DOT Annual Inspection Checklist

Appendix A to part 396 lists 13 component groups a vehicle must pass on. This is the same list re-ordered the way a bay inspection runs — outside first, underneath second, engine bay and load third, paperwork last.

Annual inspection

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Tick what you actually hold. Nothing is stored — this is a worksheet you print, not a record we keep.

Readiness

0%

Not ready

Walking up

Underneath

Engine bay and load

Paperwork

Your own lines

    Low-poly render of a tool trolley beside a raised axle
    Thirteen groups, in the order a bay actually works.

    What it checks

    The 13 appendix A groups — Brake System, Coupling devices, Exhaust System, Fuel System, Lighting Devices, Safe Loading and the rest — plus the four paperwork items that decide whether a genuinely good inspection counts. It is a worksheet, not the inspection report itself: §396.21 sets out what the report has to contain, and that is a form your inspector completes.

    Worked example

    A tractor and semitrailer come due in the same month. That is two inspections, two reports and two stickers, and a carrier who books "the annual" as one job usually discovers the trailer was missed at the next roadside stop.

    UnitInspectionReportStatus
    TractorMar 2026On fileCompliant
    Semitrailer—NoneViolation

    The rule it comes from

    49 CFR §396.17 — every commercial motor vehicle must be inspected against at minimum the parts and accessories in appendix A, at least once during the preceding 12 months, with documentation on the vehicle. Each vehicle in a combination is inspected separately.

    Sources

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