For truck drivers and fleet management teams, keeping drivers and roadside passengers safe is paramount to a fleet’s success. Skip out on regular vehicle inspections, and you and your team can be in a world of pain if an accident occurs. If you’re a commercial vehicle driver, fleet operator, or fleet manager, you’re well aware of how the Department of Transportation (DOT) will crack down if you fail a DOT inspection.
But the question is do you do it yourself, or leave it to a third party? What are the benefits and advantages of both? And, how do you conduct a walkaround inspection to avoid trouble with the Department of Transportation?
Pine Aire Truck here. We’ve helped fleet managers and commercial vehicle drivers navigate the ins and outs of New York State and DOT inspections for more than 35 years.
In this article, we’ll lend you a hand by answering the question, “Can I do my own annual DOT inspection?”
- The Department of Transportation and its role in annual inspections
- What DOT inspections cover and are looking for
- What happens if you fail a DOT inspection
- If you can do your DOT inspection on your own
- The challenges of doing a DOT inspection on your own
- Alternative ways to conduct DOT inspections
- The benefits of choosing a third-party organization to conduct a DOT inspection
The Department of Transportation’s role with DOT inspections
To understand how the concept of a DOT inspection originated, we need to go to the beginning of the Department of Transportation.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) started in 1967 to help keep drivers safe. The organization states that any commercial vehicle — or any vehicle that’s used for business purposes on the road — needs to be DOT-compliant.
FedEx trucks, Amazon Vans, giant Peterbilt semi trucks, school buses, and more: they all need to be DOT-compliant.
The good news is that DOT inspections help ensure the safety of the public and the employees driving commercial fleet vehicles.
What DOT inspections are looking for
“So, I get that the DOT wants to keep us safe with a formal inspection. But what exactly is the DOT looking for in their inspection?” You might wonder.
The DOT inspection covers anything that’s related to the safety of anyone in or around a vehicle. The goal of each inspection is to ensure that commercial trucks that carry large loads and hazardous materials don’t risk harming others on the road.
When the time comes for a vehicle’s state or DOT inspection, your inspector will look at six different vehicle inspection points, including:
- The fleet vehicle’s tires
- Brakes
- Suspension systems
- Vehicle emergency exits (for example, school buses and city transportation buses)
- Steering components
- Engine components and systems
- Licenses and relevant paperwork
- And much more
The importance of DOT inspection driver’s logs
As part of an annual vehicle inspection report, commercial drivers can drive a certain amount of hours before needing a break per federal law. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an entity that’s part of the Department of Transportation, creates regulations for how long drivers can drive without needing a break.
FMCSA’s driver regulations are key because they help ensure that drivers aren’t driving while tired.
The FMCSA created driver inspection requirements focusing on commercial trucking safety and compliance to better care for and ensure the safety of commercial motor vehicle drivers, truckers, and trucking companies.
If you fail a DOT inspection, here’s what happens…
Of course, if you fail your DOT inspection because serious problems arise with reporting of interior and exterior components mentioned in the report, a driver can’t drive the vehicle until the vehicle is fixed. If a driver does drive before fixing the components, the driver can lose their commercial driver’s license and be fined or even jailed.
Take it from us: after 35 years in the truck repair industry, if we can impart some insight on commercial trucking, it’s that you don’t want to neglect needed truck repairs — and fail a roadside inspection.
“If you fail your roadside inspection because of issues that can cause safety hazards, your vehicle can be deemed out of service. If you drive that truck before your truck is handled the proper way according to roadside inspectors, you can face fines or find yourself in big trouble,” says Dave, founder of Pine Aire Truck.
Taking ten minutes a day to have a person on your staff conduct a truck inspection can save you time, money, and a world of hurt. We do seminars and teach people how to do walkaround truck inspections on their trucks so they can familiarize themselves with how to stay compliant with FMCSA regulations.
Trucking Fact #32 on driver checks
“While it’s important for drivers to conduct pre-checks of their vehicles, they [drivers] should also do pre-checks for themselves,” as FleetOwner.com once said. We care about the safety of your vehicle, but we also believe a driver’s health is equally, if not more important!
All commercial drivers should possess a medical certificate.
