Trip inspection (DVIR) requirements in Canada under NSC Standard 13

Who has to do a trip inspection in Canada

Standard 13 is the National Safety Code’s daily vehicle trip inspection standard. Its stated aim is to find vehicle problems early and keep vehicles with conditions likely to cause or contribute to a collision or breakdown off the highway. It applies to every motor carrier and driver operating a commercial vehicle as the NSC defines one: a truck, tractor or trailer, or a combination, registered over 4,500 kg gross vehicle weight, or a bus with more than 10 seats including the driver.

The provinces and territories adopt NSC standards by reference or copy them into their own laws, so the text an officer enforces is your province’s, and the standard itself notes that some jurisdictions exempt certain vehicles. A few examples:

• Ontario puts the schedules in Regulation 199/07, Commercial Motor Vehicle Inspections, under the Highway Traffic Act. Exemptions include emergency vehicles on a call and a two- or three-axle truck that is not pulling a trailer and mainly hauls farm, forest, sea or lake products produced or harvested by the driver or the driver’s employer.
• Alberta requires buses and trucks with a licensed mass over 11,794 kg to complete trip inspection reports and carry the applicable Standard 13 schedule. Its program summary shows lighter trucks still being inspected, and an Alberta carrier that leaves the province with any vehicle registered over 4,500 kg needs a federal operating status.
• British Columbia runs its trip inspection rules through its Motor Vehicle Act Regulations. The report requirement does not apply to a vehicle rented for a single trip, an emergency vehicle, or a two-axle vehicle with a licensed gross vehicle weight of 14,600 kg or less (buses and some special vehicles excepted).
• Quebec calls it the circle check. The SAAQ’s circle check guide lists the vehicles that are exempt.

The carrier’s first duty is to hand out the schedule. Standard 13 requires carriers to give drivers the applicable schedule of inspection items, on paper or in an equivalent electronic format, and every vehicle is inspected against it. A schedule must list at least every item in the standard except those the vehicle does not have, though its layout may vary.

The 24-hour inspection and what the report must say

Trucks, tractors and trailers are inspected under Schedule 1 every 24 hours. No carrier may let anyone drive, and no one may drive, a commercial vehicle that has not been inspected as required. In Ontario’s words, a daily inspection is valid for 24 hours, and the MTO truck handbook adds that a driver may not drive a truck unless a Schedule 1 inspection was done, by the driver or someone else, and recorded within the previous 24 hours.

Whoever does the inspection prepares a report, written or electronic, that shows:

1. the licence plate or unit number of each vehicle inspected;
2. the motor carrier’s name;
3. the date and time of the inspection;
4. the city, town, village or highway location where it was done;
5. a statement, signed by the person who inspected and by the driver if that is someone else, that the vehicles were inspected as required;
6. the inspector’s printed name, legibly; and
7. the odometer reading, if the vehicle has one.

When nothing is wrong, the inspector records that no defects were found; a blank report is not a clean one. Ontario’s regulation asks for the plate’s jurisdiction as well, and says a driver who did not do the inspection must sign the report before driving. Alberta’s summary also accepts a hubometer reading where there is no odometer.

While the vehicle is on the road, the driver must have the schedule and the current report on hand and produce them when an inspector asks. Ontario lets the operator add notes to its schedules to help the person inspecting, and requires the operator to supply the report forms.

Schedule 1: the 23 systems and the two kinds of defect

Schedule 1 applies to trucks, tractors and trailers over 4,500 kg. It names 23 systems, from the air brake system, cab and cargo securement through coupling devices, driver controls and the driver seat, to the exhaust, frame and cargo body, fuel system, glass and mirrors, heater and defroster, horn, hydraulic brakes, lamps and reflectors, steering, suspension, tires, wheels, hubs and fasteners, and the windshield wiper and washer. Electric brakes, dangerous goods, emergency equipment and safety devices, and a general item for serious damage complete the list.

Under each system the schedule lists defects in two columns. The left column holds the defects drivers usually call minor; the right column holds major defects. A few systems have only one column: a horn that does not work is listed only as a defect, while dangerous goods requirements not being met, or serious noticeable damage that may affect safe operation, appear only as major.

The air brake system is where most roadside trouble starts. Pushrod stroke beyond the adjustment limit is a major defect, and Ontario’s handbook names out-of-adjustment air brakes as the most common reason a commercial vehicle is put out of service. It also reminds drivers that they may not adjust air brakes themselves unless they have passed an approved brake adjustment course or are a certified mechanic.

