Daily trip inspections: NSC Standard 13, province by province
Last updated: Written by Blake Cowan, NCSO
The national standard, the core every province enforces, and the places individual provinces go their own way. Confirm the current version for the province you run in.
The short answer
NSC Standard 13 is the National Safety Code standard for daily vehicle trip inspections, and every province has adopted it into its own legislation. Schedule 1 lists 23 systems a driver works through on a truck, tractor or trailer, and for each one it names the minor defect that gets recorded and the major defect that stops the vehicle. Inspect at least every 24 hours, produce a report even when nothing is wrong, and carry it.
If you run commercial vehicles in more than one province, this is the page you want, because the rule you were trained on does not always travel with you.
The full Schedule 1 table is below, systems and defects, so you do not have to open a government PDF to find out whether the thing you just found stops the truck.
Two things this page is not. It is not the annual mechanical inspection, which is the CVIP inspection and has its own page. And it does not cover New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec or the territories, which all run daily trip inspection requirements of their own that we have not verified. If you run there, ask the province directly rather than working from the six provinces below.
Get the form first, read the rest after
Daily trip inspection (pre-trip)
A fill-in daily trip inspection that covers all 23 systems in the National Safety Code schedule, and carries the minor and major defect list with it.
Direct download. No email needed, no signup.
Free, no email required, covering every system in Schedule 1 with the minor and major defect list on it so a driver can classify a defect without leaving the truck. The rest of the template library is on the same terms.
What NSC Standard 13 is
The National Safety Code is a set of standards the provinces and territories use to keep commercial vehicle rules broadly consistent across the country. Standard 13 is the daily vehicle trip inspection standard.
It sets out the inspection interval, the schedules of systems that have to be checked, the split between minor and major defects, and what has to be recorded. Schedule 1 covers trucks, truck tractors and trailers. Buses and their trailers fall under Schedule 2.
Is the standard itself the law?
No, and this is worth being clear about because it trips up carriers who think compliance is a single national exercise.
The standard is a national model. What binds you is your own province's regulation that adopts it: Alberta's Commercial Vehicle Safety Regulation, Ontario Regulation 199/07, Saskatchewan's Trip Inspection Regulations, Manitoba's Commercial Vehicle Trip Inspection Regulation, Nova Scotia's Commercial Vehicle Trip Inspection Regulations, and so on.
Those regulations can be more or less restrictive than the standard. A carrier complying with Standard 13 in general terms can still be offside a specific provincial requirement, which is why the answer to "what are the rules" always ends with the name of a province.
What every province requires
Wherever you run, these five hold.
- An inspection at least once every 24 hours while the vehicle is in use, before it is first driven that day.
- Every system in the applicable schedule, not a selection of them. The schedule is what makes the inspection an inspection rather than a glance.
- A written or electronic report for every inspection, including the ones where nothing is found. A report recording no defects is the evidence the inspection happened.
- The report and the schedule carried in the vehicle, produced on request. Electronic copies are generally accepted.
- No operation with a major defect. A minor defect is recorded and repaired on schedule. A major defect stops the vehicle until it is fixed.
There is a sixth that is a duty rather than a document: you keep monitoring the vehicle through the trip and report defects to the carrier as soon as possible. The morning inspection is not the end of the obligation.
Schedule 1: the 23 systems, and what stops the truck
This is the part people go looking for and usually end up reading in a government PDF on a phone in a yard. Here it is in full.
The left column is what you inspect. The middle column is a defect: record it on the report and get it repaired on schedule, the vehicle keeps running. The right column is a major defect: the vehicle is out of service until it is fixed, and operating on one is an offence in every province.
