Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane here.

Remember when you went for your K53 driver’s licence test, and you were required to perform a pre-trip inspection of your car?

You probably remember DOING the checks, but not what you actually had to check for, right?

This is because the only time any of us actually do the correct checks is when we’re doing our drivers test! Nobody really has five to 10 minutes to check their entire vehicle before each and every trip.

So, our legends here at Highway Bakkie Hire have condensed the vehicle checks before driving to a total of five key checks that are most important to safe roadway driving below:

1. Foot Brake

One need only look at the Fields Hill crash of 2013, where 27 people died and 80 were injured, to understand the importance of checking a vehicle’s brakes before driving.

Check your brakes by pumping them once or twice while the vehicle is stationary. There should be a certain degree of resistance, and you shouldn’t be able to push the brake pedal all the way to the floor.

Little or no brake pedal resistance could be a sign of weak brakes, and you should avoid driving around when your brakes are in this condition – especially when the roads are wet.

2. Head Lights

This is Africa.

One moment you’ll be driving in spectacular sunshine with your hand imitating an aeroplane out of the window, and the next you’ll be squinting through thick layers of mist while travelling at 20km/h.

For this reason, we’ve made your headlights the second most-important thing to check before heading off on a vehicular adventure.

Ensure that both of your headlights are operational, as cars with only one working light look like motorbikes to oncoming traffic.

3. Indicators

Third on the list are your vehicle’s indicators. Now remember, just because you hear the clicking noise inside the car doesn’t mean that your indicator lights are working.

One easy way to test all indicator lights at once is to put your hazards on and walk around the car to see if all four lights are illuminating.

Should you realise that one isn’t firing, remember to use applicable hand signals until you are able to get the indicator light fixed.

4. Hand Brake

While you don’t use it while driving, unless you’re a drift racer, your vehicle’s handbrake is vitally important to the safety of your car and those around it.

Think about what might happen when you park your car on an incline and your handbrake fails. Depending on how you parked, it’s either going head-first or tail-first into the nearest car, wall, or person crossing the road.

Test your handbrake on a slight incline by seeing how many clicks it takes before the vehicle remains stationary without having to use the foot brake. Anything more than four clicks and your handbrake could be on the verge of malfunction.

5. Tyre Tread

The fifth and final vital vehicle check to perform before getting on your merry way is to measure the remaining tread on your tyres.

Slippery roads + worn tyres = an accident waiting to happen.

As our South African traffic officials recommend, should your tyres’ tread be less that the width of a matchstick (around 3mm), your tyres are unsafe and require replacing.

Here’s the good news…

Luckily, when renting a vehicle from us at Highway Bakkie Hire, we’ve done the above checks (and a whole lot more) so you don’t have to! Click here to get in touch for more information.