What New Truck Drivers Need To Know About Vehicle Maintenance:
Drivers are required, per the FMSCA, to perform pre-trip and post-trip inspections on their vehicles, to ensure that the vehicle remains safe to operate. Pre-trip inspections will be an important part of your CDL training, and on the exam.
Much of the responsibility for the vehicle being safe to operate rests on the driver, from safety inspections to making sure that the cargo is secured properly.
What Are The Regulations On Vehicle Maintenance?
The vehicle maintenance section of the CSA is a way for the FMCSA to rank carriers in terms of their safety records. (i.e., violations, inspections and crashes.)
Driver Vehicle Maintenance Responsibilities:
Drivers will be required to conduct pre-trip and post-trip safety inspections on the vehicles they are driving, and verify that the vehicle is safe to drive. They will need to complete and sign a written report covering the inspection of such things as tires, horn, mirrors, emergency brake, etc. You don't have to be a mechanic to perform these checks. Your training, your colleagues, and your experience will be your guide.
Before operating a motor vehicle, the driver must: be satisfied that the vehicle is safe to drive, review the last drive inspection report, and sign the report (if problems were noted.).
If the driver deems the vehicle unsafe to drive, the carrier must complete repairs/fix the problem before the vehicle can be taken back out on the road. The driver is required, by law, to make sure that the problems are remedied before driving it. The FMCSA's exact words are: "A motor vehicle shall not be operated in such a condition as to likely cause an accident or a breakdown of the vehicle."
Carriers cannot require, or even allow drivers to operate a vehicle that has been inspected and found to have safety issues until such issues are repaired. Written driver inspection reports are kept by the carrier for at least 3 months.
Roadside Inspections:
Roadside inspections of commercial motor vehicles are conducted at weigh stations and portable scales, and give on-the-spot safety check-ups of your vehicle.
Roadside inspections are a means of enforcement of FMCSA safety regulations. In most cases, any findings will reflect on the carrier and not the driver, and will be included in the carrier's Safety Measurement System (SMS) score. Within the CSA , all carriers are graded based upon their safety record on the road and from inspections.
Check Any Specific Motor Carrier's CSA Safety & Performance Data
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