Left hand down!:
It’s all completely OTT. You wouldn’t check all that crap on your car every day so there’s no reason to have to do it on a truck/van or anything else. Takes me about 2 mins to check that the lights work, tyres are round with tread and wheelnuts all look okay, no damaged bodywork that needs reporting before I leave and finally a dashboard check of the fuel, oil and adblue levels. I don’t even bother checking the water as the temp gauge rising above half way will show up any problems there once warmed up. In winter time I’d add checking screenwash level and that the night heater works to the list. Too many drama queens these days making big issues out of everything. 
It’s a wonder anything gets delivered at all the way some of you are going on.
Think i would take any advice from Left Hand Clown with a pinch of salt. After all if he/she was as perfect as he/she proposes to be, surely he/she would be some sort of instructor and not some arm chair fantasist! Just a thought?
When I took my test in Canada, the pre trip inspection part was longer than the road test. 
Own Account Driver:
I would say that broadly driver’s daily checks are pretty much a waste of time. Possibly lights checks might be worth it but I would still rather rely on a truck’s computer to do it. Drivers typically just aren’t equipped to detect and recognise real issues and a perimeter walk around is just not going to give access to enough of the vehicle. I also doubt that any amount of DCPC would change this.
Like constant fire drills, that result in being unable to determine between a drill and a real event, daily checks are a box-ticking exercise that have all the hallmarks of a system designed to improve road safety but contribute little, if anything, in reality and quickly reach a kind of going through the motions status.
It is exceptionally rare for a driver to defect a vehicle for anything that represented an imminent threat to road safety and often the vehicle would still sail through test. Periodic maintenance inspections are really what keeps vehicles in a safe condition and where serious defects are uncovered and these defects have rarely, if ever, been spotted in the previous 6/8 weeks worth of daily checks.
Drivers may bring vehicles in with valid defects that have occurred noticeably in service but this is unrelated to daily checks and if there were developing symptoms/signs before they set off, they weren’t obviously picked up on daily checks.
Might give some drivers a sense of self-importance but that’s about all it’s good for.
I found a flat tyre on a unit and loose wheel nuts on a trailer once doing a check. Kinda makes your whole post a bit invalid don’t it… nicely written though.
peterm:
‘… a cuddly blonde …’
Just as one bloke’s pre-use check could be ripping the mick, another bloke’s ‘…cuddly blonde…’ could simply be a fat bird 
Well that’s destroyed my dream. 
cav551:
Just as well this isn’t the good ol’ US of A. It seems that to pass the equivalent of the HGV test trainee drivers need to be able to know and demonstrate the following:
youtube.com/watch?v=gw7vinvH1XY
Same in Canada. It’s all part of the class 1 test. Show 15 minutes for pre trip at the start of the day and just flag a post trip on the logbook at the end of the day. Some states like to see a check through the day to. I really don’t see what people’s problem is showing 15 mins for a check on the truck and load
And left hand down you don’t do 600 miles a day in your car so of course you wouldn’t check it every day. Fool.
I check all my levels lights tires and load every morning. Who says when you park up at night and picked up a puncture. Quick 15 mins check then start earning money for the day
taffytrucker:
‘…I really don’t see what people’s problem is showing 15 mins for a check on the truck and load…’
Does this demonstrate naive bewilderment at those all around us who gag to finish 15 minutes earlier/ASAP and be somewhere else instead of taking responsibility as a paid professional?
My “hard-worked for” quid also reckons they’re the dudes we say ‘yo’ to everyday, but regularly leave glasswork horribly minging for the next bod on their NFI ambition to race us “lazy British” to the bottom - as shiny-trousered management only give a focussed stuff about short-term/investors profit? 
I could be wrong