What do i do if I find a fault during pre trip?

Yeah, the company line that some office schmuck spews during orientation is often not put into practice by the operations part of the company. There are numerous altruisms that pertain to just about all trucking outfits, big or small. One of those I've found to be almost universal throughout the industry is they all talk a good game when it comes to safety and maintenance until it means their load being late. Then, it's suddenly not nearly as important. Any time I encounter that decision tree, I always ask "Did the problem become any less a safety issue because it might make your load late if it has to be repaired now?". Unfortunately, a lot of these outfits' actions would make it appear so.

 

Often quite true.

I can testify that Matlack wasn't that way, once the stuff hit the fan...er, dripped on the ground when all involved were backed uo 100%.

I spent enough evenings, weekends and nights being involved to know.

Of course they also went bankrupt.

 

Yes . A insp is just a checklist to find problem, so if you find a problem and mark it , it is a way to verify your insp and remeber it.
( like a low tire , its 75 pounds , you mark it up , now you can a- air it up to 100 , or run it down the road that way and it overheats , shreds , and now you have bigger problem) , so yes , write it up , then fix , then insp again.

 

If you're worth your salt and you find a light not working you replace the light and submit the receipt for reimbursement, if you are worried about the few bucks the light costs. If you don't want to do that, then you do like some of the drivers for mega carriers do and go to a TA or Petro to have the light replaced. I wouldn't do the latter, if you work for a smaller company and dont want to be made fun of and/or possibly fired upon returning to the yard.