Road Haulage Body’s App Aims to Keep Freight Drivers Legal

UK – THE Road Haulage Association (RHA), which represents the interests of the British road freight drayage industry, has launched a new app for truck drivers to help them complete vehicle safety checks before setting off for the day. The RHA’s new Daily Defect App is the digital answer to essential, mandatory daily walk-around checks and includes basic vehicle roadworthiness checks such as brakes, tyres, lights and indicators, load and coupling security. Any issues that are picked up can be sent directly to the traffic office, minimising downtime and enabling quicker vehicle repairs, thus meaning that vehicles can get back on the road without delay.

The system also gives transport managers full visibility across their fleet operation. The data can be used to see how long drivers are spending on vehicle inspections and so puts a stop to drivers cutting corners. The app creates a full and complete audit trail as daily checks will be time-stamped and in addition the new, paperless, system takes the headache out of physically completing defect forms and gives the driver and transport manager instant feedback about whether the vehicle is fit to drive.

Any HGV driver using an iPhone or Android device can download and use the app and the system is designed to complement the RHA Analysis system, which provides analysis of driver digital tachographs and allows transport managers to deal with the information from these different and critical elements to running a safe operation into a single data source.

The RHA Daily Defect App can be found at the iTunes Store or on Google Play.