A check sheet in the cab, ticked for the whole week
The telehandler has a laminated check sheet in the cab, or a clipboard in the workshop. The idea is that whoever uses it first each day walks round: tyres, hydraulics, lights, horn, seat belt, attachments, fluid levels, and ticks the boxes. In practice the sheet gets ticked for the whole week on Friday, or not at all, and a leaking hydraulic hose is mentioned over lunch and forgotten by the afternoon.
The telehandler is the most used machine on many farms. It is driven by everyone, from the farmer to a student on a summer job, and it lifts heavy loads near people every day. The loader tractor, the quad, the feeder wagon and the skid steer all have their own sheets, or should.
Why checks go unrecorded
The people using the machines usually do look them over. The trouble is that recording the check is slow, the sheet is easy to ignore, and a defect reported by voice has nowhere to go.
- Paper sheets get dirty, lost or filled in afterwards.
- Several people use the same machine, so nobody feels responsible for the check.
- Defects are mentioned to whoever is nearby, not to the person who fixes them.
- Nobody reviews the sheets, so there is no reason to fill them in carefully.
- Attachments, such as buckets, forks and bale handlers, are rarely checked separately.
What checks you should carry out, and what records the law or your insurer expects, is for your own safety policy, your insurer and your adviser. We do not advise on safety. We build the tools to record the checks you have decided on.
What unrecorded checks cost
A defect that is noticed but not reported, or reported and not fixed, is a machine running with a known problem. What that means for safety is not for us to say, but it is a worry every farmer recognises. If something does go wrong, a pile of blank or bulk-ticked sheets is not a good record to rely on.
There is also a machinery cost. Small defects noticed early, a weeping hose or a worn tyre, are cheaper to fix than the failure they lead to. When reports get lost, those small jobs turn into breakdowns.
A phone check that goes to the workshop
What we build is a quick digital check for each machine, using your own checklist, with defects routed to the workshop.
- Each machine has a QR code in the cab. Scanning it opens that machine's checklist, the one you have written or taken from the manufacturer's guidance.
- The driver goes through the items with a tap each: OK, or a problem with a photo and a short note. It takes about as long as the walk round itself.
- The hour meter reading is taken at the same time, which also feeds servicing records if you keep them.
- Any problem goes straight to the person who runs the workshop, with the photo, and appears on a defects list for that machine.
- You decide which items mean the machine should not be used until fixed. When one of those is reported, the machine shows as off the road for everyone until it is cleared by the person you name.
- Each machine keeps a history: every check, every defect, and when and how it was fixed.
| Paper sheet | Phone check |
|---|---|
| Ticked in bulk on Friday | Dated and timed each day, with the driver's name |
| Defects mentioned at lunch | Defects sent to the workshop with a photo |
| Nobody knows if it was fixed | Defect open until marked fixed |
| Attachments not covered | Attachment checklists scanned separately |
A normal week in the yard
On Monday morning the student scans the telehandler and goes through the checklist. The rear tyre looks low; he photographs it and the workshop is notified. The farmer sees it on his phone, and the tyre is sorted before lunch. On Wednesday the loader tractor shows a hydraulic weep; it is marked as a defect but not a stop, and it goes on the workshop list for Friday.
At the end of the month, you can see every machine's checks, every defect and every fix, instead of a pile of sheets in a drawer.
Are your machine checks like this?
- Check sheets are filled in weekly, from memory, or not at all.
- Defects are reported verbally and sometimes forgotten.
- Several people use the same machine and nobody owns the check.
- You cannot easily show which defects were reported and fixed.
- Attachments are rarely checked or recorded.