Record retention and carrier responsibilities

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Last reviewed November 12, 2026.

Two different federal recordkeeping periods in Part 396 are easy to mix up. The driver vehicle inspection report has a three-month retention period. The more general inspection, repair, and maintenance records required by 49 CFR 396.3 have a longer retention period.

Driver vehicle inspection reports: three months

49 CFR 396.11(a)(4) requires every motor carrier to maintain the driver vehicle inspection report, the certification of repairs, and the certification of the driver's review for three months from the date the written report was prepared.

For intermodal equipment, 49 CFR 396.11(b)(4) requires each intermodal equipment provider to maintain all documentation required by that section, including the driver report and the certification of repairs, for three months from the date a motor carrier or its driver submits the report to the provider or its agent.

If no report was required because no defect or deficiency was discovered or reported, there is no federal requirement in § 396.11 to create or retain a no-defect report. If a carrier still collects no-defect reports as a company practice, retention of those extra reports is a company decision, not a federal mandate.

General inspection, repair, and maintenance records

49 CFR 396.3(a) requires every motor carrier and intermodal equipment provider to systematically inspect, repair, and maintain, or cause to be systematically inspected, repaired, and maintained, all motor vehicles and intermodal equipment subject to its control. Parts and accessories must be in safe and proper operating condition at all times.

Motor carriers, except for a private motor carrier of passengers (nonbusiness), must maintain, or cause to be maintained, records for each motor vehicle they control for 30 consecutive days. Intermodal equipment providers must maintain records for each unit they tender or intend to tender to a motor carrier. Those records must include:

• An identification of the vehicle, including company number if so marked, make, serial number, and year, and, if the motor vehicle is not owned by the motor carrier, the name of the person furnishing the vehicle;
• A means to indicate the nature and due date of the various inspection and maintenance operations to be performed;
• A record of inspection, repairs, and maintenance indicating their date and nature; and
• A record of tests conducted on pushout windows, emergency doors, and emergency door marking lights on buses.

Pushout windows, emergency doors, and emergency door marking lights in buses must be inspected at least every 90 days. 49 CFR 396.3(a)(2).

The records required by § 396.3 must be retained where the vehicle is either housed or maintained for a period of one year, and for six months after the motor vehicle leaves the motor carrier's control. 49 CFR 396.3(c).

Periodic (annual) inspections are a separate requirement

Part 396 also includes periodic inspection requirements, commonly described as an annual inspection, in 49 CFR 396.17 and related sections. Those inspections, and the records that go with them, are separate from the daily DVIR. Some states have inspection programs that FMCSA has recognized as equivalent to the federal periodic inspection. See 49 CFR 396.17 and 396.23, and confirm any state periodic-inspection program with that state's agency.

Who must know and follow these rules

49 CFR 396.1 requires every motor carrier, and the officers, drivers, agents, representatives, and employees directly concerned with inspection or maintenance of commercial motor vehicles, to be knowledgeable of and comply with Part 396. The same duty applies to intermodal equipment providers and their personnel who are directly concerned with inspection or maintenance of intermodal equipment.

Related guides

• What a DVIR is and who must complete one
• Defects, repairs, and driver acknowledgment
• Electronic DVIRs

Sources

• 49 CFR 396.11 — Three-month retention of DVIRs and certifications
• 49 CFR 396.3 — Systematic inspection, repair, and maintenance; record contents and retention
• 49 CFR 396.1 — Scope
• 49 CFR Part 396, including periodic inspection provisions in §§ 396.17 and 396.23