FleetCheck has updated its Vehicle Inspection App with new features as it reaches a milestone of seven million checks.

The app can now be used for push messaging to send risk management-specific information to drivers and can also communcate new fleet policies for driver reading and confirmation.

Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck, said: “The Vehicle Inspection App has been one of our success stories of the last few years and its usage is continuing to accelerate rapidly. It was first introduced in early 2017 and took until early this year to clock up two million checks but has now passed seven million in a matter of months.

“There has been a general increase in awareness of this kind of digital safety check product in the market, both among car and commercial vehicle fleets, and we have been well-placed to take advantage of the trend, even through the coronavirus situation.”

The Vehicle Inspection App creates the means for drivers and fleet managers of cars, vans, HGVs, buses and coaches to schedule, carry out, confirm, follow-up and audit all kinds of legally-required inspections from daily walkarounds to weekly or monthly checks.

“There is some evidence that safety inspections have become more of a hot topic over the last few months,” Golding added. “On one hand, we’ve had some LCV fleets working around-the-clock on frontline services, so safety has been a concern there. Then, on the other, we’ve had some vehicles hardly being used during lockdown, which brings its own safety issues.”

The app allows fast, accurate and easily auditable safety checks to be carried out, and fleets have recognised its value during the pandemic.

Golding said: “The new features that we have added to the app this week have very much been driven by user requests and we put a lot of ongoing work into ensuring that the product remains relevant through changing conditions and developing fleet needs.

“In fact, one of the features that helped to drive usage through spring and summer was a fit-to-drive declaration that covered coronavirus symptoms. The importance of this was immediately recognised and it was adopted by a wide range of our fleet customers.”