Lots of daft ones but - when is a defect not a defect?
According to it - if it is fitted (radio/aircon/lights etc) and not working it is a defect - end of!
A lot of common needs to be applied to defects but what if employers had a defect pad for some drivers? That would be worth reading I think 
Suppose comes down to legal and comfort, both are defects though.
Iâve defected a truck with a dodgy sunroof, working at Ramages years ago agency, usually got hit with the oldest of trucks, got a newish one 54plate and thought wow they must really trust me.
Got onto the M74 heading south torrential rain started and the water started pouring in, was soaked, had to put on a jacket with the hood up.
Ive taken a truck out with a non-working radio, but put it in as a defect to get fixed, makes the job a lot longer and harder with no radio.
Same with nightheaters may say being petty but in the middle of winter and its -3 outside no fun doing overnighters with no nightheater.
A lot of these comfort defects never seem to get fixed with a lot of companies, and ok they ainât gonna make your truck illegal but they will make your job a lot harder. Allright for a one off or a few days but not permanent.
Kenny1975:
Same with nightheaters may say being petty but in the middle of winter and its -3 outside no fun doing overnighters with no nightheater.
Actually night heaters should be kept working winter and summer so it ainât being petty
youngwithaclass1:
My lorry was used over the weekend on nights and i came in this morning, to a letter on my dash from a night driver, saying that he had defected the lorry cos it was making a WHISTLING NOISE!!!under accelartion, iâd never laughed so much in my life, first time iâd seen one of our fitters cry lol
You two would have looked like right pillocks if the turbo had gave up the ghost, plus there is several other reasons why the above description should be taken seriously.
âEngine missingâ 
where else to you put jobs to do
it saves having too books at least
some one is supposed to look at the thing
I found an old defict bbok in a truck that came back from hire. there was one note in there that really made me and the boss laugh
this is what it said
defect one driver to drunk to drive also
next day
no money for fuel seam to of lost running money
scottishcruiser:
Never seen it but with the amount of whiners on here it wouldnât surprise me if people wouldnât take out there unit if the radio didnât work
Iâve defected a radio not working! Iâd drive the truck but how is a fault to be fixed if no-one knows about it? 
Most of the DAF CFs on our fleet have (zb) radio reception and RDS doesnât work but the CD players doâŚso thats alright.
delboytwo:
I found an old defict bbok in a truck that came back from hire. there was one note in there that really made me and the boss laughthis is what it said
defect one driver to drunk to drive also
next day
no money for fuel seam to of lost running money
usually followed the next day by the âI got gassed and robbedâ phone call 
the best iâve seen is from my first company a brummy bit thick but did everything by the book defected the radio it read radio is defect has it wont recieve radio 2. never laughed so much
brados:
Lots of daft ones but - when is a defect not a defect?According to it - if it is fitted (radio/aircon/lights etc) and not working it is a defect - end of!
I agree, but how do you think we oldies went on? air-con? An open window, and the hole in the floor where the gear lever went through was our air con. How do you defect that? Some of you young 'uns donât know youâre born with all the mod cons in modern lorries, there must be many other drivers who can remember the days without air con or night heaters to write a defect report on.
bugcos:
ââŚSqueeking seat when you go over a bump, yes it was annoying but not worthy of a defect FFSâŚâ
Sorry bugsy, I canât agree 100%.
If the squeak is a design feature then fine; If it aint - then itâs a symptom indication of something being less than fully serviceable.
Besides, squeaks cause friction & friction exacerbates wear âŚwhich in laymans terms means that a squeak aint gonna fix itself and it is likely in some sort of failure over sufficient time.
So, if one squirt of WD40 would likely fix it, who gets to do that one squirt?
If youâre suggesting any one of umpteen drivers can or should do it, then please be advised that my agency âday-sackâ doesnât run to lugging around WD40 - which leaves what?
I suggest by submitting a two-second-to-fix âdefectâ for a fitter to conveniently hook loads of his hours onto; e.g. he can squirt the WD40 and claim âinvestigationâ time onto it, etc, etc. That way everyone wins and itâs 100% legal/pukka, etc, surely?
