All registered commercial vehicles weighing over 10k pounds are obligated to undergo official inspection under the Department of Transportation (DoT). The official inspection is a must for at least once in a year and is meant to ensure the safe working of all parts and accessories.
How to do a truck safety inspection checklist?
There are various aspects that a truck inspection checklist entails. Below we have come up with the detailed truck pre-trip inspection checklist which can help you to prepare.
Driver Inspection
At this stage, the inspection officer will be looking at the qualifications and documentation of the truck driver to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations. Some of the things that would be checked at this inspection stage include:
- Driving License
- Vehicle inspection report
- Driver inspection report
- Driver’s daily log
- Alcohol and/or drugs
- Hazmat requirements
- Medical Card and waiver
Below mentioned is the truck inspection checklist for various parts and accessories which would be checked during the inspection by the officer. It’s important to ensure that all of these parts and accessories are maintained at an optimal performance level for safe operations.
- Seat belt
- Brakes
- Brake lamps
- Coupling devices
- Frame
- Fuel system
- Headlamps
- Suspension
- Tires
- Exhaust system
- Lamps on projecting loads
- Safe loading
- Steering mechanism
- Windshield wipers
- Stop lamps
- Tail lamps
- Trailer bodies
- Wheels, rims, and hubcaps
How to Prepare
The best and surest way to ensure you pass the truck inspection is to ensure that your vehicle is in optimum performance level and you address all potential issues before they deteriorate further. It is important to ensure that all repair and maintenance work for the vehicle is performed by a certified and qualified mechanic. However, you can also perform quick pre-inspection of the vehicle to look out for any possible loops or concerns that may compromise the operations and safety of the truck. Here are some areas where you should perform a pre-inspection of the vehicle:
- Tires
The tendency of the tires to deflate gradually makes them a vulnerable spot for the safety inspection. You should regularly check the pressure in the tires to ensure they have adequate air pressure as per the safety standards. Also, check out the state’s truck inspection regulations for mud flaps/splash guards to ensure compliance with the regulatory standards.
- Lights
Proper functioning of lights, bulbs, and electrical signals is important for the safe operations of a truck. Thereby, it’s important to check all the electrical signals and lights on the vehicle and see if they are in working condition.
- Cracks in the glass
Cracks of chips on the glass (windows /windscreen) can quickly become a safety hazard if not fixed timely. Thereby, it’s important to regularly check all the glasses of the vehicle for any hairline cracks or chips and make sure to get them fixed immediately.
Final Thoughts:
Almost all experience level truck driver must have a Google knowledge that to how to conduct a pre-trip truck inspection. However, sometime inexperience level truck driver may don’t take the time to go through this inspection properly at every time as a result they hit the road. For every big fleet management company, It’s critical to go through this process in-depth in order to make sure that whether everything is operating according to plan. To avoid the failures, over costing and take you off the road, or worse so every fleet company must utilize the best Fleet Maintenance Management Software in order to keep entire operations under control.