“You could be summoned if you don’t have a medical certificate. For the average driver, you’ll need to renew your medical certificate from a physician every two years.As a driver, if you don’t possess an up-to-date medical certificate, you could be taken out of service. And no one wants to take more time to send another driver out on the job.” Dave says.
(You can learn more about why a driver’s health is paramount to passing DOT inspections on our Facebook page.)
Can you do your DOT inspection on your own?
The answer is yes — with caveats.
If you want to do your own annual DOT inspection, you’ll need to hold certain qualifications that are available only by passing a DOT training program — and by working in a registered truck repair shop.
To maintain the necessary qualifications, you must be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations associated with DOT compliance.
For the above-mentioned reasons, most people defer to a qualified annual inspector to perform the inspection. The reason is that rules and regulations associated with DOT inspections often change, and staying up to date with the changes can be a challenge for the average busy business owner or commercial vehicle driver.
“You don’t need to be a DOT inspector to ensure your vehicle stays safe and operable. You just need quality training,” Dave continues. “You need to know what the rules are.”
“Everyday that a truck is used, a walkaround inspection should be conducted along with a walkaround inspection report. These reports are basic checklists that you can use pen and paper for.
Always make sure to keep the checklists in the truck to verify that the driver conducted the safety checks each day.”
The challenges of doing a DOT inspection on your own
The largest challenge that people face when doing DOT inspections is qualifying to conduct a DOT inspection in the first place. Since the rules and regulations are always changing with DOT inspections, if you decide to do your DOT inspection on your own, you’ll need to keep up with the changes.
If you don’t — and if you pass your vehicle inspection without knowledge of the new rules and changes, and you get into an accident — you’ll be liable for the accident.
For this reason, a large reason why drivers prefer a third party to complete an inspection is to avoid litigation that could arise with potential vehicular accidents that could occur.
The largest drawback associated with doing a DOT inspection on your own is the level of scrutiny that’s needed with each inspection. Since safety inspection checklists mandate that drivers inspect the outside of trucks — including under the hood of the trucks and other difficult-to-reach spots — conducting a thorough inspection isn’t always as simple as it seems.
Failing to properly report about the safety of the truck can result in fines of up to $15,000 per violation.
So, the largest challenge of conducting a DOT inspection is conducting a thorough inspection of the vehicle’s exterior and interior components and documenting the inspection to the “t” in the annual inspection report.
The good news is that using a pen and paper checklist makes doing an inspection very simple and straightforward for a drive. You just need to make sure that someone is well-trained in how to do a walkaround inspection and that each inspection should only take about 10 minutes a day.
Need a little help conducting a walkaround inspection? Feel free to reach out to us. We’d be happy to show you how to do a 10-minute walkaround.
Alternative ways to conduct a DOT inspection
While conducting a DOT inspection via pen and paper is the more traditional way to carry out commercial motor vehicle safety inspections, interactive electronic DOT inspection technology can also be used. For instance, some inspection technologies use dynamic and secure QR codes that are placed throughout the truck.
A technician will have truckers scan the QR codes throughout the truck and answer safety inspection-related questions via an electronic questionnaire.
Opting for secure, electronic documentation of DOT inspection records can ensure you don’t risk losing papers that detail the results of each inspection. If you need help training your team how to conduct inspections, don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of our team.
We’d be happy to show you how.
Choose a truck repair shop for your next DOT inspection
With more than 10,500 certified vehicle inspection stations across New York State (Data.NY.Gov, 2025), if you’re looking for a third-party entity to conduct your next DOT inspection, you’ll have options.
Plus, you can’t go wrong with a third-party diesel truck repair shop.
Diesel truck repair shop’s bread and butter are preventive maintenance, New York State/ DOT inspections, and truck advisory services.
If you’re in the Long Island, New York area and looking for a DOT inspection, why not stop by our 10-bay facility?
You’ll receive a quality inspection by an ASE-certified diesel technician who will treat your truck as if it were their own.
Plus, our standards are high.
Dave always asks himself, “If I were a commercial vehicle truck driver, would I bring my truck to these guys?” We’ll let you be the judge of that.
To learn more about our DOT inspection services — or to learn how to conduct a walkaround inspection of your own — reach out to us. Let us take care of you and all your commercial vehicle-related needs.
