issues much earlier, allowing you to be more in control of what needs to be repaired before the issue and costs spiral out of control.
Regular inspections
With so much at stake in terms of making sure vehicles are safe, compliant and efficient, fleets can’t afford to be complacent, making carrying out regular vehicle inspections a crucial part of their fleet maintenance programme. In the UK, drivers are legally required to conduct walkaround checks before getting on the road each day.
- Daily walkaround checks
Vehicles need to be maintained on a regular basis and by checking your fleet daily you reduce the time your vehicles are off the road and remain compliant. Creating predefined checklists for drivers to use when inspecting vehicles, allows them to quickly and easily examine vehicles making sure nothing gets overlooked and that defects get reported and addressed.
- Scheduled inspections
Whereas daily driver walkaround inspections are carried out to check for visible safety issues and determine whether any repairs are necessary, additional regular servicing and MOT inspections should also be scheduled to carry out a more complete set of checks. More in-depth issues which aren’t necessarily apparent during walkaround checks can often be uncovered, these may include, belts, wheel alignment, tune-ups and other efficiency-improving repairs.
Safety
Regular inspections are crucial for ensuring a vehicle’s safety while on the road. According to the European Parliament, approximately 5% of accidents are due to technical failures, while poor maintenance accounts for 4%.
Shockingly, the most common causes of accidents (66%) were attributed to vehicle failures due to a lack of maintenance, with brake failure being cited as one of the most reported defects. Commercial fleets have a huge responsibility when it comes to operating safely on the road which highlights the importance of conducting daily checks so that defects can be reported and ultimately prevent any serious road accidents.
Compliance
Drivers in the UK are legally responsible for the condition of the heavy goods vehicle they are driving, therefore they are legally obliged to carry out these HGV walkaround checks before each journey. The results of the checks must be recorded and any defects need to be reported and fixed before the vehicle is driven.
Any commercial vehicle can be stopped by the roadside and inspected at any time to ensure that the vehicle is completely roadworthy and safe. Fleet management systems such as Prolius Fleet, which are DVSA-approved, ensure that your vehicle is meeting the legal requirements and KPIs set out to avoid failing roadside inspections and make sure that your vehicles are compliant at all times.
How Prolius Fleet can help your fleet inspection process
Through streamlined maintenance workflows, Prolius Fleet enables you to obtain total visibility into and control over the inspection and maintenance scheduling and planning across your entire fleet network.
Drivers play an important role in preventative maintenance via their daily walkaround checks and through digitising the vehicle inspection process, these checks can be performed easily and quickly via the mobile app, reducing the need for any paperwork and reporting any defects in real-time so that they can be swiftly addressed.
Preventing breakdowns is essential for road safety, not to mention customer satisfaction: vehicles off the road and delays often mean financial consequences and lead to a reputation for poorer customer service. It goes without saying that well-maintained vehicles are far more reliable than poorly maintained ones which are why vehicle inspections are so important for fleets of all sizes.
Get in touch to find out more about how you can boost your fleet’s safety and productivity by digitising the vehicle inspection process.