§ 396.9 is the roadside counterpart to everything this chapter has described so far, and it is where an inspection stops being the driver’s own judgment. Every special agent of the FMCSA is authorized to enter upon and inspect a carrier’s vehicles in operation and intermodal equipment in operation, and the results go on a Driver Vehicle Examination Report. Where a vehicle or unit of intermodal equipment, by reason of its MECHANICAL CONDITION OR LOADING, would likely cause an accident or a breakdown, authorized personnel shall declare and mark it out of service using an “Out-of-Service Vehicle” sticker. Notice that the test is almost word for word § 396.7(a)’s — the standard a driver is meant to apply before moving is the same standard an inspector applies at the roadside — with loading added, so a vehicle in perfect mechanical order can go out of service on how it is loaded alone.

What the declaration then forbids is wider than most drivers expect, and § 396.9(c)(2) says so in terms. No carrier or equipment provider shall require or permit any person to operate, nor shall any person operate, a vehicle declared and marked out of service until all repairs required by the out-of-service notice have been satisfactorily completed — and OPERATE in this section INCLUDES TOWING the vehicle. The single exception is towing away by means of a vehicle using a crane or hoist. Where an emergency towing vehicle and an out-of-service vehicle make a combination, that combination may not be operated unless it meets the subchapter’s performance requirements except for the conditions noted on the Driver Vehicle Examination Report. And § 396.9(c)(3) closes the obvious workaround: no person shall remove the sticker before all the required repairs are complete.

The paperwork then travels, and the first leg of it is the driver’s. Under § 396.9(d)(1), a driver who receives an inspection report shall deliver a copy to the motor carrier operating the vehicle and to the intermodal equipment provider on arrival at the next terminal or facility — and if the driver is not scheduled to arrive at one within 24 hours, they shall immediately mail, fax or otherwise transmit it. The carrier and provider examine the report and correct the violations or defects noted in accordance with § 396.11(a)(3), the same repair-and-certify machinery § 11.3 set out. Within 15 days following the date of the inspection they must certify that all violations noted have been corrected, by completing the signature, title and date portions of the form; return the completed form to the issuing State agency if that agency requests it; and in all instances retain a copy — at the principal place of business or where the vehicle is housed — for 12 months from the date of the inspection.