One thing that often occurred to me as I wearily climbed down off the catwalk to make absolutely sure, was that there could be some indicator on the back of the cab, to show that the parking brake was set. On some trucks you have to climb into the cab to see the darn thing.
bradthinks:
Sadly u could make the button as big as u want on the head bored and put lights on it and some will forget/be to lazy to use it, look at low bridges and we still hit them.What if the break was some sort of box that u had to pull down over the red air line coupling to release the break and lift off to apply the breaks so u could not remove red line or move lorry if was wrong
Surely that would a great move forward, something ‘fail-safe’ or a kind of interlock device …as ^^^^^^.
espresso:
The Yorkshireman:
As I got older and more forgetful, I started using a final mental check before climbing back into cab after coupling or uncoupling.All lorry drivers will be familiar with the term five finger exercise
well here’s a new one. Before climbing back into cab look back down the trailer and mentally count off in sequence; 1. Safety clip in/ off pin handle; 2. Number plate on/off; 3.Wheels up/down; 4. Handbrake on/off; 5.all air or electric lines connected/ disconnected.
This doesn’t negate the need to tug the pin when going under or dictate the order in which you carry out the actual checks, which I presume everyone to have a sensible working knowledge of, but it just gives a little piece of mind before moving off. Worked for me maybe it will for some of you.
p.s. I’ve stopped doing it now I’ve retired.
The ‘five’ method is what I’ve always used, invaluable if you get interrupted halfway through your sequence. Once the important ‘five’ are covered I look at the ‘add ons’, e.g. trailer suspension and fridge temp.
All well and good until someone starts to chat to you when you’re halfway through coupling up,that’s when you forget where you are and miss something.
Silver_Surfer:
mazzer:
Agree that all brake buttons should be in the same place or why not just them set to automatically work as soon as red airline is disconnected I know some trailers have this so why not allBingo, Tesco spec.
On all our new dekkers and one or two other trailers,the red button pops out as soon as you remove the red airline,so even when you reconnect the red airline,the brakes are still on until you punch the red button.
Should now be standard on all trailers!
bestbooties:
On all our new dekkers and one or two other trailers,the red button pops out as soon as you remove the red airline,so even when you reconnect the red airline,the brakes are still on until you punch the red button.
Should now be standard on all trailers!
All very well and obviously takes the driver off the catwalk, but as soon as you hit the red button you could still be in a rollaway scenario? As you say above, it only then takes someone to start talking to you…
Our safe trailer coupling device, SafeConnect - ensures that the driver is back in the cab before it is possible for trailer brakes to be released.
Nezza:
I always use BLACK as my mental checklist. Brake - Legs - Air - Clip - Kingpin
I’ve heard of BLANK - Brake - Legs - Air - Numberplate - Kingpin.
Surely in your example, the CK are together, otherwise you’d also need an E for Electrical 
Santa:
One thing that often occurred to me as I wearily climbed down off the catwalk to make absolutely sure, was that there could be some indicator on the back of the cab, to show that the parking brake was set. On some trucks you have to climb into the cab to see the darn thing.
I remember driving a truck that had something like what you described, it also doubled up as a helpful item when ‘blind side reversing’, it was called a window, in the back of the cab
BLACK was what my instructor taught me but I prefer your BLANK, def works better 