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

I am an o/o and my biggest motivation is catching something before it breaks on the road, but for drivers there is no motivation, they just don't give a crap about your equipment.

 

when i first got assigned a tractor AND trailer set up, i went thru BOTH as carefully as i could, that first time.

after that, i was satisfied that i "knew my equipment", and did my usual pre-trips and post trips DAILY/NIGHTLY.

then i'd do a complete full pre-trip maybe a month later.

i'd always catch a light bulb out, or a flat, or at the very least, a nail in a tire.

i was dedicated route, so i had a very good handle on my stuff.

 

Have you ever driven a truck for any time period to your contracted customers? If you had, you would know that the number one thing that trucking companies get wrong is the “meat in the seat” mentality. You have the mindset that ALL drivers are equal and you make your company policies according to the stupidest driver on your fleet. Common mistake. Good drivers get treated like and punished right alongside the steeringwheelholder idiots when companies attempt to stupidproof and handhold. Really good for morale, wouldn’t you say?

So, if you reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllly want to solve this issue, get rid of the meat in the seat and become a talent scout for your company. How do you recognize T A L E N T in the truckin industry?
Perhaps
@Ridgeline and @gentleroger can help in this aspect.

 

One company I worked for gave a bonus for passing dot inspections. I think it was $150 for a level 1.

 

You’re not going to motivate lazy people to do things properly.

 

"One day when I get my dream job, that is easy, pays $100k+, I will become both honest AND a hard worker." - slacker

Not all younger people are lazy, and not all older people are hard workers. But I recently see there is an obvious gigantic difference between the employees being hired of one age group and those from a different age group. SMH
Stereotypes develop for a reason.

 

Well, I'll tell ya', you have one of the toughest jobs in trucking,my friend,,compliance. We, as drivers, never got along with compliance. It was the worst phone call you got. Never good news. I was constantly on the hot seat for violations. I believe the pre-trip inspection must be noted, on OBRs or paper logs, and driver in violation for failure of omitting that, no? I don't think DOT looks too kindly on that, and the DRIVER can get in big trouble. What you describe is nothing new, and those "violations" are a gray area. The driver has other things on their minds, apparently, and trucks have gotten so trouble free, a pre-trip inspection amounts to a "visual", during the day, if at all. If it's not in the drivers view while fueling, it probably won't get noticed. Years ago, we did a pretrip to save our OWN axx, just to make sure it was safe. Today, it's just not an issue, and that's scary. This whole darned industry scares the heck out of me today. I wish you luck.