Guides for operations associates

AV fleet vehicle inspection checklist: what to check before an electric car goes back into service

Q: Does regenerative braking mean the brakes do not need checking?

No. Brake wear is significantly reduced, but service and parking brakes are both on the federal report list, and a parking brake that does not hold is a hold on any car.

Read the last report, walk the car, check the tires, brakes, lights and warnings, look up the recalls, then sign or hold. What an operations associate checks, what keeps a car out, and what goes in the record.

By XoomPark Editorial Team · November 9, 2026

Before a car goes back in service, the associate reads the last report and any open repair, walks the car, checks tires, lights, horn, wipers, mirrors, wheels and brakes, reads the warnings on the dash, looks up open recalls, and then signs or holds. The federal driver vehicle inspection rule gives a ready list of eleven parts,¹ and a simple hold rule: a defect likely to affect safe operation is repaired, and the repair certified, before the vehicle runs again.¹

The walk-around in order: what to check, what keeps the car out, and where the rule comes from.
Check	What to look at	Hold the car when	Basis
Last report	The previous report and the repair certification	A listed defect has no repair or "not needed" sign-off²	49 CFR 396.13²
Tires	Pressure against the door-jamb or glove-box placard; tread; sidewalls	Ply or belt shows, the tread or sidewall is separating, the tire is flat or leaks, or tread is under 2/32 inch³	49 CFR 393.75; fueleconomy.gov⁵
Lights and reflectors	Every lamp and reflector, front and rear	Any lamp is out or cracked	49 CFR 396.11 list¹
Horn, wipers, mirrors	Horn sounds, wipers clear the glass, mirrors are whole and set	Any one fails	49 CFR 396.11 list¹
Wheels and rims	Lug nuts, rim damage, wheel covers	Damage or a loose fastener	49 CFR 396.11 list¹
Service and parking brakes	Pedal feel, parking brake holds, warnings	Anything feels different from yesterday	49 CFR 396.11 list;¹ AFDC⁴
Steering and emergency equipment	Steering feels normal; the emergency equipment your depot carries is present	Steering is stiff, loose or noisy, or the equipment is missing	49 CFR 396.11 list¹
Dash warnings	Any lamp or message that stays on after start	A warning is on and no one has cleared it⁵	fueleconomy.gov⁵
Recalls	Open recalls for the make, model and year	The recall notice says to stop driving the car⁷	NHTSA recalls API⁷

Does the federal inspection rule apply to a robotaxi depot?

Probably not to every car, but it is the best template there is. The rule's report covers service brakes, the parking brake, steering, lighting devices and reflectors, tires, the horn, windshield wipers, rear vision mirrors, coupling devices, wheels and rims, and emergency equipment.¹

It exempts private motor carriers of passengers (nonbusiness), driveaway-towaway operations and carriers running a single commercial motor vehicle,¹ and it was written for commercial vehicles. Whether your cars are in scope depends on the vehicle and the state, so ask your compliance lead. This is our assumption: we use the list because every item on it is an item that strands a car on a road, and because a record built on a recognized list is easy for anyone to read. Drop the coupling devices; an electric car has none.

Which defects keep a car out of service?

Anything likely to affect the safety of operation. The rule says the carrier or its agent must repair such a defect before requiring or permitting the vehicle to operate, and must certify on the report that the defect was repaired or that repair was unnecessary.¹ The next person to take the car reads that certification and signs to acknowledge it.²

Tires have the clearest numbers. A vehicle must not run on a tire with body ply or belt material exposed through the tread or sidewall, with tread or sidewall separation, that is flat or has an audible leak, or with a cut that exposes ply or belt. Tread must be at least 2/32 inch in a major groove, and 4/32 inch on the front tires of a bus, truck or truck tractor.³ Pressure is the other tire check: the right number is usually on a sticker in the driver's door jamb or glove box and in the owner's manual, not the maximum printed on the sidewall.⁵

For warnings, the Department of Energy's advice is plain: when a warning light comes on, have the vehicle inspected by a mechanic.⁵ That sentence is written about the check engine light; we apply it to any warning that stays on. The associate does not clear a warning to get the car out.

What changes in the walk-around for an electric car?

