Reduce Accidents With A Vehicle Pre-delivery inspection (PDI) Checklist

What is a pre-delivery inspection?

The pre-delivery inspection (or PDI) ensures that a newly purchased vehicle is roadworthy and safe before it is handed over to the customer. It is usually carried out at the dealership, where the inspectors evaluate every aspect of the vehicle, such as the engine compartment and electrical controls, as well as the fuel and exhaust system.

A delivery inspection also includes a road test to ensure that the general steering and handling, transmission, and brakes are in perfect condition.

One of the many benefits of performing a pre-delivery inspection checklist for a car is any minor defects can be repaired on-site during the inspection, saving time and money by preventing costly recalls and increasing customer satisfaction.

What is a checklist for outbound inspection ?

A PDI checklist is used to evaluate vehicle operating conditions and compliance with safety regulations before sale to customers. Once the vehicle is ready to be put on the market, it goes through a last round of inspections to ensure quality standards are met and upheld as well as prevent subquality goods from damaging the company’s reputation.

This article briefly discusses:

1. 4 steps for pre-delivery inspection

2. Pre-delivery checklist improves customer satisfaction

2. Consequences of an incorrect pdi inspection

3. Advantages of the Lumiform app for pre-delivery inspection

4 decisive steps during pre-delivery inspection

The delivery of a vehicle should be carried out professionally and thoroughly to ensure the safety of the customer. In this way, recall actions and accidents can be prevented.

1. Exterior

• Headlights are correctly aligned.
• Tire pressure is adjusted to the manufacturer's recommended specifications, including spare tires.
• All mirrors should be firm and clear.
• Windshield wipers and washer fluid level are checked.
The paint condition and all emblems are undamaged.

2. Interior

• The steering wheel should be aligned.
• Locks, bolts and hinges are lubricated and functional.
• Safety devices are installed for electronic accessories.
• No obvious damage to the car seats.
• Safety belt, wheel covers, wheel locks and airbags are properly installed.

3. Engine compartment

• The engine should not make any growling noise.
• All fluids such as washing machine, coolant, brakes, power steering, transmission, and oil are leak-free and at their normal level.
• The hood latch should be lubricated to ensure smooth operation.
• The battery is tested and fully functional

4. Bottom side

• There are no visual defects such as cracks or holes in hoses, electrical lines, exhaust systems, and suspension components.
• Brakes should be tested and checked for damage indicators such as brake lights on, squeaking noises, vibrations, and a soft brake pedal.

An effective delivery inspection also includes checking the owner's manual, service passport, warranty booklet, and instructions before the vehicle is handed over to the customer. It is also necessary to carry out the recommended 10-kilometer road test on both city streets and the highway to assess the overall performance of the vehicle.

How Does a Pre-delivery Inspection Improve Customer Experience?

New cars are expensive, and depending on what type, model, and make you’re purchasing, they can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars range. It’s true that most of us won’t be spending that kind of money when purchasing a car, but that doesn’t by any means make them cheap.

But there’s a reason why people chose to fork up the extra cash and buy new instead of used—newer safety features, no milage, no corrosion or rust, no chance of undocumented accidents, it’s cleaner, and comes in pristine condition—to name a few benefits.

And to ensure delivery on those benefits, every vehicle will undergo a final round of inspections with the help of a PDI template. Here’s how the use of a PDI sheet can improve the overall customer experience:

1. Ensures any defects are caught before market
   Everyone’s heard of the defective airbags that effectively ejected shrapnel upon deployment and caused a major, market-wide recall that took thousands of cars off the streets. The defective airbags caused several people to permanently lose their eyesight, sustain multiple injuries, and in some cases, cost them their lives. What makes it all the more tragic is these injuries and deaths could have been prevented with a thorough inspection.
2. Lowers risks of accidents
   You can rest assured that if a loyal customer gets into a car accident because a defect was missed during earlier inspections, you’ll lose out on their future business. And with several automotive companies to choose from, it gives consumers plenty of opportunities to brand switch.
3. Saves on maintenance cost down the road
   If defects and repairs—small or major—are caught before a car is purchased, it will ultimately save the customer from having to pay the repair cost themselves, which will improve their brand impression for quality assurance and increase their overall consumer experience.
4. Happy customers will do the advertising for you
   If the vehicle is free from manufacturing defects, has great curbside appeal, and doesn’t require frequent repairs, a satisfied customer will be sure to spread the news of their most recent retail conquest. After all, they have to keep up with the Joneses.

There’s nothing worse than buying a brand new car only to drive it off the lot and immediately have the dreaded orange glare of ‘check engine light blink into your peripheral vision. After spending thousands of dollars, customers expect perfection. And they should. One of the contributing factors to buying new instead of used is for the guarantee that everything is in pristine, working condition. Anything less than that and next time they’ll be driving over to your competitor's lot.

How Long Does a Pre-Delivery Inspection Take?

On average, a pre-delivery car inspection takes about two hours to complete. After all the benefits of customer satisfaction that can be reaped from performing a simple PDI check that takes less than two hours of a maintenance inspector’s time, it will be well worth the extra effort.

What can Happen if a PDI isn’t Performed Correctly?

In order to perform a pre-delivery inspection correctly, sometimes a dealership will write up a standard operating procedure (or SOP), or in this case, a pre-delivery inspection checklist, to ensure each car gets the same level of attention, service, and care per inspection.

It’s of utmost importance the consumer receives a vehicle that has had a proper pre-delivery inspection done by a trained professional. Failure to do so could have severe ramifications on consumers' health and jeopardize your business’s integrity.

Here’s a list of risks company’s take on when they don’t do their due diligence:

1. Recalls
   Perhaps the greatest failure that results from ineffective inspections is the irreparable loss of life caused by defective equipment. The fact of the matter is that major recalls could be entirely avoided if every car received a thorough investigation prior to being driven off the lot.
2. Free Maintence
   Most new cars come with an extended warranty of some kind, meaning, if the maintenance crew missed any repairs during the inspection, the customer has every right to drive back and demand rectification at the expense of your man-hours and your bottom line.
3. Delayed Service
   Inefficient inspections will cause cars to pile up in the service bay. For a lot of people, cars are not a commodity item—they need them to get to and from work, run errands, and pick their kids up from school. The longer they are out of a car, the lower their satisfaction will be, and next time, they might just get their maintenance check or repair from someone who can do it faster. Once a customer leaves, they rarely come back.

To avoid your business from falling prone to any of these risks, create an SOP for pre-delivery inspections, so all your inspectors know exactly what to check for each and every time. One way to streamline the process is to employ a paperless system. A digital checklist will guarantee all documents are easily accessible and all in one place, making inspections easier and more efficient.

The advantages of the Lumiform app for pre-delivery inspection

With Lumiform's mobile app, you can easily conduct any kind of quality and safety inspection via tablet or smartphone - online or offline. With the desktop software, you can create checklists and evaluate the data collected in the field. This significantly reduces the risk of quality loss, accidents at work, documentation errors and damage to reputation.

Digitize checklists and internal processes with Lumiform:

• The flexible checklist builder from Lumiform helps you to convert any individual paper list into a digital checklist without much effort.
• In addition, we offer more than 9,000 read-made templates to help companies get started digitally in no time.
• Using the super intuitive mobile App, you and your teammates conduct check in the field with ease and in no time.
• All results, images and comments are automatically bundled in a digital report.
• Comprehensive analyses help you to identify inefficient areas in your company more quickly and thus to continuously improve your auditing and inspection processes.