24 Sep 2026

"IT WAS FINE YESTERDAY" - WHY PRE-USE CHECKS MATTER

If you spend long enough supplying equipment, you hear a lot of stories.

After two decades, the names, the places, and the machines might change, but the stories are often remarkably similar. And there's one phrase that we seem to hear crop up more than most:

"It was fine yesterday."

We've heard about machines being started with barely any oil in them, equipment being used with damaged cables, tyres that were clearly past they best, and safety devices that weren't working as they should.

Often, the problem was there to be spotted. Nobody deliberately set out to use unsafe equipment. They were busy, the job needed doing quickly, and the machine had worked perfectly well the day before, so they assumed it would work exactly the same today.

Most of the time, you might get away with it. But occasionally, assumptions are your biggest mistake.

A small leak becomes a breakdown. A loose component becomes a damaged one. A worn part finally gives up halfway through the job. Suddenly, the five minutes that were "saved" by getting straight to work have turned into several hours of downtime, an expensive repair, or far worse, a serious injury.

That's why we're such strong believers in pre-use checks & inspections.

They don't need to be complicated, and we're certainly not suggesting every operator needs to become a mechanic. A good pre-use check is often simply about slowing down for a few minutes and actually looking at the equipment you're about to trust with the job.

Are the tyres ok? Is anything leaking? Are cables, hoses, and connections secure and in good nick? Are guards and safety devices where they should be? Is there any obvious damage that wasn't there before?

And if something doesn't look right, don't just ignore it!

Over the years, we've heard almost as many stories about defect being noticed and ignored as we have about defects not being spotted at all. Someone thinks, "it'll probably be alright," finished the job and puts the equipment away without mentioning it. The next operators then inherits the problem without even knowing it's there.

That's exactly the sort of situation a good pre-use inspection can prevent.

Equipment works hard. It gets moved, transported, knocked around, and used in conditions that aren't always kind to it. Something that was perfectly serviceable yesterday isn't automatically safe today.

So, from people who have spent many years supplying equipment, out advice is very simply.

Before you start the machine, climb the ladder, plug in the tool, or drive away, give it a proper check.

It might take five minutes. But we've heard enough stories over the years to now that those five minutes are worth far more than you think.