I have been asked by the TC to explain how I am going to supervise the daily walk round checks.
I am nominated TM and apart from very rare occasions I am the sole driver of our lorry - it only goes out 2-3 days a week so I’m comfortable I can devote enough time to the TM duties, but as it’s usually just me who does the daily checks will it be sufficient to state I am self-policing?
What do owner drivers do?
Apologies if this is a numpty question, I am trying not to get tripped up!
I don’t quite get you .
Sorry, I am thick.
Upgrading from restricted to full O licence. I am nominated TM. The office of the TC has come back and asked me to state who supervises the daily checks; I am also the driver, so can I just say, I supervise myself? Or words to that effect. The answer is probably obvious but as I say, I’m a thicko
Sounds to me like the TC has concerns over your mechanical knowledge ,I could be wrong though ,have you any bad history regarding maintenance ect ?
Nope, squeaky clean, been pulled a couple of times for spot checks but no issues, use a good garage, etc. I am a new CPC holder though and haven’t had HGV licence all that long so maybe it is an experience thing.
No idea ,never heard of it before ,do like you say explain your self exactly how it is ,perhaps you could state that your maintenance provider is avalible 24/7 should you need advice on daily checks ?
Thanks Dan, much appreciated. I’d reached the same conclusion, just say it how it is!!
Have you done or thought about doing the driver cpc course that covers daily checks ? You could pop the proof of it in with your reply .
By the time you have sat through watching these two vosa videos on daily checks and the MOT test (if you are still awake) then you should have a reasonable idea of what is expected. You can also download the HGV tester’s manual from the gov website. Another publication which you can download is called Categorisation of Defects which gives explanations about how seriously individual defects are to be taken. Being able to present not just evidence of these but some reasonably detailed understanding should be enough. Talk nicely to your garage and they may take you along to view a test being carried out. What the TC will want to see in practice is that there is a paper trail from you as driver to the workshop back to you as TM.
The questions which spring to mind are what will you do when there is an urgent load which is very important to the business and your walk around check discovers a defective vehicle? and do you have contingency plans for the vehicle being unavailable for the rest of that day?
I would have kept schtum about being the pretty much sole driver and have said that I as TM would oversee the driver’s daily checks.
It tends to be best to stretch things to fit with their expected view of how most companies operate without telling any lies. Basically just tell them what they want to hear.
I think you may find this will be more to do with someone taking responsibility for making sure drivers are actually doing daily checks rather than the maintenance issues related to daily checks.
Thanks fellas, much appreciated.
you can nominate anyone to follow you around watching you do your checks, I normally go in the same time as the drivers and watch them from a distance then check myself from the same check sheet, just looking for some thing they might have missed, record the time they enter their card or chart, record the same mileage, and if ok no faults found, sign it and keep it in the records for that vehicle as you are checking the vehicle the same as him,
or her.
mind you I have asked some drivers, as an outsider what they thought of the human race
I know where he is coming from…our O licence conditions state that: Daily checks must be carried out by all drivers, permanent or temporary. A record must be kept of initial training to show how to complete said checks for each driver. Further, a weekly audit of said drivers must be made by management to ensure the daily checks are being adhered to and completed correctly.
So: The driver gets the training (by whom?) to complete the check and sheet. Once a week someone (TM or other person) audits one driver at random, to see if they are doing the job correctly.
An audit sheet is completed by the checker to say all is hunky dory.
However, when there is only one driver (and he is the TM) who checks the checker?
We have a director who knows FA about trucking etc but he would be my superior. How would he know if I was doing the job correctly?
We have 4/5 drivers…so once a month we all get assessed…me included. So I sign the form as a driver and as the assessor!
Plus we have to keep the defect sheets for 2 years…2 years,…maintenance sheets are only 15 months FFS!