Vehicle Checks

Human and fleet resources are vital assets of any business. We understand that ensuring their safety is a key priority. This is why, at BigChange, we have worked to enhance our functionality around Vehicle Checks.

We offer you the ability to create and carry out Vehicle Checks with full Worksheet functionality, using answers which include text, statements, photos, file viewing and more. Resources can report defects and log their severity, enabling you to rectify them in a planned and timely manner, with a full audit trail of ownership.  You can even have timesheet logs of the time taken to carry out the checks so that they can be included in a resource's working day.

Let's take a more detailed look at how they work. 

Creating a Vehicle Check

Vehicle checks are customisable checklists to be completed by resources, usually at the start of the day before driving to jobs e.g. ‘check windscreen’, ‘check tyres’, ‘check oil’. Administrators can create a Vehicle Check worksheet in the back office.

STEP 1

Navigate to Account Settings > Settings > Vehicles > Severities > Add. Add severity, including both a name and a priority order.

Please note, that in order to do this you will need to have administrative rights for this set up in web user roles.

STEP 2

Navigate to Account Settings > Settings > Vehicles > Vehicle defect flags > Add. Create some related flags to help manage reported defects.

STEP 3

Navigate toAccount Settings > Settings > Vehicles > Vehicle check > select a type, either Legacy Ticksheet or Worksheets.

The latter is the recommended option, but please be aware of the following:

Your device will need to be running the BigChange App on version 5.16 on Android and 6.11 on iOS, or later, in order to use the worksheets option.

Legacy Ticksheet.

We recommend the use of the Worksheets option where possible:

Under the Worksheets section, select Add to create a new Worksheet

STEP 4

Complete the popup, by adding a name, and adding an employee group, if needed. You can additionally specify that this be the default Vehicle Check Worksheet for new vehicles of a particular type.  Below we have selected it as the default for cars/vans. Save.

STEP 5

Select the WorkSheet, followed by Edit.

Select Add to begin adding questions

If we create a question "Tyre condition" as our example, we can select List in the Type field, add our possible answers and make answering it mandatory.

You will now see additional fields which allow the resource to raise a defect for this question:

1. Default answer - add a default answer where appropriate.
2. Answer at risk - to add an answer at risk, select the Add button. You can then input one of the answers you added in the Possible answers field and select a Severity from the drop-down list:
3. The levels shown are those which were created previously in the Severities tab on the side menu. Allocate a severity for each answer you designate as at risk.  For example, a flat tyre would be 'high' severity, whereas scratched paintwork might be 'low'. This field can be left blank where no answer is at risk.
4. Answer which raises defect - Set which level(s) of severity creates a defect for this question. This field will only appear for answer types that offer a defined answer: List, Icons, Yes / No
5. Allow resource to raise defect... - you can grant or withhold permission for resources to raise a defect themselves.  This allows them to raise a defect even if the issue they are raising doesn't correspond with one of the 'Answers which raises defect' responses.  Since some answer types can't be added to that field e.g. photo, signature, etc, this can be useful.
6. Defect requires photo - selecting 'yes' makes it mandatory to add a photograph of the defect.  Clicking 'no' makes it optional.

STEP 6

Add any required Conditional branching. Conditional branching allows you to use responses from one question to display or go to other questions or worksheets, based on the response which is received. This can be a great time saver, allowing resources to skip questions that aren’t relevant to them whilst keeping them in place for those instances when they are needed.

Continuing our example, conditional branching can be added so that where there is a worn tyre, the user will then be asked to identify which tyre(s) are a cause for concern:

STEP 7

Continue to add questions until you have completed your Vehicle Check.

Questions can be dragged and dropped until you have an order you are happy with. Save to finish.

Converting Legacy Ticksheets to Worksheets

Existing ticksheets can easily be converted over to Worksheets from within the Vehicle Check side menu.

1. Select Ticksheets
   
2. Select a Vehicle Type from the dropdown menu
   
3. A Convert to Worksheets button will now have appeared beneath the selected Vehicle type. Click on it.
   
4. A popup will ask you to select a group (optional) for this to be applied to and to select a Severity
5. You will notice that the Ticksheet is still visible as converting it over does not delete the original version.  Select Worksheets from the top field.
   
6. You will now see that an additional Worksheet has appeared in the list. Click on it and select Edit to open.
   
7. This will now display as a typical Worksheet and can be edited in the usual way. This includes changing the severity for specific questions and adding conditional branching if required.

Attributing Worksheets to Vehicles

In order for it to be available to your resources, once you have created your Vehicle Check you then need to attribute it to the relevant vehicles.

