Vehicle Safety and Maintenance
Vehicle Safety and Maintenance tests your legal duty to keep the truck or bus fit to drive and to spot defects before they become failures.
Core checks
- Do a walk-around check before each duty: tyres, pressure, cuts, bulges and tread, lights and reflectors, mirrors, windscreen and wipers, number plates, bodywork, doors and emergency exits.
- Check brake and air-pressure warning lamps, steering, suspension and fluid levels; know what the dashboard warnings mean and act on them.
- Secure loads with suitable restraints and distribute weight within axle and gross vehicle limits. An insecure load can change handling and is a serious offence.
- For buses, check passenger doors, emergency exits, fire extinguisher where fitted, and that aisles and steps are clear.
- Commercial vehicles need a current CVRT certificate. Defects found between tests must be recorded and repaired; do not rely on the annual test alone.
Worked example
Your walk-around finds a cracked rear marker light and a deep cut in a tyre sidewall. You do not take the vehicle out. You record both defects, report them to the operator, have them repaired, and re-check before departure. Reasoning: a sidewall cut can lead to a blowout, and a missing marker light makes the vehicle illegal and less visible.
Traps
Checking only the tyres you can see easily; ignoring a warning lamp because the vehicle feels fine; overloading an axle; using unsuitable rope instead of rated restraints; missing a defective emergency exit on a bus.