Vehicle Inspection, Documentation, and Preventative Maintenance Programs
Where PM programs live
A transit PM program is a written system, not a schedule taped to a wall. Candidates must know the inspection hierarchy: pre-trip and post-trip driver inspections, routine PM services (often lettered A through D with escalating scope), and the annual inspection required by 49 CFR 396.17 for every commercial motor vehicle. The annual inspection must be done by a qualified inspector and documented on a report identifying the vehicle, the items inspected, and the inspector; the report is kept in the maintenance file.
Records are the audit trail. 49 CFR 396.3 requires a maintenance file per vehicle containing identification, scheduled inspection and maintenance, and repairs, retained at least 12 months while in service and six months after the vehicle leaves your control. A driver vehicle inspection report is prepared for passenger-carrying vehicles each day they are operated; when a driver reports a defect, the carrier must certify the repair, or that repair is unnecessary, before the bus goes back into service.
Traps in questions: a CVSA inspection decal is not a substitute for the annual inspection; a repair order that says 'checked, OK' with no measurement is weak documentation; and interval services follow mileage or time, whichever comes first.
Worked rule of thumb, the three C's of a work order: Complaint (what the driver or inspector reported, in their words), Cause (what you actually found), Correction (what you did, with parts and measurements). If any C is missing, the record will not survive an audit.