Annual Inspection??

Look, now I am all about saving as much money as I can but it cost $40 at the Petro and you can get it done. If it doesn't pass they give you two weeks to fix the items on the list and bring the truck back at no charge for a re-inspection which obviously you should pass the second time. It also helps for liability purposes to have someone who isn't a "friend" ( diesel mechanic or not ) sign off on your truck.

For the record the truck needed drive axle brakes - one of them was cutting it too close to pass.

 

utah has the same requirement. if your going to be doing safety inspections and emissions testing. you've got to have the required equipement.

 

just walk around your truck/trailer & look, listen & sniff & if nothing gets your attention, your inspection is done & your good to go.

 

Massachusetts is the same too, you need the required equipment or you can't be an inspection location. They go further to say that once you apply you are put on a waiting list to be reviewed, really!?!? So they might let you and they might not! I also saw that in MA to be qualified for a licensed inspector you have to have both a mechanics license and a CDL too! Did you know in Ontario that our mechanics license also grants us the ability to road test trucks aswell, as long as we hold a valid regular drivers license? I don't know, but it sounds more like a p.i.t.a to get set up in the US.
BTW, that FMCSA link only shows requirements for the inspectors, not inspection locations, which is what I thought the op is asking about.

 

Federal annual inspection and state inspection are two separate inspections with different requirements and criteria. The states require official state approved inspection stations and state licensed inspectors. The federal annual inspection can be performed anywhere by a qualified inspector who has completed and filed the form in his/her own file.

 

So do you need one or the other, or both? If the Federal inspection is done in any particular state, are the specific requirements of that State applicable? If not, are you saying to get a Federal Inspection done all you have to do meet the guy at a Walmart parking lot, and all he needs is the form, (from the truck stop), and a pencil for the inspection? How do you do a proper inspection that way? What is the difference between a Federal Inspection and a State inspection? Do they each hold the same merit as far as annual safety is concerned?

 

You need both. The state requires you have a current state inspection to purchase plates/pay yearly licensing fees. State inspection requirements are totally independent from federal annual inspection requirements. Yes, a federal annual inspection could legally be performed in the brawlmart parking lot with a jack and a pry bar. State inspection criteria for heavy duty truck is mimimal and archaic where you are directed to look at specific items for pass/fail. The overall vehicle condition can be poor and still get the green. The federal annual inspection focuses more on current detail of todays trucks.

 

i've been driving 13 years. never had a federal inspection. only the state.

never been asked for a federal inspection form either. or the state safety for that matter.

now i have driven 2 trucks with the cvsa sticker in the windshield. all other trucks i've driven didn't have that sticker. just the state.

in other words. i doin't think a fed inspection is even required. course, it could be becuase we do have state stickers. i don't know.

 

Swowwy this is another topic you obviously don't know anything about but have plenty of advice on. You have got to have an annual inspection. A state inspection or a Level 1 DOT will work in place of it. When you get audited by the DOT if you don't have one of these they will pull your authority. Are you really a driver or one of those dudes always sitting at the TA restaurant talking crap?

 

Massachusetts gets both stickers at the same time with one inspection. Mass is blessed with emission testing and the safety/DOT test. The four wheelers pay a set price for state inspection. Inspection shops charge by the hour for commercial vehicle inspections. When completed and passed, the vehicle leaves with state and annual DOT sticker.