Every fleet has a safety policy and most of them are sincere. The difference between a safety programme and a document about one is entirely in the records, because a programme nobody can evidence is indistinguishable from a programme nobody ran. This page is about which records carry the weight, and about the single number that tells you whether yours is real.
Three records carry most of the weight
The daily inspection report, because it is the only routine evidence that anybody looked at the vehicle. The defect with its repair certification, because it is the only evidence that looking led to anything. And the periodic inspection, because it is the annual proof that the vehicle was examined properly by someone qualified rather than glanced at in a yard. A fleet that can produce those three, per vehicle, on request, is compliant in the way that survives scrutiny.
The number that shows whether it is real
Open defects with no repair certification. Not the count of checks, which measures obedience, and not the count of defects, which measures honesty; the count of defects that were raised and never closed. That number is small in fleets where the loop works and large in fleets where the check is theatre, and it is almost never counted because no paper system produces it. The free worksheet on this site asks for it, and most people who fill it in do not know the answer at first.
Safety programmes fail on routing, not on attitude
The failure is rarely a driver not caring. It is a defect written on a sheet in a cab that never reaches the person who books repairs, because the route between them is a conversation. Making that route a record with an owner is the whole intervention, and it is why this product attaches a defect to a vehicle and a person rather than to a piece of paper.
Questions people ask about fleet safety compliance
What does fleet safety compliance actually require?
That depends on your operation, but the records at the centre of it are consistent: the daily inspection, the defect and its repair certification, the periodic inspection, and the driver file behind the person driving.
How do we know if our programme is working?
Count the defects raised in the last quarter with no repair certification against them. If that number is near zero the loop works. If you cannot produce the number at all, that is the answer.
Is a written safety policy enough?
It is necessary and it is not evidence. What gets examined is whether the things the policy describes left records behind them.