About This Guide

This guide covers Inspections in RoadBays — starting one, performing it on a phone or tablet, capturing photos and signatures, completing it, and turning failures into work. It is written for the people doing the walking: drivers, technicians, and the managers who review what they find.

You do not need to read it end to end. Use the table of contents to jump to the screen you are on.

How to read the instructions

How an inspection works

Inspection statuses

Inspections work on a phone

The inspection screen is built to be used one-handed while walking around a truck. On a phone, a bar sticks to the bottom of the screen with your progress, the PDF and share buttons, and Complete, so you never have to scroll back up.

The Inspections List

The Inspections screen shows every inspection across your fleet, newest first.

Reading the list

The trash icon at the end of a row deletes the inspection.

Filtering

Four filters sit above the table, and they combine.

The search box above the table searches everything at once, and is the fastest way to find one inspection when you know almost anything about it.

Exporting

The CSV and Excel buttons export whatever the table is currently showing, filters included. Useful for an audit, a customer report, or a compliance record.

Starting an Inspection

There are two ways in, depending on whether the inspection belongs to a repair already in progress.

From the Inspections screen

1. Click Start inspection.
2. In Unit, start typing the unit number and pick it from the list.
3. Choose the Inspection template.
4. Click Start inspection.

The inspection is created and opens, ready to work through.

From a case

1. Open the case and go to the Inspections tab.
2. Choose the form from Select Inspection.
3. Click Create Inspection.

The inspection is created against that case and that unit, and shows in the Case # column on the Inspections list.

Templates

The template decides which items appear on the inspection, what each one prompts for, and whether a driver or mechanic signature is required. Click Manage templates on the Inspections screen to build and edit them.

Performing an Inspection

The Inspection tab is where the work happens. Each item on the template is a card, and you work through them in any order you like.

What is on screen

Marking an item

1. Read the item name and the points listed under it.
2. Tap Pass or Fail.

The card border turns green for a pass or red for a fail, and the progress bar moves. Your choice saves immediately — there is no save button for items.

Adding a comment

Every card has a comment box. Use it for anything the pass or fail does not say on its own — how worn, which side, how urgent.

Comments save on their own about half a second after you stop typing, and again when you tap away. A small label under the box shows Saving… and then Saved, so you can see it happened.

Photos on an item

The camera icon at the bottom of a card attaches a photo to that specific item.

1. Tap the camera icon on the card.
2. Take the photo, or pick one from your device.

The page reloads and returns you to that card, with the photo showing as a thumbnail underneath. Tap a thumbnail to view it full size, or the small × on it to delete it.

Marking a fail acts immediately

The moment you mark an item Fail, RoadBays records it on the Inspection Failures screen. You do not have to finish the inspection first.

This means a dispatcher watching that screen can start arranging a repair while the technician is still walking the truck.

The Photos Tab

The Photos tab holds photos that belong to the inspection as a whole rather than to one item — the unit as found, the odometer, the yard it was sitting in.

Uploading

1. Go to the Photos tab.
2. Tap Choose photo. On a phone this opens the camera directly.
3. Tap Upload.

What you can upload

RoadBays checks the file before uploading. If it is the wrong type or too large, a message appears immediately and the Upload button is disabled until you pick a different one.

The gallery

Uploaded photos appear below with the date and time they were added. Each has Download and Delete.

Signatures

Some inspections require a signature from the driver, the mechanic, or both. Where they do, signature blocks appear below the item cards.

Signing

1. Tap Sign on the Driver or Mechanic block.
2. Type the signer's full name into Signed by (print name). This is required.
3. Sign in the box with a finger on a touchscreen, or the mouse on a desktop.
4. Tap Save signature.

The signature appears on the block with the printed name and the date and time it was captured.

Re-signing

A signed block shows a Re-sign link. Use it if the wrong person signed, or the signature did not come out.

Signatures are required to complete

Completing an Inspection

Completing closes the inspection out, records how long it took, and hands it over for review.

Before you complete

• Every item is marked — the progress bar reads the same on both sides, such as 24 of 24 checked.
• The mileage is recorded.
• Failed items have comments and, where useful, photos.
• Every required signature is captured.

