The maintenance program
Declare the maintenance schedules you run, and see where every unit stands and whether its file would survive a facility audit.
Fleet → Maintenance Program has two halves: the schedules you run, and where every unit stands against them.
NSC Standard 11 says so outright: no predetermined time intervals are specified, because carriers are better placed to decide them for their own equipment and work. What it requires is that whatever schedule you choose gets followed. A facility audit scores a carrier that fails to comply with its own maintenance intervals — so the obligation is one you set yourself and are then held to.
Declaring your schedules
Most carriers run several of different depth. An A level monthly or every 1,600 km covering lights, tires, leaks and anything a driver reported. A B level quarterly or every 10,000 to 30,000 km with brakes measured and filters replaced. A C level at six months or 50,000 km covering the rest, often timed just before the semi-annual or annual inspection.
Give each a name, apply it to one unit or to a whole equipment type, and set an interval in days, in distance, or both. With both, it falls due on whichever arrives first — which is how these are normally meant.
Each schedule is tracked separately, so a major service does not reset the clock on the basic checks. Without that, a C level would make a unit look compliant while a month of A level checks quietly went undone.
Where units stand
Units are listed worst first: overdue, then no schedule at all, then file gaps. A unit with no schedule is a finding in its own right, because the file has to show the nature and due date of the maintenance to be performed.
A schedule measured in distance on a unit with no meter reading shows as “cannot tell” rather than as in date. Calling something compliant because there is nothing to measure it against is the failure worth avoiding.
What a vehicle file has to hold
Standard 11 lists it: the vehicle identified by plate, unit number, make, serial number or VIN, year and tire size; the lessor’s name where you do not own it; a means of showing what maintenance is due and when; a record of each inspection, repair and service with its date and nature; the odometer at the time of every service; the invoices; a lubrication record; and a record of any axle or suspension modification that changes the weight rating.
Anything missing is listed against the unit with the clause it comes from. Records must be kept at least two years, and six months after a vehicle leaves your control — though many jurisdictions want proof of maintenance kept four or five years, so check yours.
Unlike trip inspections or hours of service, Standard 11 has no roadside enforcement at all. It is enforced through the facility audit, where an auditor picks vehicles at random, asks for their files and checks each is current and complete. A carrier never finds out their files are thin at a scale house — they find out on the day.
Related articles
Turn on Fleet if you run commercial vehicles, and tell it which rules apply to you.
What the National Safety Code expects in a driver’s file, which items are law and which are good practice, and how to record a ticket against one from a phone.
Run the facility audit on yourself: how many files an auditor would pull, which ones, and what they would find.