Roadside inspections work from a different document: NSC Standard 12, which carries the CVSA on-road inspection criteria. Our guide to the CVSA out-of-service criteria explains how they compare.

What the driver does with a defect, in the yard and on the road

The trip inspection does not end when the truck leaves the yard. Standard 13 asks the driver to keep watching the vehicle against the schedule while driving or otherwise in charge of it, and to record and report anything new the same way.

• A defect found at the inspection: record it on the report and tell the carrier, or the person the carrier appoints, before the next required inspection.
• A defect found on the road: record it on the current report and report it before the next required inspection. Ontario wants the operator told by whatever means will reach it quickly, and allows the driver to keep going with a minor defect once it is entered on the report. Quebec sets a deadline for minor defects: the operator is told before the next circle check or within 24 hours, whichever comes first.
• A major defect, at any time: record it and report it to the carrier immediately. No carrier may let anyone drive, and no one may drive, a commercial vehicle on a highway while a major defect is present.

The carrier’s side of the bargain is the repair. Every reported defect must be corrected before the next required inspection, or within the time the jurisdiction of travel allows. Standard 13 has the carrier keep a certification of repairs with the report, which is the paper trail that shows the defect was dealt with.

Getting reports to the office and how long to keep them

Under Standard 13, drivers forward the original of each report to the carrier responsible for the vehicle within 20 calendar days of completing it, and the carrier keeps the original report and the certification of repairs for at least 6 months from the date it was prepared. The provinces mostly follow that pattern, with some differences worth knowing.

Ontario adds a practical rule: a book of daily inspection reports kept in the truck counts as handed in if the operator has regular access to it and the driver has already reported any defects found after the inspection.

BC differs in one more way. Besides the pre-trip, a BC driver inspects the vehicle at the end of the final trip of the day and records any defects seen then or during the day. The province’s NSC bulletin is explicit that no written post-trip report is needed when there are no defects, and that Standard 13 as adopted by most provinces has no written post-trip requirement.

Electronic trip inspection reports

Standard 13 accepts the schedule and the report in a written or an equivalent electronic format, and says the rules for electronic copies should match those for hours of service records. Ontario spells out how that works: an electronic record must meet every requirement except the signature, which it does not need. If an officer asks, the driver either transmits the report electronically, shows it on a screen readable from outside the vehicle, or produces a printed copy signed by the driver. The operator may keep electronic records anywhere it can reach them from its principal place of business.

BC accepts defects noted on paper or electronically, provided the carrier learns the vehicle’s condition so it can act. Whatever the format, the content requirements stay the same, so an app or tablet form should capture every report field listed above.

When your trucks cross into the United States

South of the border, the FMCSA’s rules work differently. The federal rule, 49 CFR 396.11, has the driver prepare a written driver vehicle inspection report at the completion of each day’s work on each vehicle operated, but no report is required when no defect is discovered or reported. Before the vehicle runs again, the carrier certifies that each listed defect was repaired or needed no repair, and the carrier keeps the report three months.

For a Canadian carrier on cross-border lanes, the simplest course is to keep running its Standard 13 program, since the Schedule 1 inspection, the 24-hour report and the 6-month retention still apply at home, and adds whatever the US rule needs for the miles run in the States. For the US side in full, read the US guide to DVIR requirements on rigmd.com.

Making the process stand up to an audit

Auditors and roadside officers judge the routine more than the form. These habits hold up:

1. Train everyone who touches the report. Alberta requires training for all applicable staff, from drivers to mechanics and managers, in the safety laws, trip inspection included. Drivers should know which Schedule 1 defects are major on your equipment.
2. Give each defect an owner the same day. Someone in the office reads every report that lists a defect and books the repair.
3. Keep the repair with the report. File the certification of repairs or the closed work order next to the report that raised it.
4. File by unit and date. Alberta asks for reports in date order for each vehicle, and it is the fastest way to answer an auditor anywhere.
5. Compare with roadside results. In Ontario, CVSA inspections feed the carrier’s CVOR record. A clean trip report on the morning a truck is put out of service for brakes points to a training gap.
6. Feed the shop. Defects drivers report are the first item at each PM service, and repeated ones are a reason to shorten an interval.

Trip inspections are one piece of a carrier’s safety file. For the rest of it, TruckerPro’s trucking compliance tools sit in the same TMS that RigMD runs on.