Pre-Trip Inspections Aren’t Just for Commercial Vehicles

Like most people, I love most surprises. Birthdays, holidays and just a nice little surprise every now and then kicks the day off to a great start. However, there are surprises that no one really enjoys—like when your vehicle breaks down without much of a warning. Nonetheless, with careful attention, some early-warning markers can be easily identified, thus minimizing the occurrence of unforeseen vehicle mishaps.

One of the best ways to ensure those nasty surprises won’t happen is to conduct a pre-trip inspection of your personal vehicle. Although many people consider this something only commercial drivers do, it’s also something every driver should do. It doesn’t take as long as a commercial pre-trip inspection, but it can serve a similar purpose.




Begin at the Rear of the Vehicle


A pre-trip inspection for most passenger vehicles should take roughly a minute or two. Be prepared for a few additional minutes if you spot something wrong. Begin at the rear of the vehicle and examine the body and related equipment for things that appear abnormal. This could include damage from a collision. If there’s body damage and you’re sharing the vehicle with someone else, you’ll have time to address this with the other driver before departing.

While inspecting the rear of the vehicle, check the taillights, turn signals and backup lights to ensure they are not covered in dirt, mud or snow. The elements can obstruct critical signalling functions and lead to an accident. Also, ensure there are no cracks in any light covers. Every couple of weeks, check to ensure all the lights are working. This would include the brake lights, turn signals, taillights and even backup lights. If you’re alone, you can check to see if the backup lights are working by reversing toward a glass window and looking for the refection.

To complete your pre-trip inspection of the vehicle’s rear, you should ensure your licence plate validation sticker is there and hasn’t been ripped away by someone. Make sure your trunk lid is properly closed, especially if you were not the last person to drive the vehicle. And lastly, ensure the rear window is completely clear of the elements. You need to be able to see what’s behind you while driving. And don’t rely on the rear window defroster to clear it. You’ll be driving quite a long distance before it clears off enough of the dew, frost or snow.

Inspecting the Vehicle’s Side

Once you’ve finished inspecting the rear of the vehicle, move toward the passenger’s side of the vehicle. Start with the side windows. They too must be clear of the elements before entering the vehicle. It’s tough to clean them once you’re in the driver’s seat and rolling the windows down doesn’t always work as well as you might think. Having a squeegee handy will help you do the job in mere seconds.

Moving away from the side windows, ensure all the doors are been properly closed. If you were not the last person to drive that vehicle, passenger doors may not be securely closed, meaning as you make a turn, the door may fly open causing panic to you and others nearby. Also, check for any body damage, just as you did at the rear of the vehicle, before you enter the vehicle and drive away.

Once the doors and windows have been inspected, ensure the side mirror is clean and not folded in. Many drivers fold in their side mirrors to avoid having them damaged while parked on the street or in a parking lot. Sometimes they get folded in by people passing by. From there it’s time for an inspection of the tires.


Checking Tire Pressure


Checking your vehicle’s tires each time before you enter the vehicle can help to determine if they are losing air. However, with more tires increasingly being designed for performance, it’s getting more difficult to visually spot a tire that is low on air. Using a tire pressure indicator is the best approach for checking the air pressure in your vehicle’s tires.

Checking the tires while they are cold—less than 2 hours of immediate driving—is the best time to obtain a reading. Since many vehicles have Tire Pressure Monitor systems, they can usually help but will have to be used while driving. In addition to checking the tires for adequate air pressure, look around each tire for any objects which may cause damage to the tire. This would include nails, small pieces of metal or even glass. Placed correctly, it doesn’t take much to puncture a tire. Noticing the direction of the front wheels is the last thing to do. No one wants to be surprised the direction the vehicle moves once they release the brake pedal. Noticing the wheel direction can eliminate that surprise. Now it’s time to move to the front of the vehicle.

