One pre-start standard across every depot and every contractor
A council fleet is every other fleet at once: waste trucks, tippers, mowers and plant, utes, pool cars, and contractors driving council vehicles. Escudo Fleet gives each vehicle type its own template, scopes each depot to its own board, and invites contractor drivers by a link and marks them as contractors.
Why it matters for councils
The WHS Act applies to every council vehicle as plant and a workplace. Councils are also a principal in the chain when they contract waste and civil work, and their tenders score WHS.
Heavy vehicles in a council fleet fall under the Heavy Vehicle National Law and, where accredited, NHVAS and Heavy Vehicle Accreditation. Escudo Fleet supports your NHVAS Maintenance Management records and is built around the daily check minimum items.
Plant has its own duties from the manufacturer manual and WHS plant rules: guards, isolation, hours and service intervals. The equipment register and engine-hours servicing cover it.
Audit and internal review ask the same question of every depot: how do you stop a defective vehicle going out? Status is set automatically and stays off road until the fault is cleared and signed off, and any change by hand needs a written reason that the audit log keeps.
Summarised from public sources on 13 October 2026. Not legal advice. Check the current rule with your regulator or adviser.
What gets checked
Trucks and plant
- NHVAS daily check minimum items
- Park brake hold test
- Guards, isolation and warning devices on plant
- Engine hours and odometer
- Reversing alarm and camera
Light fleet
- Short daily pre-start
- Guided walkaround for utes and vans
- Pool car pre-start
- Contractor drivers invited by link
Across depots
- Each depot sees its own board
- Fleet managers see the whole fleet
- Equipment register with test and tag dates
- Expiry alerts for registration, roadworthy and licences
A typical pre-start: Council plant pre-start
All starter templatesStarter templates carry your items in your wording. Readings with limits are left blank for you to set from the manufacturer or your procedure: we never invent a limit.
The fuel angle
Depot bowsers, fuel cards and jerry cans for plant all land in the same fuel record, per vehicle and per person.
Consumption per vehicle by month, with alerts for a fill over the tank, no distance since the last fill, after-hours fills and a card used on the wrong vehicle.
Import the fuel card statement for every depot and reconcile it against the fills recorded on phones.
How fuel tracking worksWhat is kept
- Daily pre-start per vehicle and plant item with the person identified
- Defects with who found, assessed, deferred and cleared them, and a defect notice register
- Equipment register with test and tag and service history
- Services by distance, hours or date across every depot
- Export per depot or per vehicle for internal audit, a WHS inspector or a tender
Every record is kept while your account is open. Everything exports as PDF or spreadsheet, and the record is yours.
Starter templates
- City bus pre-trip (before every trip, bus)
- School bus pre-trip (before every trip, bus)
- Minibus pre-trip (before every trip, minibus)
- Wheelchair accessible vehicle pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Articulated bus pre-trip (before every trip, bus)
- Pool car pre-start (before every trip, car)
- SUV and 4WD pre-start (before every trip, SUV or 4WD)
- Electric van or car pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Weekly light vehicle check (weekly, car)
- E-bike or cargo bike pre-ride (before every trip, E-bike or cargo bike)
- Van pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Trades ute and trailer pre-start (before every trip, ute)
- Light truck pre-start (before every trip, light truck)
- Rigid truck pre-start (before every trip, rigid truck)
- Tipper pre-start (before every trip, tipper)
- Crane truck pre-start (before every trip, crane truck)
- Water cart pre-start (before every trip, tanker)
- Dog trailer and drawbar coupling check (when needed, trailer)
- Waste compactor pre-start (side loader) (before every trip, waste compactor)
- Waste compactor pre-start (rear loader) (before every trip, waste compactor)
- Hook lift and skip truck pre-start (before every trip, hook lift or skip truck)
- Street sweeper pre-start (before every trip, street sweeper)
- Vacuum truck pre-start (before every trip, vacuum truck)
- Ride-on mower pre-start (before use, ride-on mower)
- Tractor pre-start (before use, tractor)
- Plant pre-start (before use, plant)
- Forklift pre-start (LPG or diesel) (before use, forklift)
- Electric forklift pre-start (before use, forklift)
- Scissor lift pre-start (before use, elevating work platform)
- Boom lift pre-start (before use, elevating work platform)
- Telehandler pre-start (before use, telehandler)
- Excavator pre-start (before use, excavator)
- Skid steer loader pre-start (before use, skid steer loader)
- Articulated dump truck pre-start (before use, articulated dump truck)
- Wheel loader pre-start (before use, wheel loader)
- Dozer pre-start (before use, dozer)
- Grader pre-start (before use, grader)
- Excavator or shovel pre-start (mine and quarry) (before use, excavator)
- Water cart pre-start (fire role) (before every trip, tanker)
- Mobile crane pre-start (before every trip, crane truck)
- Integrated tool carrier or EWP pre-start (before use, elevating work platform)
- Lighting tower or generator check (daily, trailer)
- Dynamic service brake test (monthly, any vehicle)
- Home care and community nursing car pre-start (before every trip, car)
- Mobile clinic pre-start (before every trip, light truck)
- Monthly vehicle inspection (supervisor) (monthly, any vehicle)
- Post-trip check (after every trip, any vehicle)
- Rigid truck pre-start walkaround (before every trip, rigid truck)
- Box or plant trailer walkaround (before every trip, trailer)
- Bus and coach pre-trip walkaround (before every trip, bus)
- Van pre-start walkaround (before every trip, van)
- Ute or car pre-start walkaround (before every trip, ute)
- Waste compactor pre-start walkaround (before every trip, waste compactor)
The rules, in plain words
- HVNL and Chain of Responsibility: The primary duty, executive due diligence and what changed on 1 August 2026.
- NHVAS and Heavy Vehicle Accreditation: The daily check minimum items, fault handling, servicing, the register and retention.
One standard, every depot
Create your fleet, paste your registrations, print the tags and send a driver the link. Fourteen days free, no card and no hardware.