Minor defects and issues with your vehicles, plant machinery, equipment and other assets can quickly escalate into real problems if they’re not quickly discovered and taken care of.
An obvious example is a crack in your windscreen.
A tiny crack is nothing to worry about, right?
In fact, if you’re not in the habit of actively checking for issues, you might not even notice it until it gets bigger.
And bigger.
And bigger.
You get the picture.
A tiny windscreen crack can be fixed by a garage in a few minutes and the vehicle is on its way.
A bigger crack – say a couple of inches – will probably take a little more work – the vehicle might be off the road for the afternoon.
A completely smashed windscreen? That makes the vehicle completely unusable until its fixed. It is likely quite dangerous too – if a windscreen smashes while a driver is on the road there is a serious risk of accident or injury. Additionally, fixing it will probably require the expense of specialist exuipment and expertise, as well as the time spent waiting for parts to come through.
Now, most of us would never let a tiny crack in a vehicle’s windsceen (or a slightly low tyre pressure, or a few sporadic drips from the oil from the engine ) go that far.
Would we?
The problem with ad-hoc defect reporting
Let’s not pretend that anyone is perfect.
Defects and issues are a fact of life for anyone managing a fleet of vehicles, plant machinery, equipment and other assets.
No matter how careful you and your drivers and operators are, or how robust your vehicles and plant machinery is, most minor defects are just part of the wear and tear for your fleet.
Defects (and especially minor defects) aren’t, in and of themselves, a problem.
The problems come when those defects and issues aren’t escalated and resolved.
If your defect reporting system relies on some combination of:
- Paper check sheets (which are frequently lost or damaged, and relegated to a dusty filing cabinet if they do make it back to the office)
- Ad-hoc reporting (that is, trusting drivers and operators to actively tell someone when they spot a defect – though they have no way of knowing whether it has already been reported)
- Regular inspections (scheduled inspections with a qualified person every six weeks, or every few months, are an important part of a holistic fleet maintenance programme, but if that’s the only time defects are likely to be discovered and escalated, there is plenty of time in between for a defect to grow from a minor inconvenience into a full-blown catastrophe before the vehicle is checked again).
Then you can expect defects to be the cause of expensive maintenance work, extended time off the road and a significant impact on operations.
The Record-Report-Resolve system for defect reporting
What’s the alternative?
To prevent those minor defects from becoming a major problem, you need to have a proactive defect reporting and maintenance system in place. We work on a 3-part system for defect reporting, which follows defects from discovery to resolution, with a clear chain of command. This ensures that even minor defects are dealt with promptly – before they become a major problem.
Record
Defects are discovered in daily walkaround checks, regular inspections and on an ad-hoc basis when needed, and are recorded in Stream Check via the app.
In the driver daily walkaround check app, drivers and other fleet staff record the defect details, including notes and photos.
In the Stream Check vehicle management module, a record is kept of that specific defect against that specific vehicle – even after the defect is resolved, historical records are still available.
Report
In the app, there is also space to record who the defect was reported to – giving drivers a clear line of command, to be able to confirm that the defect they discovered was brought to the attention of a manager.
As soon as a new defect is recorded, a notification is sent to the relevant people in your organisation: your transport managers or maintenance team, for example. They can begin the process of getting the defect resolved and the vehicle back on the road as soon as possible.
From the Stream Check vehicle management module, comprehensive reports can also be extracted, for example, all defects reported in a specific timeframe, all defects resolved in a specific timeframe, all defects every recorded against a specific vehicle, or all defects currently open.
Resolve
Stream check follows every defect through to resolution – once a defect is reported it is permanently in the system (even after resolution, historical defects are still available for reporting and auditing purposes).
As soon as a defect is reported, management and/or maintenance staff can carry out a simple triage assessment, to get the vehicle safely back on the road with minimal disruption, whilst ensuring that all defects are dealt with in a timely manner:
- If the defect is minor, and the vehicle is still safe to drive, a resolution date can be scheduled in the (near) future, and the vehicle can get straight back on the road with no disruption to planned service. This could include things like a slightly worn mud-flap or a minuscule crack in the windscreen.
- Some minor defects can be quickly resolved as soon as they are discovered, to get them back on the road with only a minor delay (under n hour or so), and no need to allow the defect to potentially worsen. Quick fixes can even be applicable for some major defects – for example, a flat tyre might cause a vehicle to be unusable now, but take only a few minutes to resolve and get the vehicle back out on the road.
- Some major defects, however, will cause a vehicle to be signed off the road as unusable. As minor defects are resolved promptly, and all defects are reported and monitored, major defects should become rarer. Equally, thanks to the ability to a) add expected resolution dates and b) automatically schedule planned maintenance and servicing, it should be easy to find a time to fix unusable defects and get the vehicle back on the road as soon as possible.
A Defect Reporting Tool for Transport Managers, Fleet Managers & Operators
Stream Check is a comprehensive defect reporting and monitoring tool. It allows you to:
- Record defect details, with photos and notes
- Report defects to maintenance and management teams
- Resolve defects quickly, before they become a problem
Remove the risk of defects getting lost in the system due to lost paper check sheets & relying on ad-hoc reporting.
Get a visibility of new defects as soon as they are reported, so you can view details immediately and order parts in advance.
Minimise disruption due to time off the road, by ensuring the even the tiniest defects are dealt with before they become a real issue.
