How to Perform a Daily Walkaround Check on an HGV: Step-by-Step Guide

Two minutes into a shift is a bad time to find a bald inner tyre or a coupling that never fully latched. The daily walkaround check is the cheapest defect-detection tool you have, and it is also a legal duty. Run it in the same order every time and you will catch most problems while they are still small, cheap and fixable.

What the law actually asks of you

Before you drive a vehicle for the first time on any day, you must carry out a walkaround check of that vehicle. That applies whether you are taking out a rigid, a tractor unit, a trailer or a full artic combination. If you pick up a different vehicle later in the day, that one needs checking too.

You are expected to be competent to do it, which means the operator should have shown you what to look for and how to use the defect reporting system. Anything you find must be reported, and if a defect makes the vehicle unroadworthy, it does not move until it is fixed. Records matter: DVSA guidance is that defect reports, including nil-defect reports, should be kept for at least 15 months, because they may be reviewed at a maintenance investigation.

Remember that responsibility follows the driver. "It was like that when I got in it" is not a defence if you drove it without checking. If you are unsure how the rules apply to your operation, speak to your transport manager or a transport consultant before you sign anything.

Before you start

Park on level ground, away from moving traffic if you can, and do the check in decent light. A torch is not optional in winter. Take a tyre pressure gauge, gloves, a rag and your defect book or app.

Give yourself ten to fifteen minutes. Most drivers find that a proper check takes about that long once they know their route around the vehicle, and it is time you get back when a defect is caught in the yard rather than on the hard shoulder.

Working round the vehicle, step by step

Pick a direction and never change it. Left to right, front to back, cab last. A fixed routine means you stop noticing things that are fine and start noticing things that are not.

1. Stand back and look. Before you touch anything, look at the whole vehicle. Is it leaning? Is a curtain bulging? Is a sheet flapping? Are there fresh marks on the bodywork, or a puddle underneath?
2. Tyres and wheels. Check every tyre, including the inner of a twin. Look for cuts, bulges, exposed cords, perished sidewalls, foreign objects and uneven wear. Goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes need at least 1mm of tread across the central three-quarters of the width, all the way round. Check pressures with a gauge, not a kick. On wheels, look for cracked paint, rust streaks from the stud holes and misaligned wheel-nut indicators.
3. Lights, reflectors and glass. All lamps working, lenses intact and clean, no condensation inside the units. Number plates clean and secure. Mirrors, windows and wipers in one piece.
4. Coupling and trailer. On an artic, check the fifth wheel jaws are closed and the handle is home, with the security catch or dog clip in place. Check the air lines and electrical lead for chafing, kinks and leaks. Landing legs wound up and pinned, catwalk clear, mudguards and spray suppression secure.
5. Load security. Straps tight and undamaged, ratchets working, curtains tensioned, doors latched. Anything that could move under braking gets restrained properly, not "probably".
6. Under the bonnet and under the vehicle. Coolant, engine oil, power steering and screen wash to level. Check belts for cracking, battery secure, no fresh fuel, oil or air leaks on the ground or on the underside of components.
7. In the cab. Seat, seatbelt, steering play, horn, wipers and washers, mirrors adjusted. Start up and watch the warning lights go out — ABS, EBS and air pressure especially. Let air build and listen for leaks. Test the brakes gently as you move off in a safe place.

Finish with the paperwork, not before it. If you found nothing, that still needs recording.

Recording defects properly

A defect report is a factual record, not a confession. Write what you saw, where it was, when you found it and what you did about it. "Nearside rear inner tyre, cut to cords, vehicle VOR, reported to workshop 06:40" is useful. "Tyre issue" is not.

Sign and date it, and make sure the person who takes the vehicle off your hands knows about it. If a defect is safety-related, the vehicle stays put. If it is minor, get a decision from whoever is responsible for maintenance rather than deciding for yourself that it will do another day.

Mistakes that catch drivers out

• Checking in the dark with no torch, then finding the damage in daylight at a customer's yard.
• Ticking the sheet from memory because you checked "the same trailer" yesterday. Trailers swap. Check the one you are pulling.
• Ignoring small faults — a chafed air line, a cracked lens, a weeping hub seal — that become roadside prohibitions.
• Not listening at the wheels. Air leaks often hiss long before they show on a gauge.
• Leaving the defect book in the cab instead of filling it in, and hoping nothing is asked later.
• Driving on with a defect to protect a delivery slot. No load is worth a prohibition or a collision.

Making the check stick

The habit is what protects you. Same order, same time, before the engine turns over properly and before the phone starts ringing. Keep your torch, gauge and defect pad together in the same place so there is no excuse to skip it.

If you are a new driver, ask someone experienced to walk round with you for a week and tell you what they look at. If you are an operator, make sure drivers are trained, that defects are acted on quickly, and that your records would stand up to scrutiny. And if a vehicle feels wrong when you get moving, stop somewhere safe and look again — the walkaround is the start of the check, not the end of it.

Photo: Gustavo Fring / Pexels