Australia Heavy Vehicle National Law Safety Management System Standard 2026 S2-3: Maintenance accreditation, daily check: a daily check conducted for each vehicle in use, with defined timing, responsibility and recording, covering safety-critical components such as brakes, couplings and tyres sufficiently to find obvious defects, faults recorded and escalated through fault reporting, and the checker confirming safety to the limits of the inspection

What does S2-3 require?

The daily check is a foundational control: it confirms that a vehicle is safe to take on the road before it is used, giving a structured chance to catch obvious defects, wear or public risks that arise from normal operation. The maintenance system says when the check is done, who does it and how the result is recorded; the person doing it plays a frontline role in spotting risk and signs off that, as far as the inspection goes, the vehicle is safe or that faults have been found and reported. The check looks at readily observable safety-critical items rather than performing a detailed mechanical inspection, so that problems are found and escalated before they contribute to unsafe operation or a regulatory breach. Five things are looked for: a daily check is carried out for each vehicle whenever it is in use; its timing, responsibility and recording method are defined and applied consistently; its scope covers safety-critical components such as brakes, couplings and tyre pressure and integrity closely enough to reveal obvious defects before use; faults found during the check are recorded and escalated through the fault reporting system; and those doing the check understand that they are confirming the vehicle's safety, within the limits of the inspection, before it goes on the road.