Inspection Reports Now Only Go Back to States That Ask for Them

The third of the June 22 rules is the one drivers will notice least and carriers will appreciate most.

The old requirement

After a roadside inspection, motor carriers and intermodal equipment providers had to sign the completed inspection form and return it to the state agency that issued it. That applied across the board, regardless of whether the state on the other end wanted the paperwork.

FMCSA acknowledged the obvious problem: not all issuing state agencies require these reports back, and some do not even request them. Sending a form to an agency that has no use for it is work that produces nothing.

What changes on July 22

Under the final rule, completed forms only go back to the states that request them.

Worth noting where this came from. It was a petition for rulemaking filed by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the same organization that maintains the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria. When the body that writes the inspection standards asks to cut an inspection-related paperwork step, that carries some weight.

What it does not change

Nothing about the inspection itself. Officers inspect the same way, against the same criteria, and violations are recorded and count the same as before. Defects still have to be repaired and certified. If a vehicle is placed out of service it stays out of service until the problem is fixed.

This rule is about where a piece of paper goes afterwards.

For drivers

Your part of the process is unchanged. Hand over your documents, produce your logs, sign the report when asked. Whether your carrier then mails a copy to the issuing state depends on that state, and that is a back-office question.

If inspections are new to you, the general knowledge material covers the same inspection ground the examiner tests you on, which is largely what an officer is looking at during a roadside check.