Less on the brakes and fluids, and one new thing to look at: the charge port. The Alternative Fuels Data Center says brake wear is significantly reduced by regenerative braking and that electric vehicles have fewer fluids that need regular service. It also says some battery systems use liquid coolant and may need regular checks, and points to the owner's manual for them.⁴

Brakes still stay on the list. Less wear is not no wear, and a parking brake that does not hold is a hold whatever the powertrain.¹
Coolant: if the manual calls for a battery coolant check, it goes in the checklist for that model.⁴
Charge port and cable: look for a cracked housing, a bent or discolored pin, or a frayed cable, and hold the car if you see one. Looking is the associate's job; opening anything is not.
High voltage is not an associate task. OSHA requires live parts to be deenergized before an employee works on or near them, with limited exceptions, and allows only qualified persons to work on parts that are not deenergized.⁶ A warning that points at the high-voltage system goes to a technician, not onto the report as "checked".

How do you check for open recalls?

Query NHTSA by make, model and model year. We suggest doing it monthly and whenever a car is added; that cadence is our assumption. The agency's recalls interface returns the records for a vehicle, each with the manufacturer's summary, the consequence and the remedy, and flags named parkIt and parkOutSide.⁷

A recall is a hold only if its notice says to stop driving the car. Read the remedy text, keep the campaign number in the car's record and note whether the repair has been done. A recall found at the inspection is a repair ticket, not a reason to skip the rest of the walk-around.

What goes in the inspection record?

The car, every defect found, and a signature. The federal report must identify the vehicle and list any defect or deficiency found or reported, one report for each vehicle, signed by the driver, and a report is not required when nothing is found.¹ Carriers keep the report, the repair certification and the review certification for three months,¹ and the report may be created and kept electronically.¹

Vehicle ID, date, time and the associate's name.
Each defect, in words someone else can act on: "right rear tire, cut through to the belt", not "tire".
The decision: signed off for service, or held, and who was told.
The repair line: who fixed it, when, and the sign-off that lets the car go. Then the next associate reads it before the next walk-around.²

We recommend keeping the whole record for at least the three months the federal rule names; that is our choice, not a requirement for your cars.

A morning turn: thirty cars, two associates

If a walk-around takes four minutes a car, thirty cars is 120 associate-minutes, or one hour each for two associates.

This is arithmetic on an assumption: the four minutes is ours, not a measured figure. Time your own walk-around on ten cars and use that number. The point is the shape of the work: the inspection fits between the end of the overnight charge and the first dispatch only if it is done in parallel with the last cars finishing charging. If an inspection regularly finds a defect on the cars that charged last, move those cars to the front of the line the next night.

When this checklist is the wrong tool

The car has collision damage or a high-voltage warning. That is a technician or the vehicle maker, not a walk-around.
The fault is the charger, not the car. Send it to the charging technician with the stall and connector noted.
The question is about the driving system or its sensors. Those checks belong to the vehicle's maker and are outside this list.
The car was washed or cleaned by a vendor. Cleanliness is a separate check; see the detailing guide.

When a car is held and needs a charge anyway, there is a way to keep it charging. XoomPark arranges AV fleet charging at existing stations in the hours their stalls sit unused, never blocks a station's regular customers and never pushes the station past its monthly peak.

Questions operations associates ask

What should be on a pre-service checklist for an electric car?

The last report and repair certification, tires and wheels, lights and reflectors, horn, wipers and mirrors, service and parking brakes, dash warnings, open recalls, and the charge port. Tires, wheels, lights, horn, wipers, mirrors and both brakes come straight from the federal list of parts.¹

How often should a car be inspected?

The federal rule asks for a report at the completion of each day's work on each vehicle operated.¹ Whether your cars fall under it is for your compliance lead; our assumption is one walk-around before each service day.

How low can tire tread go?

The federal minimum is 2/32 inch in a major groove, and 4/32 inch on the front tires of a bus, truck or truck tractor.³ Many depots retire tires earlier; that is a policy choice.

Does regenerative braking mean the brakes do not need checking?

No. Brake wear is significantly reduced,⁴ but service and parking brakes are both on the federal report list,¹ and a parking brake that does not hold is a hold on any car.

Can an operations associate fix what they find?

Only what the vendor's manual and the depot's rules allow, such as setting tire pressure. Anything on the high-voltage system is for a qualified person with the supply deenergized.⁶

Sources

Sources are public. XoomPark isn't affiliated with the companies referenced in this post.

Authorship

Written by XoomPark Editorial Team in collaboration with Claude Opus 5.5

Role breakdown: Topic selection and publishing by XoomPark Editorial Team; research, source checks against primary sources and draft prose by Claude Opus 5.5.