Everyone's inspection book says the vehicle was fine.
That is the problem with it. A signature is an assertion, and an assertion is worth nothing on the day something fails — least of all to the driver who is asked why they signed.
The walk, not the form
Play it through. 10 of the 12 points needed something the driver could only produce standing next to the vehicle.
Points in the order recorded · the order is randomised daily
- Photographs
- 5
- Tags scanned
- 5
- Defects raised
- 2
4 minutes, 12 points, and 10 pieces of evidence that could not have been produced from the driver's seat.
Nobody walks an artic in forty seconds
Here is a month of inspections on paper against the same month recorded properly. The left-hand hump is not a fast worker. It is a book filled in with the engine running.
70% of paper inspections took under 2 minutes, against 8% once each point had to be evidenced where it stands. The walk above took 3 minutes and did not feel slow.
70% under two minutes
8% under two minutes
Where a month of walks ends up
The number that matters is not how many inspections were completed. It is how many defects went from a driver noticing something to a job on the workshop board without anyone chasing it.
How those jobs reach the workshop- Inspections completed 682
Every vehicle, every shift, before the wheels turn.
- Defects raised 94
One in seven walks finds something worth writing down.
- Advisories closed on the spot 51
A bulb, a fluid top-up, a loose strap. Logged, fixed, done.
- Jobs opened in the workshop 39
Booked against the vehicle with the photo already attached.
- Vehicles stopped from leaving 4
Defects serious enough that the app will not let the shift start.
What makes it real
None of this works because drivers are told to take it seriously. It works because the shortcuts stop being available.
- Tags at the points themselves
- A scan at the coupling can only happen at the coupling. The order is randomised each day, so the route cannot be learned and faked from the cab.
- Photographs, not confirmations
- Tread depth and fluid levels want a picture against a gauge. A tick means somebody pressed a button; a photo means somebody looked.
- Inside the depot geofence
- An inspection recorded ten kilometres down the road is not a pre-trip inspection, and the app says so at the time rather than in a report later.
- A defect stops the shift
- Raise a prohibiting defect and the vehicle is marked unavailable in dispatch immediately. Nobody has to remember to tell anyone.
The questions operators actually ask
Usually not in the first meeting, and usually the reason a rollout stalls. Better to have them out early.
What if a driver signs off a vehicle that then fails?
That is exactly the exposure a paper book creates: a signature asserting the vehicle was sound, with nothing to show whether anyone checked. With tag scans, timestamps and photographs, the record either shows a genuine walk that missed something — which is a defensible position — or it shows nobody walked, which you would rather find out before the roadside does.
Does this not just create documented liability?
It creates a documented answer. The liability exists whether or not you record anything; what changes is whether you can demonstrate a system that works. A defect raised and closed within the day is evidence of a functioning operation. A defect raised and ignored is the thing to be afraid of, which is why unactioned defects escalate rather than expire.
Will drivers accept it?
More readily than most operators expect, because it protects them too. A driver who walked the vehicle and recorded it cannot later be blamed for a failure that was not visible. The ones who object are usually objecting to being asked to do the walk at all, which is a different conversation and one worth having.
The rest of the platform
Live tracking
Position, speed and ignition every ten seconds.
Routing and dispatch
Plan the day, send it to the driver's phone.
Asset and trailer tracking
Trailers, generators, plant and containers.
AI dashcam
Road and cabin, clipped to the event.
Driver behaviour
Scored per driver and per trip.
Incident centre
Footage, telemetry and witnesses in one file.