Good to Go Safety believes that inspecting business vehicles should be a mandatory protocol to ensure that they are in safe condition before being driven.
It says that completing comprehensive pre-use checks ‘could and would’ save lives.
Vehicle failures can play a major role in an accident, putting even the safest driver in a life-or-death situation.
It told Fleet News that driving is risky enough without having to worry about a vehicle failure. That’s why pre-use safety inspections are a vital part of any fleet management system.
The Good to Go Safety checklist encourages regular pre-drive safety checks to be carried out in line with best practice guidelines by ROSPA and the DfT (Department for Transport).
It provides documented evidence that a fleet safety policy is in operation, and valuable evidence of the vehicle’s condition and maintenance programme in the event of an accident.
In addition to devastating human loss, car crashes present a significant cost in lost wages and productivity, medical and administrative expenses, employer costs and property damage.
Given what’s on the line, asking employees to conduct pre-use checks before using vehicles for work is a smart and responsible policy to enforce, says Good to Go Safety.
By spotting potential problems early, it said a fleet can deal with them before they develop into a costly accident.
Bob the Engineer - 30/09/2014 17:43
Unfortunately you can only keep cutting a cake so many times before it crumbles. Thanks to the 'blessing' of Telematics many employees have to be on the road (literally) at a certain time on the dot or get sanctioned, there is no discretion or common sense in Telematics. So then to tell drivers to get up yet another half hour earlier to do tyre pressures and check their oil BEFORE "clocking on" .. no chance! If companies are sensible and recognise that maintaining a work vehicle, so its fit to go do work in is part of work and make provision to do safety checks WITHIN the working day then I am all for it!!! sadly these days its just another thing that will be expected for nothing.