just a thought does a defect book have to stay with the vehicle or can it stay with the driver and be moved from vehicle to vehicle 
On my firm,the defect book is always in the traffic office window where all drivers book in and out so drivers can put a defect report in as they clock off.
I was on the understanding at one time that drivers had to fill in a defect report every day,even if most days it was a āNo defectsā.
at the moment we have a defect book in each vehicle but if we had a visit from vosa some pages would go missing cos myself and another driver at my firm report the same defects day in day out but nothing gets done about it so if we were checked up on pages of the defect books would dissappear to cover their own butts 
The bestway to ensure that you are not held as
the fall guy when something goes wrong,as
regards DEFECTS;
IS as follows WRITE your defects outand then make
copies in the no,s required (I do 3 copies) ;
1;For the workshop mechanic,
2, traffic office
3, For ME TO KEEP AS PROOF
The traffic manager gets to put his
signature on my copy.
I do not have any problems
at all,and it works.
thanks
Most of the companies I deal with have a ānil defectā operation. Each days load plan sheet, which gives the driver the rundown of his daily work schedule, has a vehicle check list on the back and you do your morning checks before setting off, ticking all thew boxes to say everything is OK. If itās not OK, well you donāt set off, none of the, āWeāll fix it when you get backā. If it needs fixing, it gets done before I take it out.
If some other driver is daft enough to drive a dodgy motor, well thatās their problem.
Defect books actually in the office and should you have a defect, it then goes into the book as well as on your form (I always put any issues that arise throughout the day on my form in red).
The reason I would be a little apprehensive about a proper defect book in the motor are
1 When would they see the book
2 How would they know there is a defect in the office or workshop because I have actually known of a driver who just filled defects in his diary and was mad that they never got fixed. The fool never told anyone.
- Some of the downright stupid defects I have seen listed.
(one driver listed, as a serious defect, that his new motor was dangerous because he hit his head on the headrest when drinking the last swig out of a can or emptying the last few crumbs of crisps out of the packet into his mouth 
our defect books stay in the vehicle because they are a 3 ply carbon book the first copy is given in before our journey and is white the second copy is given in at the end of our journey with any arising defects while we were out and is green the third copy stays in the book which is kept in the vehicle and we dont have a workshop as our units are leased so they have to be sent out to have any defects rectified what i am saying is that if we were inspected by vosa and they found defects that we had reported but not been repaired i believe that the white and green copies and the book would conveniantly go missing so i want to know if it ok for me to have a defect book on my person so i have proof that i have logged those defects i hope this makes sense 
DoYouMeanMe?:
Most of the companies I deal with have a ānil defectā operation. Each days load plan sheet, which gives the driver the rundown of his daily work schedule, has a vehicle check list on the back and you do your morning checks before setting off, ticking all thew boxes to say everything is OK. If itās not OK, well you donāt set off, none of the, āWeāll fix it when you get backā. If it needs fixing, it gets done before I take it out.
thats what we have to doā¦when getting our days work plan we get half an hour to do all the vehicle checks ectā¦we then have to sign a nil defect sheet in the office to say weither or not any defects foundā¦we also tick the check list boxes with our days work planā¦any defects found have to be filled out there and then using the vc40 form and no matter how small the defect is the vehicle dosenāt leave the yard till its sortedā¦upon retuning back to depot we then have to check the vehicle over again and sign the nil defect sheet that we signed in the morning to say weither or not any defects were found after useā¦any defects found are entered in the vc40 defect book and repaired overnightā¦
we also have the FTA who pop in every now and then early in the mornings when weāre leaving the yard who will stop our trucks at random round the corner and give them a quick check over with a member of our management team just to make sure weāre on the ballā¦
we have c30ās,some of our drivers donāt give 2 [ZBāS] they run around with abs 1 lights on, iāve told 'em, itās just a matter of time b4 they get rumbled. 
Lee77uk.
Itās an awkward problem if you list a defect and nothing is done about it. Technically, you are breaking the law by driving a vehicle that you know is not roadworthy.
However, I have seen some drivers sent home if they defect a vehicle and the next mug takes it out just as it was because he needs to earn money to keep his family going.
Agency drivers , especially newbies, tend to get stuck in these situations because the company they work for will often ring the supplying agency and request that this driver is not sent to them again, if he refuses to drive a pile of scrap.
Iāve heard that many test stations will inform the vehicle owners that you were actually brought into the test station by an examiner/PC if you were to just drive into one for them to find the faultsā¦
Typically in our place its a defect and check sheet you fill in everytime you take a unit and trailer out the yard which at times can be 4 times a day. Which is handed into security guards hut on the way out.
Any defect deemed to make the vehicle unroadworthy iād report to transport office and id either fix it say dodgy suzi or replace bulb or get another vehicle.
Other places ive worked, people have tried to palm me off with a dodgy defective motor because i was agency. Iāve no problem ifthey say well you will be sent home and wonāt be coming back here again because i will be getting paid my 8 hours for that shift for not doing anything and i wouldnt want to come back work for such a crappy company anyways. Had my class 1 over 2 years now anyways and got really good references from respected companies so have no problem walking into a new place, not worth my while to do a shift and risk fines and points on my licence or even jail sentence if i have a serious accident caused by a defective motor for the sake of a single shift.
We have a defect book for each driver and every shift it is (should be) filled in. It has carbon copies; the top sheet goes to the office and the copy stays in the book with the driver.
I would have thought it made more sense for the book to stay with the vehicle, but thatās the way we do it.
I complete it every day and since my unit is brand new itās usually a nil report. If bulbs need changing I do that before defecting it as part of my checks. Otherwise itās up to the gaffer to deal with it.