Vehicle inspection checklist

Work the inspections get authorised, a week: 7,031
Points walked on one inspection: 27
Seconds a point gets, at that pace: 40
Inspections a week: 50

Every figure on this site comes from the figures you enter and the method stated beside each output. The typical point counts on the checklist are starting points to change, not a standard: the only sheet that matters is the one your technicians sign.

Your numbers

The inspection you run Each sets a typical count of points walked. Change the figure below to the number on your own sheet.Points to add to, or take from, that count Add the points your sheet carries that the typical one does not, or take off the systems you do not touch.Minutes a technician spends on one inspection Vehicles inspected a day Days open a week Technician cost an hour, dollars What the hour costs the shop, not what it bills at.Share of inspections that find red (fail now) work, percent Your own figure from last month's sheets, not an average from anywhere else.Average value of the red work found, dollars Share of inspections that find yellow (advisory) work, percent Average value of the yellow work found, dollars Share of red work the customer authorises, percent Share of yellow work the customer authorises, percent

The figures above start from a worked example (7,031). Change any input and the answer updates as you type, the way it will the week two techs are out and the bay runs half the inspections.

Download the Vehicle inspection checklist worked example (CSV)

The Defectbird workspace signed in, on Checklists, defect lists and authorisations, with a saved Vehicle inspection checklist record open for a multi-point inspection at Third Coast Auto Service: 27 points walked in 18 minutes at 9 vehicles a day over 5.5 days, a technician hour at 38 dollars, 35 percent of inspections finding red work worth 420 dollars and 58 percent finding yellow work worth 260 dollars, with 72 percent of the red and 24 percent of the yellow authorised, giving 7,031 dollars of authorised work a week against 564 dollars of inspection time. — The same worked example as above, saved in Defectbird Pro against the vehicle and the shop it was run for, with the defect list rendered from the record rather than retyped.

The vehicle inspection checklist sizes and prices an inspection from the shop's own bay figures rather than from a template: the points your sheet actually walks and the minutes a technician spends on one, the vehicles through the bay a day and the days you are open, what the labour hour costs you, and the share of inspections that come back with red or yellow work with what each is worth and how much of it the customer authorises. It returns the seconds each point is getting at that pace, the technician hours and the cost of inspecting a week, the work found, the work authorised per inspection and per week and per year, the work declined that is waiting on the vehicles, and the dollars authorised for every dollar of inspection time. A multi-point, a safety inspection, a used-vehicle walk, an RV inspection and a fleet check are the same arithmetic with a different count of points.

Where the constants in this tool come from

ASE (National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence), Automobile and Light Truck Certification Tests A1 to A9. Why the checklist counts an inspection as a walk over systems rather than a list of parts: ASE certifies automobile and light truck technicians in nine separate areas, from engine repair and brakes to electrical and light vehicle diesel, and a multi-point sheet is grouped the same way because that is how the person walking it was trained.

eCFR, 49 CFR Part 396 Appendix A, Minimum Periodic Inspection Standards. The one public, itemised enumeration of what a vehicle inspection covers, system by system, with a pass or fail against each item. It is the federal standard for commercial motor vehicles rather than for a shop's multi-point, and it is cited here for its STRUCTURE, not as a rule this site publishes: a motor carrier's own DOT programme is a different product to this one.

What a shop asks before running the Vehicle inspection checklist

Which figures do I need before using the vehicle inspection checklist? The number of points your sheet walks (or take the typical count for the inspection kind and change it), the minutes a technician spends on one, vehicles a day and days open, what a labour hour costs the shop, and from last month's sheets the share of inspections finding red and yellow work, what each was worth, and how much of each the customer authorised. Nothing comes from outside your own bay.

Why does it give the seconds each point is getting? Because that is the figure that decides whether the sheet is being walked or ticked. Twenty seven points in eighteen minutes is forty seconds a point, which is a real walk; the same twenty seven in six minutes is thirteen seconds, which is a signature. Shops usually argue about the minutes and never convert them, and the conversion is the whole argument.

Does the worksheet tell me whether a vehicle passes? No. It sizes and prices the inspection as a piece of work, from your figures. Whether a particular vehicle passes a state safety or emissions inspection is decided by the state and the licensed station on the day, and whether a particular part is safe is the technician's judgement on the vehicle in front of them.

Start Defectbird ProKeep the inspection, not the sheet in the folder