What motivates you to do a thorough pre-trip inspection?

Training never stops. Teach a good pre-trip routine and let them go. Reward for passes, take away bonuses for RAT and OOS if the driver should have caught it on a pre-trip. Where does a driver's job begin and end? I don't expect a mechanics inspection at the beginning of every shift. I also don't like how DOT treats drivers. Teach them how to defend themselves and bring it to their level. I'm not paying your fines and it's not my rear-end that will be running down a hill with no brakes, praying to their favorite deity for a soft landing.
Remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

 

My biggest encouragement to do pre trip inspections was knowing that I wouldn't be sitting along side the road looking like an idiot because something broke that could've been prevented. I guess it's a mentality more than anything

 

My biggest encouragement is not to be held liable in a court of law after some soccer mom in a minivan crashes into me cuz she was too busy finger banging her phone.
Any scumbag lawyer like "The Hammer" will go through your logs try to blame a marker light out or not sufficient pretrips etc. For the reason she crashed into you and its your fault.
Pay doesn't really matter, its pride un one's job that is not present in the majority of new drivers these days. Currently where I work the requirements are basically 3 years verifiable experience no preventable accidents or tickets
And new drivers will make at bottom scale 90k up to 100k first year. With 2 days off week and 5 weeks Vacation Still can't find or keep quality drivers. Even though they "help and train them for a week during onboarding." And these were supposedly "experienced professional drivers"

 

I know owner operators that don’t even do a good pre trip or post trip. My motivation is saving money and tires aren’t cheap.

I would instead invest in air inflate systems. There’s one for trucks that is $1500 an axle or so. Auto inflates to desired air pressure. There’s also one for trailers that works really well but I forgot the name of it.

 

I have been on the training and safety side for a couple of decades now. The answer is just not available. The drivers are pulled from the general populace, the general populace is just getting terrible at anything requiring knowledge, professionalism and craftsmanship. On top of this issue is the fact that the industry has degraded to the point that warm bodies is the top requirement to obtain employment and worse yet KEEP employment in the industry. Upper management say things, they say they want things, they say they want safe-professional drivers-- they just aren't being honest. The want pegs.. to fit into various slots.. that's all. If your company is not focused on safety above everything else.. its worse.. and 99.999% of the companies out there have the appearance of safety programs and training. They want avoid losing lawsuits.. that's the extent of their dedication to the safety program. And don't get me started about most of the ops people in the industry.

Things that you can try...
Start a (healthy) competition between the drivers.. with real (displayed) outcomes on safety issues/ pre-trips. Greed is a motivator (the primary one these days) but there are still drivers out there who want to be the top in whatever competition there is of any group

Shame also tends to work with some of the more senior "experienced" drivers. Testing them (not in public unless in a classroom/meeting room) in a trivia type setting.. Quiz the drivers on things like air systems (my favorite is asking a driver during on-boarding as a percentage of drivers, how many actually do a full truck inspections then after they give their answer, ask when the last time they performed an "in cab" air brake test... ( the real answer is rather dismal for both)

Place some sort of gift card or monetary reward for finding various things "hidden" on the equipment. I once placed a card wired to the dipstick of one of our trucks (trucks rain 24/6 with two assigned drivers) and didn't get the card taken for over two weeks...Announcing that there IS a reward program and how to potentially "win" rewards can get more drivers looking anyway.

 

If you can get the non urgent problems they report fixed on their hometime for the tractor or when the trailer next gets dropped so the driver doesn't have to lose time waiting under a load that would probably help. That or pay them to sit at the shop while the problems get fixed. If the driver knows he's going to be stuck waiting unpaid while these problems get fixed then they're incentivized not to report the problems unless they're going to be stuck on the side of the road due to it.

 

Well monetary rewards don't really make much difference for an incentive to do the job. Sitting on the side of the road waiting for road service and not making money because something they missed or even doing a pre-trip sometimes kicks them in the butt.

I won't get into the things I have done but when the company and driver was sued, my lawyer has to make sure everything tight not to give the ambulance chasing pos lawyers any latitude to leverage into our pockets. In one case the driver did not do a pre-trip which included checking the load and securement equipment, and they had to admit to it. When the driver did admit to it, my lawyer ended the interview and told him he needs to get a lawyer to represent his interests because he didn't follow company policies. The accident wasn't his fault, but we were named in the lawsuit nonetheless.

 

What motivates me to do a thorough pretrip inspection?

1. I don't want to operate deficient equipment.

2. I don't want to get in trouble with DOT.

3. I don't want anything to fall off due to issues and it causes a safety issue.

4. I don't want the next driver to have a faulty trailer when I drop it.

5. I like my company to treat me like I know what I'm doing, and taking care of their equipment is a great way to earn their respect.

6. I don't like to wait for roadside. Roadside costs too much, and the company spending unnecessary money ultimately hurts drivers.

7. I don't like to go to places like the TA. It eats your drive time.

8. I don't like accumulating CSA points. Been there, done that, and that can hurt employment chances at certain companies.

I can't think of any other motivations but I will post more if I can think of some. You're drivers may not be children, and you don't think you need to punish them...but DOT punishes them out on the road. Their actions or lack their of, ultimately punishes your company. They aren't supposed to make it easy for DOT to catch violations. Tires, lights, things easily detected by the eye, inexcusable. Not taking care of the little things is fireable to me. You got to get drivers that will pay attention to detail.

 

If they fail an inspection, they get sent home for a week.

 

word, Six.....