Most fault reports from the field are a single sentence: the container is broken. The technician who sets out with that sentence learns the problem on site and comes back a second time because the right part was not in the van.
- Equipment number: which container
- Symptom: what is seen, what is heard
- Since when: the date it was first noticed
- Under what conditions: loaded, empty, cold
- Photograph: with the container number in the same frame
The person filling in the form does not diagnose but writes what they see. Writing that the lid does not close fully and air comes in at the edge tells the technician more than writing that the seal has failed; write that the interior rose four degrees after six hours instead of that it does not hold the cold.
The person who first saw the problem fills in the form, because information loses a detail at every handover. When it started is the shortest route to why: a fault that began after a particular trip points at something that happened on that trip.