Navigate to Account Settings > Settings > Vehicles > Add-edit > select a Vehicle.

Scroll down to the Worksheets for vehicle checks field and make a selection from the drop-down menu

Select Save.

Re-open the same vehicle, and select the Copy Worksheets icon.

A popup will now open asking you to select a Worksheet(s) to copy and which vehicle (s) to copy it/them to. You can select either specific vehicles by Reg No or simply select a vehicle group:

A completed example should look similar to this:

Select the Copy icon to complete.  All vehicles selected will now show your Worksheet selection against them.

Where a default for newly created vehicle/asset has been created in Step 4 above, this will only need to be completed for existing fleet vehicles.  This will be automatically for new fleet vehicles..

Viewing, Consolidating and Adding Defects

Viewing Defects

Completed Vehicle Checks and defects raised against a vehicle can be viewed under the Fleet & resources tab.

Select the Defects tab and make your selection from TickSheet and WorkSheet. You will be offered a variety of filter options, and the view can be saved as a favourite, to help you monitor the defect overview:

Defects and vehicle checks can also be accessed from the Fleet side menu by clicking on a vehicle registration. Select a vehicle, followed by the Vehicle Checks tab.

You can see all vehicle checks carried out on this vehicle, the date and times they were performed and the resource who recorded them.

You can also view any defects which were added during each check, with more at-a-glance details available by selecting the relevant line:

Detail

WorkSheets

For full details of defects on this vehicle, close this and move to the Open defects tab.

As well as the time/date, question and resource, here you can see the severity and status of each defect and any associated flags.

Selecting defect gives you options to View the defect or Mark as actioned. If you select View, a new window will open similar to the one used in Notes:

You will see that on the left there are fields showing all of the elements of the defect e.g. flag, WorkSheet question/answer, etc as well as any associated information. On the right is a dialogue box that works in the same way as that in Notes.
Photos can be uploaded here by selecting a file to attach in the Photo field. A thumbnail will then be displayed

If you wish to replace this with an updated image, select Delete beneath the photo. The image will disappear here but automatically transfer across to the Attachments tab, allowing only the most current image to appear on the General tab but maintaining an auditable trail for the vehicle history.

You can also opt to view archived, historical defects, shown greyed out below. Although you are able to add notes, consolidate or mark these as actioned, the key information such as the severity, is no longer editable.

Consolidating Defects

The option to Consolidate allows you to combine defects on the same vehicle where desired.

Selecting Consolidate will open a new popup window

Make a selection from the drop-down menu and then select Consolidate. The defect shown in the example will now have disappeared from the list view and any dialogue notes from it will have been added to the current defect.

Defects can be raised for a vehicle on the website if the web user has permission and is attached to a resource.

Adding Defects

Navigate to Account Settings > Settings > Resources > Add-edit > Select a Resource

You will then see an Add icon available in a vehicle's Open defects tab.

Selecting the add icon allows you to add a defect.

Exporting Defects

It is also possible to create blueprints and exports for the defects.

Navigate to Fleet & resources > Fleet > Defects.

The following columns can be selected for export and/or blueprints:

• Date created.
• Vehicle registration.
• Vehicle group.
• Resource.
• Resource group.
• Severity.
• Worksheet question.
• Worksheet answer.
• Notes.
• Status.
• Owner.
• Current flag.
• Due date.

Alerts

To complement the Vehicle Checks that you created,  you can also create alerts in the Alerts feature to notify you when specific elements are triggered, both for resources and for vehicles, e.g. 'a defect of severity High in answer to question 'Tyres'

For more information on creating an Alert, please read the dedicated Alerts article. 

Vehicle Check Expiry

You might want your resources to complete vehicle checks on a recurring basis. As with timesheets, you can set up the BigChange App to prompt resources to complete a vehicle check before they start their jobs, essentially making the vehicle check a mandatory requirement.

Navigate to Account Settings > Settings > General Account Settings > Other device settings.

In the example above, we have set vehicle checks to expire after 1 day.

Once you have amended this setting, you would need to ask your resources to complete a vehicle check on the device. This first completion will trigger the expiry process to start.

This constraint is not tied to a specific vehicle,  nor will a resource receive multiple notifications asking them to perform checks on other vehicles.

Please be advised, that the system will count the first completed vehicle check as the start date for this process. Following our example, if we set the check to expire after 1 day, the system will wait for the first check to be completed and count 24h from that date before repeating the request, ie:

1. We have set up the vehicle check to expire after 1 day.
2. A resource completes the vehicle check on Monday at 09:10 am.
3. The application will prompt the resource again on Tuesday at 09:10 am.