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The Vehicle Maintenance File and the Annual Inspection: What to Keep for Each Truck

Updated September 2026

The maintenance rule starts with a duty, not a form: every motor carrier must "systematically inspect, repair, and maintain" every vehicle under its control (49 CFR 396.3(a)). The records are how you show that the system exists.

What goes in each truck's file

For every vehicle you control for 30 consecutive days or more, 396.3(b) asks for:

  1. What the vehicle is — company number if it has one, make, serial number (VIN), year, and tire size. If you don't own it, the name of whoever furnished it.
  2. What is due and when — "a means to indicate the nature and due date of the various inspection and maintenance operations to be performed." A schedule, in other words: oil, brakes, the annual inspection.
  3. What was done — a record of inspections, repairs and maintenance, with the date and the nature of each.
  4. For buses only — tests of push-out windows, emergency doors and their marking lights.

Item 2 is the one most small fleets don't have. A folder of shop invoices covers item 3; it says nothing about what is coming due.

How long, and where

Keep them for one year while you have the vehicle, and for six months after it leaves your control, at the place where the vehicle is housed or maintained (396.3(c)).

The annual (periodic) inspection

Separately from day-to-day maintenance, every commercial motor vehicle must have passed an inspection of the parts and accessories in Appendix A to Part 396 at least once in the preceding 12 months (396.17). Points people miss:

  • Each unit counts. In a combination, the truck and the trailer are each inspected (396.17(b)).
  • Proof rides on the vehicle. Documentation of the inspection has to be on the vehicle — the report itself, or a decal or other form showing the date, who holds the report, the vehicle, and a certification that it passed (396.17(c)).
  • You may do it yourself — a carrier may inspect its own vehicles — or use a commercial garage or similar business. Either way the person doing it has to be a qualified inspector under 396.19, and you need evidence of that qualification.
  • A state inspection can count. A periodic inspection under a state program that meets the Appendix A minimums satisfies the requirement for 12 months (396.17(f)). Whether your state's does is worth confirming rather than assuming.

The annual inspection report

The inspector prepares a report that identifies who performed the inspection, the carrier, the date, the vehicle, the components inspected and the results, and certifies that it is accurate and complete (396.21(a)). Keep it for 14 months from the date of the report, where the vehicle is housed or maintained, available on demand (396.21(b)).

Using a vehicle that has not had its periodic inspection is one of the sixteen violations that fail a new-entrant safety audit when it turns up in most of the vehicles examined (49 CFR 385.321).

The three clocks, side by side

  • Driver inspection reports with defects, and their repair certifications: 3 months (396.11)
  • Maintenance and repair records: 1 year, plus 6 months after the vehicle is gone (396.3)
  • Annual inspection report: 14 months (396.21)

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This is general information, not legal advice, and RelayPoint is not a law firm or a compliance consultant. Sources: 49 CFR 396.3 (inspection, repair and maintenance), 396.17 (periodic inspection), 396.19 (inspector qualifications) and 396.21 (periodic inspection recordkeeping), as published in September 2026. States set their own rules for in-state operations. Confirm your obligations with the FMCSA or your state's motor carrier authority.