Inspecting the Vehicle’s Front


Many drivers ignore the windshield as they believe the wipers can clear it, but that’s not always the case. Inspecting the wipers for damage or debris under them is a good start to improving the driver’s visibility. Small twigs or leaves can get wedged under the wiper which not only cause streaks across the window, but they can also damage the wiper or blade. Every two weeks or so, use a mild cleaner to clean off any grit or grime from your wiper blade. This can help to prolong the life of windshield wipers, plus improve the driver’s visibility. This is also a good time to inspect the windshield, looking for pit marks or small chips. These chips may be out of the driver’s view so they may not have been noticed while driving.

From there, ensure the hood is completely latched. If someone else checked the oil or added washer fluid, they may not have closed the hood completely. Ensure the headlight lenses are clear as well as the licence plate, if your jurisdiction mandates a front plate. If the headlight lenses have turned yellow, you can use a lens cleaner to get them a little clearer. You’re almost done, but not quite. Take a quick glance underneath the front of the vehicle and look for any fluid leaks. If you notice a liquid there, touch it to see if it’s gritty. If it isn’t, it’s most likely water from the air conditioning.

Once you’ve inspected the front of the vehicle, check the same items on the driver’s side. Whichever side of your vehicle has the gas cap, ensure that the cap is secure by turning until you hear one click of the cap. This pre-trip inspection seems like it would take a long time, but it doesn’t. I like to look at it this way. It would take me longer to get service at the side of the road than it would to identify the problem before entering the vehicle.

Investing in commercial van is wise business investment. Always choose the best one for your business. To know more drop comments in the comment section.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hire a refrigerated van fleet to access great service at minimal cost

Image
Vehicle acquisition makes up a huge part of business fleet costs, particularly when that fleet operates within a cold chain. In this blog, we examine why   refrigerated truck rental   holds the key to acquiring high-quality service at a low cost. Why choose refrigerated vans? First thing’s first - which vehicle model is best for your business needs? Needless to say, there is a healthy demand for refrigerated HGVS. However, for many small businesses operating a cold chain, refrigerated vans can pose the best solution. Refrigerated transport is often used for relatively small loads - such as online food shopping, events catering, or fresh produce deliveries to small stores. In each of these situations, a refrigerated van may be the most suitably sized vehicle. On top of this, congestion on the roads is getting worse. Research by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) found that vehicle traffic has increased by 5% since 2000, while the length of the road netwo...
Read more

Anheuser-Busch to add 21 BYD electric delivery trucks to California fleets

Image
It seems Anheuser-Busch is set on trying every type of alternative-fuel-powered delivery truck available. In 2017, A-B announced it had ordered 40 electric Tesla semi-trucks. In 2018, A-B said it ordered as many as 800 hydrogen Nikola Motor Company semis. And in 2019, A-B says it is adding 21 battery-electric semis to its distribution fleet, this time from Chinese manufacturer Build Your Dreams (BYD). The introduction of the electric trucks is part of a collaboration between A-B, BYD, the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), and ENGIE Services U.S. It's called the Zero-Emission Beverage Handling and Distribution at Scale project, and it aims to "demonstrate how to reach zero-emissions across the range of activities at AB distribution facilities with minimal modifications to fleet logistics." A-B claims this will be the largest Class 8 electric truck deployment in North America. The trucks and their charging gear will be used at four...
Read more

Refrigerated Vans for Deliveries and Trailers for Storage

Image
Several news articles published this past spring described the good work of a well-known online supermarket that donated refrigerated vans to local food charities. What the company did was both honorable and very helpful to the charities in question. News reports explained that the purpose of the donations was to give food charities the means of delivering more fresh foods – like perishable fruits, vegetables, and meats – to recipients rather than just canned and dry goods. That is a great goal to pursue. Hopefully the food charities are not using the vans for storage as well. In short, refrigerated vans are for deliveries while refrigerated trailers are for storage. There really is no comparison when you are looking at a cold storage solution for more than a couple of hours at a time. Trailers Offer More Capacity One of the first things to note about refrigerated trailers is that, compared to refrigerated van hire, they offer more c...
Read more