Vehicle & Equipment · Driver Training VideoPost-Trip Inspection

Federal law requires it

Under 49 CFR 396.11, at the completion of each day's work you must prepare a written or electronic report — the Driver Vehicle Inspection Report, or DVIR — for any vehicle where you found a defect or deficiency.

The inspection covers the same systems as your pre-trip: service brakes and trailer brake connections, parking brake, steering, lighting devices and reflectors, tires, horn, windshield wipers, rear vision mirrors, coupling devices, wheels and rims, and the emergency equipment on board.

If you find anything that affects safety or could cause a mechanical breakdown, write it down — a slow leak, a cracked lens, a loose lug nut, worn brake lining you can see through the wheel.

Here's how the reporting actually works. You sign the DVIR. If you noted defects, the motor carrier has to certify those defects were repaired, or that repair isn't necessary, before that vehicle goes out again — and that certification has to happen before the vehicle's next trip.

Your company standard: every post-trip gets the full walk-around, every time — no exceptions for a short day or an empty lot. Every defect gets written down, no matter how small it looks.

This report is also part of your record. Roadside inspectors check for it. When a defect was found, a missing or incomplete DVIR is its own violation, separate from whatever the mechanical defect would have cost you.