Paper pre-trips don't fix anything
Most fleets already do pre-trips. The trouble is what happens after. The sheet goes in the cab, the glovebox, or a pile on the shop desk. A cracked hose or a weeping cylinder gets written down, then sits there until someone happens to read it, or until the machine goes down on the job. The inspection happened. The follow-up didn't.
How it works in Tenmil
Seven steps, from the walkaround at the start of the shift to the repair landing on the machine. Nothing in between is re-typed by anyone.
- Pick the machine and its form. The operator opens the unit in the Tenmil mobile app on iOS or Android and the pre-trip form for that asset type is waiting. An excavator walkaround is not a haul truck walkaround, so each equipment type carries its own checklist.
- Walk the machine item by item. The inspection is guided, one item at a time, with a pass or fail on each. Anything that fails takes a photo and a note right there, so the shop sees the weeping fitting instead of reading about it.
- Record the hour meter. The meter reading entered on the inspection updates the machine's hours, and those hours are what the PM schedule runs on. No separate reading run, no clipboard.
- Submit, with or without a signal. The app runs the whole inspection offline and syncs when the phone is back in coverage. The operator does not have to remember to do anything later.
- Failed items land in the backlog on their own. Every failed item becomes a backlog entry on that machine, tagged as coming from an inspection and prioritized by severity, without anyone re-typing it.
- The shop plans the fix. The fleet-wide backlog page shows every open item by machine, filterable by site, asset type and project. Add the item to that machine's next work order, or create a work order for it straight from the backlog.
- The repair lands on the machine. Labor, parts and outside service costs on that work order go to the unit and feed its cost per hour, and the inspection stays on the unit record next to meter readings, fault codes, greasing and fueling.
A weeping hose, followed through
Monday, 6:40 a.m. The operator on excavator 214 fails one item on the pre-trip: boom cylinder hose, weeping at the fitting. Photo attached, hour meter recorded, inspection submitted from a site with no signal. When the phone syncs, the failed item is a backlog entry on unit 214, tagged as coming from an inspection.
The 500-hour service on 214 is due Thursday, so the shop adds the backlog item to that work order and puts the hose on order the same morning. Thursday the hose goes on during the service: 0.8 hours of labor and one hose, both charged to 214, both feeding its cost per hour. At the $180 shop rate our shop-rate post walks through, that is a $144 labor line on a planned work order.
The other version of this story is the note in the cab, the hose letting go on the job, and a machine that sits while a mechanic drives out with the same hose and a service call attached.
What that gets you
- One list of open items across the fleet. The backlog page shows every open item by machine, with the issue, component and date. You can filter it by site, asset type, project and more.
- Inspection history on every unit. Pre-trips sit on the unit record alongside meter readings, fault codes, greasing and fueling, so you can see what was reported and when.
- Repairs that land on the right machine. When a backlog item goes onto a work order, the labor, parts and outside service costs go to that unit and feed its cost per hour.
- Fixes you can plan. Backlog items can be loaded onto the next work order for that machine, instead of pulling it out of service for every small repair.
What to look for in equipment inspection software
Search for equipment inspection software and you will find standalone inspection apps, fleet platforms with an inspection module, and maintenance systems that include inspections. Whichever kind you pick, hold it to six things:
- Forms built per machine type. If one generic form covers the whole fleet, operators stop reading it, and the items that matter on a grader never get asked.
- Works with no signal. Pre-trips happen at 6 a.m. on sites without coverage. An equipment inspection app that needs a connection to open or submit gets skipped on exactly the days it matters.
- Captures the hour meter. Every inspection is a chance to read the meter. If the reading does not update the machine's hours, the PM schedule is running on stale numbers.
- A failed item creates work by itself. The real test of heavy equipment inspection software is what happens after the fail. If the answer is a PDF in an inbox, the follow-up still depends on someone reading it.
- History lives on the unit. Inspections belong on the machine's record, next to meter readings, fault codes and services, so the same item failing three weeks running shows up as a pattern.
- Part of the maintenance system. Backlog, work orders, parts and cost per hour in the same place as the inspection, so nothing is typed twice and every repair lands on the machine that needed it.
Free inspection checklists
Not ready to switch yet? Download our free heavy equipment inspection checklists, from the excavator inspection checklist to dozers, loaders, graders, backhoes, skid steers, telehandlers, compactors and articulated trucks, in PDF and Excel. Each one is the pre-trip walkaround plus the 500, 1,000 and 2,000-hour services.
Frequently Asked Questions
It replaces paper pre-trip and pre-use sheets with digital inspections tied to each machine. The useful part isn’t the form. It’s what happens to the failed items afterward.
It automatically becomes a backlog entry on that machine. From there it can be added to a work order, or a work order can be created for it directly from the fleet-wide backlog page.
A standalone equipment inspection app produces a completed form, usually a PDF in someone’s inbox. The failed item still has to be typed into whatever runs the shop. In Tenmil it is already there, on the machine, ready to go on a work order.
Yes. The mobile app runs inspections fully offline and syncs when the signal comes back.
The inspections run in the Tenmil mobile app on iOS and Android, on the Advanced plan. What makes it heavy equipment inspection software rather than a form app is what sits behind the form: the machine’s hour meter, its backlog, work orders, parts and cost per hour.
Yes. Inspection forms in Tenmil are built per equipment type, so an excavator and an articulated truck get different walkarounds, and you can start from our free checklists or from the sheet your crews already use.
The Advanced plan, which also adds greasing, telematics integration and the live GPS fleet map.
Yes. Inspections, backlog, work orders, parts and costs all live in the same maintenance software, so a failed item can be followed from the pre-trip to the finished repair.
See how inspections turn into work orders
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