| # | System | Defect (record and repair) | Major defect (vehicle stops) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Air brake system | Audible air leak. Slow air pressure build-up rate | Pushrod stroke of any brake exceeds adjustment limit. Air loss rate exceeds prescribed limit. Inoperative towing vehicle (tractor) protection system. Low air warning system fails or system activated. Inoperative service, parking or emergency brake |
| 2 | Cab | Occupant compartment door fails to open | Cab or sleeper door fails to close securely |
| 3 | Cargo securement | Insecure or improper load covering, such as wrong type of covering or covering flapping in wind | Insecure cargo. Absence, failure, malfunction or deterioration of required cargo securement device or load covering |
| 4 | Coupling devices | Coupler or mounting has loose or missing fastener | Coupler insecure or movement exceeds the maximum of tolerance allowed. Coupling or locking mechanism damaged or fails to lock. Defective, incorrect or missing safety chain or cable |
| 5 | Dangerous goods | None listed | Requirements of Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations not met |
| 6 | Driver controls | Accelerator pedal, clutch, gauges, audible and visual indicators or instruments fail to function properly | None listed |
| 7 | Driver seat | Seat damaged or fails to remain in set position | Seatbelt or tether belt insecure, missing or malfunctions |
| 8 | Electric brake system | Loose or insecure wiring or electrical connection | Inoperative breakaway device. Inoperative brake |
| 9 | Emergency equipment and safety devices | Emergency equipment missing, damaged or defective | None listed |
| 10 | Exhaust system | Exhaust leak | Leak that causes exhaust gas to enter the occupant compartment |
| 11 | Frame and cargo body | Damaged frame or cargo body | Visibly shifted, cracked, collapsing or sagging frame member(s) |
| 12 | Fuel system | Missing fuel tank cap | Insecure fuel tank. Dripping fuel leak |
| 13 | General | None listed | Serious damage or deterioration that is noticeable and may affect vehicle's safe operation |
| 14 | Glass and mirrors | Required mirror or window glass fails to provide required view to driver as result of being cracked, broken, damaged, missing or maladjusted. Broken or damaged attachments of required mirror or glass to vehicle body | None listed |
| 15 | Heater and defroster | Control or system failure | Defroster fails to provide unobstructed view through windshield |
| 16 | Horn | Vehicle has no operative horn | None listed |
| 17 | Hydraulic brake system | Brake fluid level below indicated minimum level | Parking brake inoperative. Brake boost or power assist not operative. Brake fluid leak. Brake pedal fade or insufficient brake pedal reserve. Activated warning device (other than ABS). Brake fluid reservoir less than one quarter full |
| 18 | Lamps and reflectors | Required lamp does not function as intended. Required reflector missing or partially missing | When lamps required: failure of both low-beam headlamps, failure of both rearmost tail lamps. At all times: failure of rearmost turn-indicator lamp, failure of both rearmost brake lamps |
| 19 | Steering | Steering wheel lash (free-play) greater than normal | Steering wheel insecure, or does not respond normally. Steering wheel lash (free-play) exceeds required limit |
| 20 | Suspension | Air leak in air suspension system. Broken spring leaf. Suspension fastener loose, missing or broken | Damaged (including patched, cut, bruised, cracked to braid), insecurely mounted, or deflated air bag. Cracked or broken main spring leaf or more than 1 broken spring leaf. Part of spring leaf or suspension missing, shifted out of place or in contact with another vehicle component. Loose U-bolt |
| 21 | Tires | Damaged tread or sidewall of tire. Tire leaking (other than tire leak classified as major defect) | Flat tire including tire leak that can be felt or heard. Tire tread depth less than wear limit. Tire in contact with another tire or any vehicle component other than mud-flap. Tire is marked "Not for highway use". Tire has exposed cords in the tread or outer side wall area |
| 22 | Wheels, hubs and fasteners | Hub oil below minimum level (when fitted with sight glass) | Wheel has loose, missing or ineffective fastener. Damaged, cracked or broken wheel, rim or attaching part. Evidence of imminent wheel, hub or bearing failure. Leaking wheel seal |
| 23 | Windshield wiper and washer | Control or system malfunction. Wiper blade damaged, missing or fails to adequately clear driver's field of vision | When necessary for prevailing weather condition: wiper or washer fails to adequately clear driver's field of vision in area swept by driver's side wiper |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column. The first column stays in place.
Source: Schedule 1, Truck, Tractor, or Trailer Daily Inspections, as published by Nova Scotia Department of Public Works from CCMTA National Safety Code Standard 13. Defect wording reproduced from the published schedule. Retrieved and verified August 2026. Your province publishes its own copy adopted into its own regulation, so confirm the current version for the province you run in before relying on any of it.
Four things worth noticing in that table, because they are where drivers and carriers actually get caught.
Some systems have no minor defect at all. Dangerous goods and General go straight to major. There is no version of a dangerous goods problem that gets written down and driven on.
Some have no major defect listed. Driver controls, emergency equipment, glass and mirrors, and the horn. That does not make them optional, it means the failure is recorded and repaired rather than parking the truck.
The tire rules are the ones people get wrong. A damaged tread is minor. A leak you can hear or feel is major. Those are close enough together in the yard that the temptation is to call it minor and go, and it is the single most common major defect found at roadside.
Lamps are conditional. Both low-beam headlamps failing is a major defect when lamps are required, not at all times. The rearmost turn indicator and both rearmost brake lamps are major at all times, daylight included.
