Vehicle Safety, Inspection and Maintenance
This domain covers the daily walk-round check, the systems that keep a commercial vehicle safe, and the legal standards for tyres, brakes, lights and bodywork. You should know what a driver must check before setting off: tyres (condition, tread depth, pressure, and that nothing is trapped between twin tyres), lights and reflectors, brakes including air pressure build-up and warning buzzers, mirrors and camera systems, windscreen and wipers, fluid levels, load security and the coupling and safety systems on a trailer.
Know the legal minimum tread depth for your vehicle class and how to read tyre markings, including load index and speed rating, and why mixing tyre types across an axle can be unsafe. Understand brake system checks for air-braked vehicles: how long pressure should take to build, what a low-pressure warning means, and why you must not move until pressure is adequate. Know the purpose of ABS and EBS warning lamps and that a lamp staying on after start-up signals a fault.
Inspection questions often test the difference between a defect you can note and report, and a defect that makes the vehicle unroadworthy and must ground it. Traps include assuming a warning light that goes out after a moment is a fault (it is usually a self-test), confusing tread depth figures, and forgetting that the driver shares responsibility for defects with the operator.
Worked example: During your walk-round you find a deep cut in a tyre sidewall exposing cord. This is not a 'monitor and report' item - the vehicle is unroadworthy and must not be used until the tyre is replaced.
Rule of thumb: if a defect affects steering, braking, tyres, lights or load security, stop and get it fixed; if in doubt, treat it as a grounding defect.