Vehicle Lift Inspection Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

I think the most important measure is a thorough pre-trip inspection. Making sure your truck and trailer are in a safe operating condition is paramount. Most non-commercial drivers probably don’t even check their tire pressure at regular intervals. Here’s the list of items on the daily pre-trip inspection. How many of them do you as a non commercial driver do…..ever.Commercial Vehicle Pre-Trip Inspection ChecklistTractorAir & electric connectorsCoupling SystemMounting boltsPlatformlocking jaws or leverrelease arm & safety latch5th wheel skid plateslide 5th wheel pinsSemi-TrailerAir & electric connectorsCoupling SystemkingpinaprongapAll VehiclesFront of Vehiclelights & reflectorsmirrorsEngine Compartmentoil levelcoolant levelpower steering fluidwater pumpalternatorleaks & hosesair compressormaster cylinderautomatic transmission fluidSteeringsteering box & hosessteering linkageFront Wheeltiresrimslug nutshub oil sealFront Suspensionsprings & shocksu- boltsspring mountsFront Brakebrake hoses or linesbrake chamberslack adjustor & push-roddrum & linings or rotor & diskDriver/Fuel Areadoor & mirrorfuel tank & cap & leakscatwalk & stepsbattery/boxlights & reflectorsUnder Vehicledrive shaftexhaust systemframeRear Axlestiresrimslug nutshub oil sealspacers or budd spacingRear Suspensionsprings & shocks & airbagsu- boltsspring/air mountsRear Brakesbrake hoses or linesbrake chamberslack adjustor & push-roddrum & linings or rotor & diskRear of Vehicledoors & liftsplash guardslights & reflectorsCombination VehiclesTrailer Frontheader board or bulkheadlights & reflectorsSide of Trailerlanding gearframe & tandem releasedoors & ties & liftslights & reflectorsTrailer Wheelstiresrimslug nutshub oil sealspacers or budd spacingTrailer Suspensionsprings & shocks & airbagsu- boltsspring/air mountsTrailer Brakesbrake hoses or linesbrake chamberslack adjustor & push-roddrum & linings or rotor & diskRear of Trailerdoors & liftsplash guardslights & reflectors

The ultimate check-list involves vehicle lifts, a skilled technician & time, money etc... If in doubt, a professional inspection by a motoring organisation or a trusted mechanic is always an option.I prefer to buy privately.Make an assessment of the person you're buying from. Does the type of car match the person? How long did they own it? Could they actually afford the car?Ask why they're selling.An honest "I can't afford to run it" is better than an evasive answer, but they might simply need a bigger/smaller/more economical car. It isn't difficult to extract an: "I've had loads of trouble with it & I want shot of it...!" if that is the case!!Check service history. If the car has a cambelt, when was it last changed?Look at the condition of the coolant (only if the car is cold!) and the state of the oil. Coolant shouldn't show an oily 'scum' or evidence that it hasn't been changed for ages (such as rust!), oil shouldn't have a creamy emulsion on the filler cap, plus it shouldn't be excessively contaminated with combustion products, ie: it shouldn't look like black tar!!Check the general condition of the car. Dents/scratches should be obvious.Look down the side of the car for ripples, misalignment or colour difference that evidences accident damage. If you detect something, point it out & ask about it.What are the wheels (alloy or steel) like? Excessive kerbing shows a careless owner. Check the condition of the tyres. Tread depth, how even the wear is, cracks/bulges etc.The test drive is important. Make sure it is long enough to get the car properly up to temperature & make sure it doesn't overheat! Check a/c for proper operation. Check windows, c/l etc. for proper operation.Regards the a/c., the 'it just needs gassing' excuse means: 'It needs a new compressor/condenser and hasn't worked for years'. If it only needs gassing, ask why the seller didn't get it working before sale! It isn't that expensive!On the test drive, you don't need to thrash the s**t out of it, because driving carefully & calmly, listening for noises, feeling for steering 'pull' brake imbalance etc. will tell you more about the car than thrashing it and remember, it isn't your car!Accelerate & feel for flat sport or hesitation. If manual, how well does it go into gear? Where is the clutch biting point? If auto, how smooth does it change gear? Any jerks on taking-up drive when moving off?If buying off a dealer, much of the above still applies, though check any warranties. If the dealer objects to you checking over the vehicle, run, don't walk!Always be polite to the seller. Sometimes they might not be aware of issues you might detect & anyway, assuming they don't put you off the car, they can be good negotiating points!

