ROAD SAFETY
BUSINESS FLEET AFRICA | May 2023
WWW.BUSINESSFLEETAFRICA.CO.ZA
ASHREF ISMAIL
Picture the scene. You have an abso-
lutely critical delivery to make to one
of your most important clients who
needs to send your product overseas.
You ask one of your most competent
and reliable drivers to make the dash
to the airport so that the cartons can
be loaded just-in-time before the
cargo plane departs. With less than 30
minutes to go and just ten kilometres
from the airport, the driver calls to say
that he has experienced a puncture and
the spare wheel is flat as well. Disaster!
Sending a replacement vehicle is not
an option because there is no way the
carton is going to make it on board. The
client is devastated and needless to say,
extremely furious.
Back at the ranch, after the anger,
shouting and scolding has subsided,
it emerges that the delivery vehicle in
question had a suspected slow puncture
which no one detected earlier because
no regular pre-trip inspection was
conducted.
Now, let’s take another scenario.
A lady, returning late from work one
night, decides to take a short-cut
through a dodgy industrial area thanks
to the onboard navigation system. She
hits a pothole and the left front tyre
is destroyed. The spare wheel is fine,
except that the jack is missing because
her husband lent it to his brother. Such a
scene can end in absolute tragedy in our
crime ridden society.
In both cases, pre-trip inspections
would have definitely prevented such
dangerous and expensive mistakes. Yet,
so many companies overlook or merely
go through the motions of a pre-trip
inspection as a tick-box exercise. While
it is time consuming, vehicles that spend
a lot of time on the road, especially,
should have these inspections conduct-
ed regularly and thoroughly.
So, what exactly is a thorough pre-
trip vehicle inspection?
The pre-trip inspection is a thorough
internal and external inspection of the
vehicle and all of its major systems.
Needless to say, the purpose of a
pre-trip inspection is to limit downtime,
avoid incidents, reduce costs and most
The importance of pre-trip
vehicle inspections