performance and give you scorecards, dashboards
and reports of results.
Do you have good practices in place to make
sure all PMs are getting done when they are
supposed to be done? If you do, you won’t be
surprised to learn that your units and shops with
the worst PM compliance scores are the same ones
with high breakdown rates.
12 Fleet Maintenance | AUGUST 2017
If you have onboard telematics, take advantage
of your diagnostic trouble code (DTC) data if your
maintenance system has an interface. Dossier’s
On-Board function, by way of example, automatically
creates a Work Pending (work request) item
when a DTC is received. Th ese DTC messages can
help alert you to a larger or upcoming problem, as
well as to a situation needing immediate attention.
Do modern power units throw a lot of these
errors? Yes. Is it worth it to deal with this data
anyway? Absolutely. For example, Dossier allows
individual DTCs to be hidden – they are still recorded
but won’t clutter your maintenance dashboard.
Invest a few months to “train” your system on
which codes are noise or nuisance. When that
Training, Safety And Maintenance
By Jane Jazrawy, CEO, CarriersEdge
The pre-trip vehicle inspection. In
the technology world, it’s called
“doing QA” (quality assurance).
QA is used to confirm a product
is safe and ready to be used. But,
sometimes things can go awry.
The pre-trip is our industry’s QA,
and not doing it properly can be
the root problem for a breakdown
at the side of the road, or a failed
roadside inspection. Both situations
are a result of someone
not paying attention to a vehicle
defect, and/or not knowing how
to do a proper inspection.
These incidents cost money,
time and possibly some bad
publicity if the breakdown causes
a collision, fire or spill.
A good equipment inspection is
going to mitigate the probability of
these situations, but trying to get
drivers to do a thorough inspection
can be challenging for a number
of reasons. In many cases, drivers
aren’t paid for the time they take
on an inspection, and they want
to get on the road faster where
they will be paid for their time.
Maybe dispatch hasn’t given them
enough time to get to a customer
and do the pre-trip inspection. Or
perhaps, drivers don’t even really
know how to do a proper inspection.
What’s important to realize is this is
not solely a driver problem. Yes, the
driver should be inspecting the vehicle,
but that’s not the whole story.
To make sure vehicle inspections are
done properly requires a combination
of training, practice and feedback,
along with the cooperation of
drivers, maintenance and safety.
WHY TRAINING?
The purpose of training is to give
drivers an understanding of why
inspections are important, how
to develop the habit and, most
importantly, what to look for
during the inspection. They need
to be vested in the importance
of doing the pre-trip, and not the
ramifications – good and bad – for
the company they drive for.
Drivers should be taught what
defects look like at every point on
the vehicle, along with best practices
and tips for completing the job.
Like good QA, the most important
part of an inspection is to follow
a process that covers all possible
points of failure and be able to
repeat that process the same way
every time. The safety department
plays a major role in a driver’s
success by providing defined guidelines
and standards to follow.
WHY PRACTICE?
Online training and defined guidelines
are a great way to provide
drivers with the knowledge they
need to do a complete inspection,
but it doesn’t give them the
hands-on practice necessary to
master the task. Just watching a
trainer do the inspection won’t
necessarily help that much, either.
Drivers need the opportunity to
practice themselves. With practice,
drivers can begin to conduct inspections
faster and more accurately.
CarriersEdge (www.carriersedge.
com), a provider of online safety
and compliance training tool for
the North American transportation
industry, in partnership with the
Truckload Carriers Association
(www.truckload.org) conducts the
annual Best Fleets to Drive For program.
In this program, CarriersEdge
officials hear about innovative
programs that the top 20 carriers
in the Best Fleets are using to reinforce
good inspection practices.
Nussbaum Transportation (www.
nussbaum.com) uses a driver-coach
to provide hands-on training to
drivers who need assistance.
Transpro Freight Systems (www.
transprofreight.com) stages “inspection
challenges” for contractors
during safety meetings where
drivers compete to find the most
defects on a trailer in 5 minutes.
WHY FEEDBACK?
Not only do drivers need the opportunity
to practice inspections, they
also need constructive feedback
on their performance. This is where
the safety and maintenance departments
have important roles to play.
Motor Carrier Service (www.
mcstrucks.com) conducts hands-on
practice during safety meeting rodeos.
In addition, new drivers spend
half a day in the shop during their
orientation at which time maintenance
personnel provides training
on basic repairs and sets expectations
about completing pre-trips and
reporting defects. By doing this, the
company provides a solid foundation
for ongoing communication.
For the last few years, we’ve also
seen more fleets giving drivers
a bonus for a clean Commercial
Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Level 1
inspection. Rewards are a great form
of positive feedback for drivers, but
Motor Carrier Service goes a step
further. Not only is there a bonus for
the driver, but the shop employee
working with that vehicle also gets
one, encouraging both drivers and
maintenance to work together.
Teamwork pays, literally
and figuratively.
QA FAILURE
Every time you see a recall on the
news because a product malfunctioned
or a software bug allowed
hackers to steal information, it’s
a failure of QA. In the trucking
world, to avoid a failure during an
equipment inspection, there must
be a company effort with cooperation
between the drivers, safety
and maintenance departments.
The more a company puts toward
continuous learning, feedback and
rewards, the better the outcome.
Ongoing communication will help
ensure good inspection practices
and that means you can relax during
the next roadside vehicle inspection
blitz because it your trucks won’t
be sidelined, sitting on the side of
the road for failing the inspection.
JANE JAZRAWY is the
CEO of CarriersEdge
(www.carriersedge.com),
providers of online safety
and compliance training
tools for the North
American transportation
industry, and co-creator
of the Best Fleets to Drive For program.
She has been a leader in education and
performance improvement for more than
25 years, and through Best Fleets, works
to promote positive and diverse workplaces
in the trucking industry.
» Online training and defined
guidelines are a great way to
provide drivers with the knowledge
they need to do a complete
inspection, but it doesn’t give
them the hands-on practice
necessary to master the task.
Photo courtesy of CarriersEdge
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