The rules, province by province
| Province | Regulation | The detail worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | Commercial Vehicle Safety Regulation, AR 121/2009 | Adopts Schedule 1 of NSC Standard 13 Part 2 by reference, so the national defect list above governs unchanged. Captures vehicles over 4,500 kg by registered or actual weight. Valid for 24 hours from the time recorded on the report. Full Alberta detail |
| British Columbia | Motor Vehicle Act regulations, enforced by CVSE | The pre-trip is done each day before the first trip. On trips running more than one day, no later than the first stop on each following day |
| Saskatchewan | The Trip Inspection Regulations | Inspection once every 24 hour period while in use. The driver carries the completed report for both the current and the previous day, plus the applicable schedule, produced for a peace officer on request |
| Manitoba | Commercial Vehicle Trip Inspection Regulation | Inspection every 24 hours the vehicle is in service, against the components listed in the regulation |
| Ontario | O. Reg. 199/07 | Inspection every 24 hour period, with the driver monitoring the vehicle through the trip. Both the current report and the inspection schedule must be carried, electronic permitted. Schedule 1 for trucks, tractors and trailers, Schedule 2 for buses. Ontario classifies a leaking wheel seal as a minor defect, where the national schedule makes it major, so it has its own page |
| Nova Scotia | Commercial Vehicle Trip Inspection Regulations | Inspection at least once every 24 hours against the schedule for the vehicle type, documented and submitted to the carrier. Schedule 1 for trucks, tractors and trailers, Schedule 2 for buses and their trailers |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column. The first column stays in place.
Source: CCMTA National Safety Code Standard 13; Alberta Commercial Vehicle Safety Regulation guidance, alberta.ca; SGI trip inspection standards; Manitoba Commercial Vehicle Trip Inspection Regulation; Ontario Ministry of Transportation truck handbook and O. Reg. 199/07; Nova Scotia Commercial Vehicle Trip Inspection Regulations. Verified August 2026. Confirm the current version for your province before relying on any of it.
What has to be on the report
The report is the part that gets audited, and a surprising number of them fail on identification rather than on inspection quality.
Alberta's published minimum content is representative of what the others expect:
- Legible, which rules out more reports than you would think
- Licence plate or unit number
- Odometer or hubometer reading
- Carrier name
- The location where the inspection was done
- Each defect found, or a note recording that there were none
- Date and time of the report
- Name of the person who did the inspection
- Name and signature of the driver
A report that cannot be tied to a specific vehicle on a specific day, by a named person, does not do its job, however carefully the walk-around was done.
How long you have to keep them
Six months is the common minimum. NSC Standard 13 calls for the carrier to retain the original report and any certification of repairs for at least six months from the date it was prepared. Alberta requires trip inspection reports kept in chronological order for each vehicle for at least six months after receipt. Ontario sets a six month minimum.
Plenty of carriers keep twelve months instead, and I would. Safety fitness audits, roadside enforcement follow up and incident investigations all reach back further than six months, and the cost of holding the records is nothing next to the cost of not having them when somebody asks.
Where this meets your safety program
Trip inspection records are not a separate filing problem. They are part of your safety evidence, and they get sampled.
An auditor looking at a carrier's COR or safety fitness evidence will ask for trip inspection reports for particular vehicles on particular dates, usually from awkward periods rather than last month. What they are testing is whether the inspections happened continuously, whether defects that were found actually got repaired, and whether the repair closed the loop back to the report.
That last one is where carriers lose marks. A defect recorded and never closed out is the same finding in a transport audit as a corrective action left open is in a COR audit, and it comes from the same root cause: the record was collected but nobody was responsible for reading it.
Two more pages: the defect split, and the walk-around order
Pre-trip inspection: what the law requires covers the legal detail and the minor versus major defect split, with the line drawn on the systems that come up most.
The circle check, step by step covers the walk-around itself: a single loop from the cab, down the driver side, through the coupling, along the trailer, up the passenger side and finishing at the front, so nothing is missed to backtracking.
Doing this on paper, and doing it in the app
The Schedule 1 form above works, and plenty of carriers run on paper for years without a problem. What paper does not do is close the loop. The defect gets written down in the cab, the sheet goes in the door pocket, and whether it reached the person who fixes it is a matter of habit rather than record.
In the app, the same daily trip inspections are completed in the cab against this exact schedule, the defect routes to whoever fixes it, and the repair closes back against the original report. That last link is the one an auditor asks for and the one paper systems lose.
If the written program those inspections belong to is the part you are missing, we build carrier safety programs and stand them up in your own copy of the app.
Questions people actually ask
What is NSC Standard 13?
Is NSC Standard 13 the law?
What items are on a Schedule 1 trip inspection?
What is the difference between a minor and a major defect?
How often does a commercial vehicle need a trip inspection?
What has to be on a trip inspection report?
How long do you have to keep trip inspection reports?
Do the trip inspection rules change between provinces?
The truck crosses a border and the rule changes underneath the driver
Writing one program to the national model leaves you offside wherever a province asked for more, and most of them did. We write the carrier program against every jurisdiction you actually run in, so retention, report contents and defect classification hold on both sides of the line. The form above is free and carries the national list.