I understand the thrust of your question. However, it's a lot easier to talk about the types of accidents that predominate in aviation operations. Their underlying causes usually aren't traceable to a single "pilot error," but more commonly to multiple events and/or decision points that put the aircraft on a fatal trajectory. Even more confusingly, a given type of improper decision, substandard performance, misperception, or other human deficiency can have quite different outcomes under different circumstances.Aviation itself is a complex enterprise with loads of opportunities for things to go sour. Most are provided for either by design, modifications to things that have been discovered to bite, the installation of warning systems for things that might sneak up and bite, or training to know where a bite might be coming from and what to do when you see the teeth.So, with those visuals in mind, what are we really concerned about when taking an aircraft from point A to point B? Well, lots of things:Having an aircraft that's fit to fly;Having weather that's fit to fly in;Having a crew that's properly trained and rested to do the flying;Properly preparing for the flight, from before ever arriving at the aircraft until right up to the moment the aircraft lifts off from the runway;Having a suitable airport from which to operate that doesn't put hazards in the aircraft's way (structures; vehicles, pedestrians or other aircraft wandering around where they shouldn't, etc.).Flying the prescribed route;Talking to everyone you're supposed to, when you're supposed to; andLanding (which isn't nearly as easy or natural as taking off).Let's take just the first of these considerations. One of the responses to your question touched on checklist use and compliance. There are a lot of ways that kind of failure has manifested itself in accidents over time, and not all have involved pilots. For example, a major accident some years back involved an aircraft that had had recent maintenance performed on it. The work took place over a period of multiple maintenance shifts; however, the service provider didn't use "in-process inspections" properly to make sure that the workers knew what had been done and what was supposed to be done next. Steps were missed; people died. A human error, and a checklist-related failure, but the pilots had nothing to do with it.Here is a chart showing the most common types of occurrences leading to accidents and fatalities in commercial airline operations, courtesy of Boeing:The three tall bars are:Loss of control in flight (LOC-I)Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT); andRunway excursions (RE) (running off the runway).These account for fully two thirds -- 49 of the 72 accidents -- experienced in the ten-year period reflected in the data. The industry knows they're happening and continuing to happen; the challenge is to try to find and block all of the different paths that can lead to them.For the most part, the most recent LOC and CFIT accidents seem to have come from a combination of traditional and previously unrecognized factors. Some of the oldies but goodies are still out there -- like pulling back the working engine when the other one fails -- but there are others that are being watched closely to see if they represent one-off weird events or emerging issues.Let's face it. Aircraft are vulnerable to accidents because they're clumsy to operate on the ground, and because they go up in the air -- fast -- and have to get down again using a limited amount of real estate. They can run into things along the way, and sometimes things can happen along the way that can confuse their pilots, their automation, or both.That said, there are an awful lot of people in the aviation safety business who do amazing work in minimizing the individual threats associated with each of these factors. In the U.S., accidents were reduced by more than 80% in the first ten years of the "Commercial Aviation Safety Team" (CAST) initiative, starting in 1996, even as the sheer number of aircraft and passengers in the sky continued to rise.Nobody is resting on their laurels. People will continue to make mistakes that systems will catch and warn about; systems will continue to malfunction in ways that people will recognize and intervene to correct. Both ends of the problem are being addressed on a continuous basis. We can't just build better mousetraps, because smarter mice keep showing up; we can't completely idiot-proof the aviation system from one end to the other, because it's always possible to build a better idiot. But, we're trying.