So, laughing apart but since I also get peeâd off with irritating cab squeaks, how is the ââŚFFSâŚâ seriously justified - unless itâs considered good practice to see how clapped-out we can get our wagons before they suffer a failure of any sort?
Kenny1975:
scottishcruiser:
Never seen it but with the amount of whiners on here it wouldnât surprise me if people wouldnât take out there unit if the radio didnât workI wouldnt
Nah not that bad but got in a truck before where the radio didnt work and asked for another unit, 13 hour shift with no radio really does your head in.
i would defect it but i wouldnt refuse to take the truck out. then again, not having a radio almost caused me a very long day. when the suicide bombers hit london i was trying to get to a tip in battersea. it was a txt message asking if i was ok and informing me of what was going on that turned me round before i got stuck inside the M25 perimeter. its amazing just how isolated you are without a radio
a couple of months ago i had a load transhipped from one trailer to another because the tail lift was sticking out a few inches beyond the rubber stoppers. my anderson lead was standard and didnt fit the bigger connection on the trailer so i asked for an adapter. there wasnt one on site and the supervisor wanted to see the problem for himself. he put the trailer off the road there and then. it also got the chief driver in trouble because he chose that trailer and put it on the bay without spotting the tail lift 
Chris Webb:
âEngine missingâ
Fallopian tubes need cleaning .
After 39 years I can still picture that fitter with the hammer chasing that young lad out of the garage .
As an agency driver at Sainsburys you are told you must vor any truck with any defect on the seat even if you are totally comfortable. Yeah it needs sorting but itâs not an immediate vor, is it ?.
xtruckerlady:
I agree, but how do you think we oldies went on? air-con? An open window, and the hole in the floor where the gear lever went through was our air con. How do you defect that? Some of you young 'uns donât know youâre born with all the mod cons in modern lorries, there must be many other drivers who can remember the days without air con or night heaters to write a defect report on.
Yes great times were hard when you were my age
However the subject of the thread is about defects. If something is wrong with it I defect it, unless itâs the stereo because they wonât fix or replace broken stereos so there is no point defecting them. No matter how small it is it needs to be defected because it wonât get fixed otherwise. Working in the yard it amazes me how many defects on vehicles I pick up when moving them that the driver who has driven them all day hasnât bothered to report because he didnât think it was worth it. Funnily enough after it being reported either the shunters fix it or it goes off to the garage so so much for not being worth reporting.
scottishcruiser:
â⌠it wouldnât surprise me if people wouldnât take out their unit if the radio didnât workâŚâ
Youâd not see me for a fifteen hour shift: Iâd ride into every traffic snarl that was possible from the route âŚor is some ageing wheel-monkey gonna tell us that traffic reports are a luxury too?
Or, are you gonna give us tales of when a hold up in the Golden Age of of Haulage was relayed by pigeon stating âAye-up lads âŚthereâs a cart ânâ horse stuck in a puddle on the turnpikeâ?
One day while filling out my defect sheet i wondered if these actually got read, so next to tyres i put
running on rims, drives o.k but a bit sluggish at steering and braking
another day while in a cheeky mood while filling out sheet for a '02 MAN i wrote in the OTHER COMMENTS
âstarting (crank) handle is too heavy and clumberson and today i nearly broke my wrist using it while on mobile to my mate - consider buying a lighter weight smaller one - or better still invest in an eletric starter motor that worksâ.
And low an below, - the next day handed my notes in and the TM had a little word with me
at least i know they get read - but what the TM classes as OTR problems and what a drivers classrs as OTR are totally different sometimesâŚ
Iâve seen a few best being âwarning light for empty windscreen washer onâ which really isnât a defect but indication of a lazy driver
However Iâll make a note of anything that needs addressing with a note of whether itâs still ok to use - at the end of the day when it goes into the dealer for a service they will hopefully have a list of little jobs to sort out all in one go.
I was always told if it was factory fitted and it didnât work or was faulty it was a defect end of story 
