The daily pre-start a council contract manager can ask to see
A compactor is a truck and a machine. The pre-start covers both: brakes, lights, tyres and leaks on the truck, then the bin lift, hopper, hydraulics, reversing alarm and camera on the body. On the guided walkaround the driver photographs each stop, the fault lands on the defect board with a photo, and the truck stays off road until the fault is cleared and signed off.
Why it matters for waste fleets
Driver position descriptions at councils require a daily safety inspection checklist and faults to be reported. Tenders score WHS. The record you can produce is part of the score.
The enforcement record is the driver. In Victoria, Country Cart was fined A$300,000 over an unroadworthy truck with overdue services, and WorkSafe Victoria stated its expectation of daily pre-operation checks on essential components, including brakes. In 2025 a waste operator and its repairer were charged after a 2023 death, with the allegation of no system that required daily checks of the truck, including the park brake, along with recording and reporting faults and timely repairs.
WorkSafe Victoria runs a statewide waste transport inspection programme. Compactor and bin-lift checks come from the manufacturer manual and WHS plant duties, not from a transport rule, so your template carries your manual’s items in your wording.
A Waste and Recycling Industry Code was registered under the Heavy Vehicle National Law in June 2024. Escudo Fleet is designed with the Master Code and the industry code in mind, and helps you show a system of work for daily checks, fault reporting and timely repair.
Summarised from public sources on 13 October 2026. Not legal advice. Check the current rule with your regulator or adviser.
What gets checked
Truck
- Wheels, tyres and wheel nuts
- Lights, reflectors and beacons
- Windscreen, mirrors and wipers
- Brakes: warning indicators, air gauge, air tank drain
- Park brake hold test
- Fluid and air leaks
- Structure and bodywork
- Odometer and fuel level
Body
- Bin lift arms and grabs
- Hopper and packer plate
- Hydraulic hoses and fittings
- Tailgate lock and props
- Reversing alarm and camera
- Fire extinguisher date
- Spill kit against par
Or as a guided walkaround
- Every stop photographed with the live camera, stamped with time, location and heading
- Each tyre photographed with its tread and pressure
- Damage marked on the outline
- Evidence rating visible to the supervisor
A typical pre-start: Waste compactor (side loader) 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
Compactors burn fuel idling at the kerb, so consumption per route and per driver is where the waste shows up. Escudo Fleet sets a baseline from each truck’s own history and flags a week that runs well above it.
A fill that exceeds the tank, a fill with no distance since the last one, or a fuel level that drops while the truck is parked at the depot raises an alert for review.
Import your fuel card statement and each line that matches a fill-up recorded on the phone is linked to it. Lines with no phone record stay on the fill-ups list, marked as from the statement.
How fuel tracking worksWhat is kept
- Daily pre-start per vehicle with the driver identified, date and time stamped at the moment of the check, and the template version in force that day
- Faults with who found them, who assessed them, who deferred or cleared them and when, with photos
- Services by distance, hours or date, with the work order and the clearer’s sign-off
- Equipment register for spill kits, extinguishers and PPE with test dates
- Everything exported as a PDF pack or spreadsheet for a tender or a WorkSafe visit
Every record is kept while your account is open. Everything exports as PDF or spreadsheet, and the record is yours.
Starter templates
- Rigid truck pre-start (before every trip, rigid truck)
- Water cart pre-start (before every trip, tanker)
- Waste compactor pre-start (side loader) (before every trip, waste compactor)
- Waste compactor pre-start (rear loader) (before every trip, waste compactor)
- Waste compactor pre-start (front lift) (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)
- Plant pre-start (before use, plant)
- Forklift pre-start (LPG or diesel) (before use, forklift)
- Skid steer loader pre-start (before use, skid steer loader)
- Wheel loader pre-start (before use, wheel loader)
- Dozer pre-start (before use, dozer)
- Load restraint check (when needed, any vehicle)
- 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)
- 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.
Put the pre-start on every truck before the next tender
Create your fleet, paste your registrations, print the tags and send a driver the link. Fourteen days free, no card and no hardware.