Pre-use inspections an inspector can actually audit

Pre-use inspections were done on carbon-copy books. The top copy went to the workshop, the bottom copy stayed in the cab, and both were illegible within a shift. Nobody could demonstrate that a specific machine had been checked before a specific shift without physically finding the book.

Defects noted on an inspection did not reliably become work orders, so the same faulty reversing alarm was written up week after week. Near-miss and hazard reporting was thin, because raising one meant finding a supervisor and filling in a form in front of the crew. Maintenance was largely reactive, and a stoppage on a machine with a known open defect was a live commercial risk.

The operator scans the machine at the start of shift and works through the checklist built for that equipment class. A failed item cannot be waved through: it either blocks the machine as unfit for use or raises a defect with a severity, and that defect appears on the workshop board immediately with the machine number, the operator and the photograph attached.

Hour meters captured on the same check feed the maintenance schedule, so services trigger off actual running hours rather than a wall planner. Hazards and near misses can be raised in under a minute, with an anonymous route for anyone who wants it. Every record carries a machine, a person, a time and a location.