photograph each vehicle and machine as an asset, and put the registration plate (or a unique kit ID like "Chainsaw 11.26") in the asset's name — the name flows into every inspection task title, so the driver always knows exactly which van they're signing off.
Pre-use vehicle checks are the classic first win in Civic.ly: a fleet can be photographed in an hour and daily checks can be live the same day. They're also the checks your insurer cares most about — if a vehicle is in an incident, "show us your pre-use check records" is the first question. The decision isn't whether to check; it's how much detail to capture. There are three tiers, and the right one depends on how much you trust the ticks.
Tier 1 — swipe-pass, no checklist
A daily routine over the fleet; the driver swipes each vehicle's check complete before taking it out. No questions asked.
Pros: near-zero friction; proves a named person confirmed the vehicle daily.
Cons: no item-level evidence. It records that a check happened, not what was checked.
Tier 2 — the grouped check
The same routine, using the Van Check — ten grouped questions covering the walk-round:
Van Check: Lights & indicators · Braking system · Tyres & wheels · Fluid levels · Fluid leaks · Glass & mirrors · Load security · Cleanliness · Mileage · Overall condition.
Every vehicle type has its equivalent — Tractor Check, Ride-On Mower Check, Truck Check, Street Sweeper Check, and so on. (An Annual or Operational check leads with its cadence in the name — e.g. Annual Road-Legal Check — but the everyday routine Check doesn't carry a cadence word.)
Pros: some item evidence, still quick. A sensible default for a small, trusted team.
Cons: each group takes one answer. The options do name the fault ("Headlight Out", "Indicator Failed") — but if two lights are out at once you're into the "Multiple Failures" catch-all, and nothing forces the walk to the back of the van.
Tier 3 — the detailed per-item sweep
The Van Sweep: a mileage reading, then 37 itemised questions in walk-round order — each its own OK / N/A / named-fault answer, with an overall condition rating on top:
Van Sweep (excerpt): 01 Fuel/oil/water leaks · 02 Headlights (incl. full beam) · 03 Rear lights · 04 Side lights · 05 Indicator lights · 06 Hazard lights … 15 Tyre condition (incl. spare) · 17 Wheel nuts · 20 Brake fluid · 24 Engine oil level · 27 Seatbelts & locking · 33 Brakes (service & handbrake) · 34 Dashboard warning lights · 35 First aid kit · 36 Fire extinguisher · 37 Warning triangle.
Again there's one per vehicle type — Ride-On Mower Sweep, Fairway Mower Sweep, Recycling Truck Sweep, Emergency Vehicle Sweep.
Pros: forces the walk-round. This tier exists because of a problem every fleet manager recognises: "they just tick, tick, tick and don't bother doing their checks — at least this way they have to do their checks." Failing an item raises a defect with the fault pre-filled — fail "Rear lights" and a defect titled "Van – Rear light issue" is ready to send, photo and assignee in two taps.
Cons: a couple of minutes per vehicle rather than seconds; drivers need to see why it's worth it (the answer: the record protects them too).
Cadence patterns
- Quick daily + detailed weekly — a popular middle path: Tier 1 or 2 four days a week, the full Tier 3 sweep once a week. Build it as two routines: remove the detailed day from the daily routine, and add a weekly routine on that day with the detailed checklist.
- Routine per depot, all drivers assigned — assign every likely driver; the first person to complete a vehicle's check clears it from everyone's list.
- Vehicle not used today? The driver cancels the task (with a "not used" note) — never deletes it. A cancelled check is part of the audit trail; a deleted one is a hole in it.
- Check your insurance terms — some policies specify daily light and tyre checks; set your tiers to match the policy, not habit.
Machinery and powered kit
Driven machinery — ride-on mowers, tractors, diggers, forklifts and the like — sits on the same Check/Sweep framework as vehicles, with its own named checklists (Ride-On Mower Check, Ride-On Mower Sweep, and so on for each type). Everything above about tiers and cadence applies to it directly.
Handheld powered kit — strimmers, chainsaws, hedge cutters, hand tools — is a different story today: there's no dedicated pre-use checklist for these yet, so they default to the general-purpose Simple Checklist (four questions: condition, cleanliness, functionality, safety), set to an annual cadence out of the box. If you want a daily pre-use habit for hand tools now, you can still add them as assets and run the Simple Checklist on your own schedule — just know you won't get the itemised, per-fault evidence that the vehicle checklists give you. A dedicated hand-tool pre-use checklist is on the roadmap, not shipped.
For occasional-use kit of any kind, an on-demand check (find the asset, create the inspection, tick the checklist) can replace a scheduled one — the trade-off is that scheduled checks don't get forgotten and on-demand ones do.
Electric vehicles get their own checklist variant, not an N/A workaround. Rather than answering fuel/oil questions as N/A on the standard petrol/diesel checklist, pick the (Electric) version of the vehicle's Check or Sweep — it swaps out the fuel- and combustion-specific questions for the ones that actually apply to an EV. Look for it in the same "Select a checklist" dropdown as the standard version; only vehicle types with a genuine electric option carry one.
How to choose
- Insurer first: match the tier and cadence to your policy wording.
- Trust level second: if you already doubt the ticks, go Tier 3 — the per-item forcing function is the point.
- Fleet size third: two vans, one driver — Tier 2 daily is probably enough. Seven vehicles across two depots — Tier 3 weekly with Tier 1 daily earns its keep.
Both checklists capture the mileage as part of the check — a year of readings supports servicing intervals and replacement decisions.
Common questions
Q: We're a small council — is this overkill? A: Do the simplest tier daily. Even Tier 1 puts you ahead of a paper folder: dated, named, and impossible to backfill.
Q: What happens when a check fails? A: The failing item raises a defect on the vehicle; a job to fix it hangs off the defect. If the vehicle shouldn't be driven, that's a conversation the defect record now evidences.
Q: Who sees that the checks are being done? A: The routine view is the manager's oversight: each cycle shows which vehicles were checked, by whom, and any failures — and the vehicle's own Tasks tab holds its full history for insurers or auditors.