Vehicle checks, defects and compliance

A vehicle record earns its keep by keeping the vehicle safe and legal. Open any vehicle in Fleet to work its checks, defects and compliance.

Walkaround and spot checks

Submit check, in the vehicle's header, first offers your own vehicle inspection forms — the real walkaround, filled in on the phone or here — and, at the bottom, Spot check (no form) for a quick check without a form. Drivers usually submit their walkaround from the phone; see Capturing against a vehicle, site, asset or yourself.

The Spot check dialog has:

• Notes;
• Odometer (mi): "Feeds cost-per-mile; leave blank if unread";
• one defect block, open and ready: a Defect, its Symptoms, and a Safety assessment — Safe to continue, Unsafe to continue or Vehicle stopped. Add up to 8 photos per defect with Camera and Gallery (or Add photos). In the iPhone and Android apps, where your workspace stamps evidence photos, Camera opens Maliru's own camera, which stamps each photo and can take several in a row. See Stamped photos from Maliru's camera. Add another defect adds a block. Leave the block empty for a clean check.

"Describe what you see; the authority grades severity." The person checking never grades a defect; they describe it and say whether it's safe.

Unsafe to continue or Vehicle stopped on a vehicle that's in service moves it to Pending off-road straight away and tells the fleet managers: "Safety review needed: {registration}". Defects reported as safe still wait for a grade, so the fleet managers get one notice per check instead: "{n} defects on {registration} awaiting grading".

Every check is listed on the record's Inspections tab, for example "Spot check — defects found · 12 Sep · Jack Morgan". Tap a row to open the form submission or the spot check's notes.

A form filed about a vehicle can't be edited afterwards. It shows Kept as filed, with the time it took to fill in, so what you hand an examiner is what the driver filed. See Scheduling and filling in forms.

Grading and off-road

Defects are listed on the Overview tab, each with the reporter's safety assessment. A new defect has Grade, which opens Grade defect:

• Severity: Advisory, Major or Dangerous.
• Action: Monitor - stay in service or Take off road.

Take off road sets the vehicle Off-road and tells its driver: "{registration} is off the road", "Do not drive it until it is returned to service." Monitor - stay in service on a vehicle that was pending off-road puts it back In service, as long as nothing else is holding it.

Resolve asks for the Repair evidence / resolution note. Return to service is refused while defects are still open: "Resolve open defects with evidence before returning to service." The only open defect that doesn't hold a vehicle is one graded Advisory with Monitor - stay in service. See Vehicle statuses and what their phase does.

Compliance types

Set up the certificates your vehicles need from the gear: Fleet settings › Compliance types. "Set renewal terms and reminders for vehicle certificates." A new workspace starts with Roadworthiness test, Insurance, Road tax, Operating authority / licence, Driver-hours device (tacho / ELD) and Service, which is due by distance: every 10,000 miles, or every 15,000 km where your workspace reads kilometres. Add a time term to the Service too if your vehicles' makers ask for one. Rename them to the names used where you operate.

Each type has:

• Label and Category;
• Renews every: the usual term of the certificate, as a number and a unit. "Leave the renewal term blank for certificates without a fixed term.";
• Warn before, in days: when it starts showing as due soon and the reminder goes out;
• By distance every: for something due by the odometer as well as, or instead of, by the calendar, such as a service every 10,000 miles for vans that hardly move. Enter the distance, then how far before it to warn; a new distance starts with a warning of a tenth of it. Leave Renews every blank for a service that goes by the odometer alone. A record is due at whichever comes first. Distances are in miles or kilometres, as your workspace's Road distance is set;
• Applies to: the vehicle categories that need it. With none ticked it reads All vehicles. Operating authority and the driver-hours device start on HGV and Bus / Coach only.

Choose Save changes.

Recording compliance

On a vehicle's Overview tab, choose Add record beside Compliance to open Record compliance. Only the types that apply to this vehicle's category are offered. Enter the Type, the Reference (certificate / policy no.), Issued and Expires, a Note, and Attach document (up to 25 MB).

Setting Issued fills in the expiry from the type's term. Check it against the certificate and change it if needed; a date you type yourself is kept. Without an expiry or a due reading, the record can never show as due.

For a type due by distance, the form also asks for the Odometer when done, which starts at the vehicle's latest reading, and Due at, which fills in one distance on. Change either if the service sheet says otherwise. A reading flagged as implausible is never the one used. Recorded on several vehicles at once, each is due one distance after its own latest reading.

Each record shows Valid, Due soon or Expired, using the type's warning lead. A record due by distance also says how far there is to go, such as "Due at 82,000 mi · 400 mi to go", and reads Overdue once the vehicle's latest reading reaches it, whatever its date. Update opens the record as it stands: correct a mistake, or enter the renewed certificate's own dates and attach it. An expiry worked out from the type's term moves with Issued; one typed from a certificate stays as entered. The bin deletes a record entered by mistake. The fleet's Expired and Expiring soon tiles open the matching vehicles, and the notice above the register takes you to the first one with Review vehicle.

Fleet managers are reminded when a certificate comes within its Warn before days, "{certificate} expiring for {registration}", and once more if it lapses: "{certificate} has expired for {registration}". A record due by distance is reminded when the vehicle's latest reading comes within the type's warning distance, "{type} due for {registration}", and once more when it reaches the due reading: "{type} overdue for {registration}". When several fall due together, they arrive as one notice, such as "5 vehicle compliance items need renewing".

One certificate on many vehicles

A fleet insurance policy often covers every van. Record it once: in the register, tick the vehicles it covers and choose Record compliance in the selection bar.

Record compliance for {n} vehicles starts on your Insurance type. If every vehicle ticked is the same category, only the types that apply to it are offered; a mixed selection is offered them all. Enter one reference, one set of dates, a note and the document, then Save.

• A vehicle that already holds a record of that type has its newest one updated, so last year's expired policy doesn't stay behind and keep it flagged. What the record said before is kept in its history.
• A vehicle with none gets a new record.

You'll see, for example, "Recorded on 12 vehicles (3 new, 9 updated)." A vehicle whose record already said the same is counted as already up to date. Recording the certificate adds no cost to any vehicle: the premium isn't split across them.

Inspection cycles

Use Add cycle on the Overview tab for a recurring inspection you carry out yourselves, such as a safety inspection or a brake test. In Add inspection cycle, enter the Inspection, choose Every as a number and days, weeks, months or years, and check First due. Certificates with expiry dates belong under Compliance.

Choose 6 weeks rather than converting it to days: month and year cycles move on by calendar months and years. Complete records the inspection and moves the next due date on. Fleet managers are reminded 14 days before each one is due, "{inspection} due for {registration}", and once more if it's missed: "{inspection} overdue for {registration}". Vehicles with a retired status get no reminders.

The Inspections due tile counts cycles falling due and narrows the register to them.

Scores don't override safety

Inspection scoring leaves out hidden checks and answers configured as N/A. Where a form maps a vehicle-fitness answer to safety, an unsafe answer forces the safety outcome even if the total score would pass. Driver fitness is a separate answer.