A short daily pre-start that drivers actually do
A courier cannot spend four minutes on a walkaround every morning. Escudo Fleet offers two kinds of check: a short daily pre-start with no walk, and a verified walkaround with framed photos of every position and tyre. Each van carries the checks you choose, for example the pre-start every day and the walkaround each week, and scanning its tag opens them. A subcontractor driver is invited by a link and marked as a contractor.
Why it matters for courier fleets
Under 4.5 tonnes there is no Heavy Vehicle National Law duty, but the WHS Act still applies: a vehicle used for work is a workplace and plant, and the business must maintain safe plant and have it inspected by a competent person.
Contracts bite. Transport for NSW’s contractor vehicle standard requires daily inspections before each shift with reports and service records available in the vehicle. Platform and insurer requirements sit in private contracts and ask for the same thing.
Chain of Responsibility still applies where a light fleet business consigns, packs, loads or schedules heavy vehicles. A clean record of your own vehicles is the easy part of showing a system of work.
Damage disputes between a franchisor, a subcontractor and a customer are settled faster from stamped photos than from memory.
Summarised from public sources on 13 October 2026. Not legal advice. Check the current rule with your regulator or adviser.
What gets checked
Daily pre-start
- Tyres by eye
- Lights and indicators
- Windscreen, mirrors and wipers
- Warning lights on the dash
- Load secured and doors latch
- Odometer and fuel level
- Sign
Or a guided walkaround
- Every stop photographed with the live camera, stamped with time, location and heading
- Each tyre photographed with its tread and pressure
- New damage marked on the outline
- Fluid levels and leaks
- First aid kit and fire extinguisher dates
Per driver
- Trip start and end with odometer and fuel level
- Licence expiry with a 30-day warning
- Induction recorded
A typical pre-start: Courier van daily 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
A van shared across drivers is where fuel goes missing without anyone noticing. Fuel level is recorded in eighths at every trip start and end, so a drop while the van was parked is flagged.
Fill-ups come with a photo of the pump or receipt, stamped with the time and location, or arrive from your fuel card import and are matched to the fill the driver recorded.
Consumption per driver by month puts the figures side by side.
How fuel tracking worksWhat is kept
- Daily pre-start or verified walkaround per van with the driver identified
- Trip records showing who held the van, when, and the odometer and fuel level at each end
- Damage marked on the outline on a walkaround, with stamped photos, before and after
- Defects with who found, assessed and cleared them
- Export per van or per driver as PDF or spreadsheet for a franchisor or an insurer
Every record is kept while your account is open. Everything exports as PDF or spreadsheet, and the record is yours.
Starter templates
- Electric van or car pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Weekly light vehicle check (weekly, car)
- Motorcycle or scooter pre-start (before every trip, motorcycle or scooter)
- E-bike or cargo bike pre-ride (before every trip, E-bike or cargo bike)
- Van pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Courier van daily check (daily, van)
- Refrigerated van pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Light truck pre-start (before every trip, light truck)
- Curtainsider and pantech pre-start (before every trip, rigid truck)
- Refrigerated truck pre-start (before every trip, rigid truck)
- Pathology and specimen courier pre-start (before every trip, van)
- Load restraint check (when needed, any vehicle)
- Monthly vehicle inspection (supervisor) (monthly, any vehicle)
- Post-trip check (after every trip, any vehicle)
- Van pre-start walkaround (before every trip, van)
- Motorcycle or scooter pre-start walkaround (before every trip, motorcycle or scooter)
The rules, in plain words
- HVNL and Chain of Responsibility: The primary duty, executive due diligence and what changed on 1 August 2026.
Give every subcontractor the same standard
Create your fleet, paste your registrations, print the tags and send a driver the link. Fourteen days free, no card and no hardware.