The Eight Roadside Inspection Levels

Updated 8 min read

Part of Inspections, Safety & Cost

North American Standard Inspection Program

The levels are set by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, not by 49 CFR — but what an officer checks against at every level is the federal regulations, and an out-of-service condition comes from the CVSA out-of-service criteria.

Low-poly render of a truck pulled into a weigh station
Pulled in. What happens next depends entirely on the level.

The eight levels

LevelNameCoversUnder the truck?
INorth American StandardDriver and vehicle, fullYes
IIWalk-AroundDriver and vehicle, what is reachable standingNo
IIIDriver/Credential/AdministrativeCredentials, hours, medical cardNo
IVSpecialOne item, usually for a studyVaries
VVehicle-OnlyThe vehicle, driver need not be presentYes
VITransuranic Waste and HRCQ Radioactive MaterialSelect radiological shipmentsYes
VIIJurisdictional MandatedA state-run programme that fits no other level, such as school buses or limousinesVaries
VIIIElectronicData read wirelessly while the truck rolls, no officer contactNo

Level I and Level III are the two most drivers meet. Level I is the full one — the inspector goes under the truck — and it is the one that earns a decal if you pass clean. Level III never touches the vehicle at all and is entirely about your paperwork.

Low-poly render of a truck pulled into a weigh station
Which level you get is decided before the truck has finished stopping.

What the officer asks for

  • 01Licence, with the right class and endorsements for what you are pulling.
  • 02Medical certificate, unexpired — up to 24 months and often shorter.
  • 03Record of duty status, transferred from the ELD or handed over on paper, plus the 8-day cab pack.
  • 04Shipping papers, and hazmat documentation where it applies.
  • 05Evidence of the periodic inspection — the report or the sticker, on that unit.

Out of service

An out-of-service condition means the truck or the driver does not move until it is corrected. On the driver side that is usually hours: over the limit, and the driver waits until enough time has passed. On the vehicle side it is a defect from the CVSA criteria — brakes out of adjustment beyond the limit, a steering defect, a tyre below depth.

Out-of-service risk. An out-of-service order is not negotiable at the roadside and there is no fee to make it go away. The only thing that ends it is the correction.

Low-poly render of an empty weigh-station scale platform
An out-of-service order ends at the scale, not at the next exit.

What happens afterwards

Every inspection — clean or not — goes onto the carrier's record. Violations carry a severity weight and a time weight, and both feed the BASIC percentiles. A clean Level I is not neutral either: it is evidence in the denominator, and a carrier with many clean inspections absorbs the occasional bad one far better than one that is rarely inspected at all.

You may challenge a violation you believe is wrong through FMCSA's DataQs process. It is worth doing: an incorrect violation sits on the record for two years otherwise.

Sources

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