Pre-trip inspection

What a driver has to check before driving, taken from 49 CFR 392.7 and 396.13 with the paragraph numbers. There is one wrinkle worth knowing before the list: the regulations do not frame this the way the industry talks about it.

There is no section called “pre-trip inspection”

People search for a federal pre-trip checklist expecting to find a rule of that name. The sections that actually create the duty — 392.7, 396.11 and 396.13 — do not use the phrase at all. It turns up in 395.8, but only inside a worked example showing how a driver records duty status, where a “pretrip inspection” is listed among the morning’s activities.

That is not a technicality. The duty is written as a standard rather than a ritual: 392.7 says no commercial motor vehicle shall be driven unless the driver is satisfied that the listed parts are in good working order. A driver who works through a checklist without being satisfied has not met it; a driver who is genuinely satisfied has, whatever form they used.

Checked across 49 CFR 392.7, 395.3, 395.8, 396.11 and 396.13

The 11 parts and accessories

49 CFR 392.7(a)

No commercial motor vehicle may be driven unless the driver is satisfied these are in good working order — and the same paragraph adds that a driver may not fail to use them when and as needed. Checking that the wipers work and then not using them in rain breaches the same sentence.

01Service brakes, including trailer brake connections
02Parking (hand) brake
03Steering mechanism
04Lighting devices and reflectors
05Tires
06Horn
07Windshield wiper or wipers
08Rear-vision mirror or mirrors
09Coupling devices
10Wheels and rims
11Emergency equipment

Intermodal equipment has its own 9 components

49 CFR 392.7(b)

Drivers preparing to transport intermodal equipment must inspect a different, longer list and be satisfied it is in good working order before the equipment goes over the road.

01Service brake components readily visible without going under the vehicle, and trailer brake connections
02Lighting devices, lamps, markers, and conspicuity marking material
03Wheels, rims, lugs, tires
04Air line connections, hoses, and couplers
05King pin upper coupling device
06Rails or support frames
07Tie down bolsters
08Locking pins, clevises, clamps, or hooks
09Sliders or sliding frame lock

Accepting intermodal equipment is itself a confirmation

This is the sentence in 392.7(b) worth reading twice. Drivers who operate intermodal equipment over the road “shall be deemed to have confirmed the following components were in good working order when the driver accepted the equipment”.

Pulling the chassis is treated as having said it was sound. There is no separate step where a driver declines to vouch for equipment someone else supplied — the acceptance is the vouching. Which is why a documented refusal at the gate matters more here than anywhere else in the inspection rules.

49 CFR 392.7(b)

And the last report has to be reviewed

49 CFR 396.13

Before driving, the driver must be satisfied the vehicle is in safe operating condition, review the last driver vehicle inspection report where 396.11(a)(2)(i) requires one, and sign to acknowledge both the review and the certification that the required repairs were performed. The signature is an acknowledgement of someone else’s work, not a second inspection.

Source: 49 CFR 392.7 and 396.13, retrieved from the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations at ecfr.gov. Quoted as a reference, not legal advice; these parts have been amended repeatedly, so check the current text before relying on it operationally.