Completing

Tap Complete. On a phone it is in the bar at the bottom of the screen; on a desktop it is in the toolbar at the top right and again at the bottom of the page.

What happens next

• The completion date and the duration are recorded.
• The inspection status becomes Pass or Fail depending on what you marked.
• Complete and the signature buttons are disabled — the inspection is now a record.
• Any failed items are on the Inspection Failures screen, waiting to be turned into work.

Reviewing an Inspection

Review is the second pair of eyes — somebody other than the person who did the walk confirming the inspection was done properly.

Approving or rejecting

1. Open the completed inspection.
2. Click Reviewed in the toolbar.
3. Choose Approve or Reject.

The page reloads with the new status, and the Details panel records who reviewed it and when.

What to check

• Every item is marked, not just most of them.
• The mileage looks plausible against the unit's last known reading.
• Failed items carry a comment explaining what was found.
• Anything serious has a photo.
• The duration is realistic. A forty-item inspection completed in ninety seconds was not performed.

After a rejection

Rejecting marks the inspection as not acceptable. Because a completed inspection cannot be reopened, the usual next step is to run a fresh one and tell the inspector why.

Sharing and the PDF

Downloading the PDF

Click the download icon to generate a PDF of the inspection. It contains:

• Your RoadBays logo and the inspection number, name, and status.
• The unit, mileage, facility, created and completed dates, duration, and who inspected and reviewed it.
• A table of every item with its pass or fail result and its comment, with results color-coded.
• The driver and mechanic signatures, with the printed names and timestamps.
• Every photo, labeled with the item it belongs to, or General for photos from the Photos tab.
• Your account's inspection disclaimer, where one is configured.

The file is named after the inspection number, so it files itself sensibly.

Sharing a link

1. Click the share icon.
2. The link is generated and copied to your clipboard automatically.
3. Paste it into an email or a text message.

The link is also shown in the box, with a Copy button if you need it again.

Inspection Failures

This is where inspections turn into work. Every failed item across your fleet collects here until somebody does something about it.

Reading the list

Severity

Open and Converted

The Status filter defaults to Open — failures nobody has acted on yet. That default is deliberate: this screen is a to-do list, not an archive.

Switch the filter to Converted to see what has been actioned, or All to see everything.

Acting on one failure

Each open row has two buttons:

• Case creates a case for that unit and opens it in a new tab.
• WO creates a work order for that unit and opens it in a new tab.

Either way the failure flips to Converted and drops off the open list.

Bundling several failures together

When one inspection turns up five problems on the same truck, you want one repair job, not five.

1. Tick the failures you want to bundle.
2. Check the count on the Create Case or Create Work Order button.
3. Click the button you want.

All the selected failures go onto one case or one work order, and all of them flip to Converted.

Common Workflows

A driver pre-trip inspection

1. On a phone, open Inspections and tap Start inspection.
2. Pick the unit and the pre-trip template.
3. Enter the mileage.
4. Walk the truck, tapping Pass or Fail on each card.
5. Photograph and comment on anything that fails.
6. Sign the driver signature block.
7. Tap Complete in the bar at the bottom.

Anything failed is now on the Inspection Failures screen for the shop to pick up.

A shop walkaround before a repair

1. Open the case for the repair.
2. On the Inspections tab, choose the template and click Create Inspection.
3. Work through the inspection on a tablet at the truck.
4. Photograph anything that is already damaged, before you touch it.
5. Capture the mechanic signature and complete.

Turning a morning of inspections into work

1. Open Inspection Failures. It opens filtered to Open.
2. Sort or scan by Severity and handle Critical first.
3. For each unit with several failures, tick them all and create one case or work order.
4. For a single failure, use the Case or WO button on its row.
5. Work down until the Open list is empty.

A weekly review pass

1. Open Inspections and filter Status to Pending — those were started and never finished.
2. Clear the filter and check recently completed inspections.
3. Open each one, check the duration and that failed items carry comments and photos.
4. Approve the good ones, reject the ones that were not really performed.
5. Export to Excel if you need a record for compliance.

Troubleshooting

Glossary

Need More Help?

If something in Inspections is not working the way this page describes, email support@roadbays.com or submit a question from the Help page.