Importance of a Pre-Trip Inspection for Your Vehicle

As a driver, it is of utmost importance that you understand the benefits of carrying out a pre-trip inspection of your vehicle. When you check your commercial truck before going on a trip, you ensure awareness around potential issues, prevent any delay and much more. Let’s expand on how important it is to inspect your vehicle before you travel.

Pre-Trip inspection

It’s ideal to inspect several areas on your commercial vehicle to ensure a successful trip ahead of you. Some of these areas include:

·        Service brakes: When you follow this safety procedure, you set yourself up for a safer trip. Not checking your braking systems can cause a potential accident and you can easily avoid this problem during pre-inspection.

·        Tire tread depth: As a driver, you may be driving hundreds of miles a day and it is definitely more miles than the average domestic driver. Driving frequently is one of the primary causes of faster wear of tires. So, before you are back on the road again, be sure to check the tread depth before each trip.

·        Emergency equipment: When you are a driver, you must have everything you might need on a trip with you at all times. That is why before each trip, you should check your emergency equipment to make sure that you have the necessary tools.

·        Trailer: If you have a trailer, inspect it before you go to make sure it’s fastened correctly to avoid a potentially dangerous situation on the road.

Now, let’s have a look at some of the benefits of performing a pre-trip inspection to ensure you’re ready for your next commercial trip.

Increased awareness of potential vehicle issues

A pre-inspection before a long trip will make sure you check every part of your truck. When you do so, you may come across a potential problem that should be immediately fixed. Inspecting your vehicle also provides you with all the details you need to know about each part of the truck. It gives you a better idea of what should be repaired and what should be replaced. Additionally, pre-trip inspections help you save on your repairs because you’ll have caught it before it got worse.

Staying safe on the road

This is one of the most significant benefits of performing a pre-trip inspection for your vehicle. It might be a time-consuming task, but if you take the necessary time to go over your vehicle, you see to it that you don’t hurt yourself or another driver. You might be in a hurry and would want to skip the pre-inspection, however, you should keep in mind that, just because the last trip went well without a review doesn’t guarantee that the next one will be safe.

Legal requirement

In several states, you are required by law to perform pre-truck inspections before every trip. So, when you are carrying them out, you are complying with the state laws which is important. You should know if serious violations are found such as:

·        Inaccurate lights

·        Fuel leaks

·        Poorly loaded cargo.

Your trip will be halted and you will not be allowed to drive until you get your vehicle repaired.

Meeting delivery deadlines

When you are a commercial driver, it’s essential to understand that in this field, time is money. If you have to pull over for emergency repairs because you didn’t conduct a proper pre-trip inspection, you might fail to deliver the cargo on time and that can land you in trouble. Performing the correct pre-trip inspection sees to it that you can complete a successful delivery at all times.

The bottom line

While sparing some time before every trip might seem like a cumbersome task, the advantages of such pre-trip inspections can make this small effort worth it. If you need help with your pre-trip inspection course in Brampton, then you should get in touch with Trukademy. They will be more than happy to assist you. And if you want to read more topics like this, follow this blog.