CHP BIT inspections: the 45- and 90-day clocks

The CHP's Basic Inspection of Terminals (BIT) program is the second regulator every California charter operator answers to, and it is the one most likely to catch you between CPUC renewals. It has two parts: a periodic inspection you do on each vehicle, on a fixed clock, and a terminal inspection the CHP does on you, where they read the records of the first part.

Which vehicles are regulated

• Any bus — a vehicle designed, used or maintained to carry more than 10 persons including the driver — operated by or for a charter-party carrier or passenger stage corporation. Party buses, minibuses, shuttles and motor coaches are all here.
• Any vehicle over 10,000 lbs GVWR, which includes larger vans and most sprinter conversions.
• Sedans and SUVs that stay under both thresholds are not BIT-regulated. Their obligations run through the CPUC, DMV and your insurer instead.

The two clocks

1. 45 days for buses. Vehicle Code 34505(b) requires a tour bus to be inspected at least every 45 days, and every defect found corrected before it goes back on the road. That is eight inspections a year, per bus, and the CHP counts the calendar days between the dates on your forms.
2. 90 days for everything else regulated. Vehicle Code 34505.5 sets the 90-day cycle for trucks, tractors, trailers and the heavier vans.

Record each inspection on the CHP 108 form (the bus version is 108A) and keep it in the vehicle's maintenance file. A completed on-highway Level 1 inspection within the last 90 days can stand in for one cycle, but the form still has to be in the file.

The terminal inspection

Under AB 529 the CHP inspects your terminal — the place vehicles are parked, operated and maintained — on a performance-based schedule and rates four areas: regulated vehicles, the maintenance program, driver records, and hazardous materials where they apply. Each is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. An unsatisfactory rating is reported to the Commission, and the Commission treats it as grounds to suspend the authority.

What a satisfactory looks like on paper

• Every 45- or 90-day inspection recorded, dated and signed, with defects and their repair noted.
• A written maintenance program showing what is inspected, lubricated and serviced on each vehicle and when — Title 13 CCR 1232 requires it, and the inspector asks for it first.
• A driver qualification file for each driver: license, medical certificate, pull-notice record, hours-of-service records where they apply.
• Current registration and insurance for every listed vehicle, and nothing on the list you no longer run.

The checklist the inspector sends

Before a bus terminal inspection, the CHP's Motor Carrier Safety Unit sends a list of what to have ready. A recent one asked for:

• Maintenance: a current vehicle list; one year of periodic inspection records showing each required item inspected at least every 45 days; the last 12 months of systematic inspection, maintenance, lubrication and repair records, oil changes included; and the last three months of drivers' daily vehicle condition reports (pre-trip inspections).
• Drivers: every driver, full and part time, with their hire date; a DMV record for each driver hired in the last 60 days; proof that every driver is enrolled in the DMV Pull Notice Program; and the last month of timekeeping for each driver. That means logbooks or ELDs, with supporting documents such as waybills, for drivers who travel interstate, drive beyond 100 air miles, or are not released from duty within 12 consecutive hours, and time records showing start time, end time and total hours for everyone else. Keep records of duty status at least six months.
• Drug and alcohol testing, for federally covered drivers: enrollment in a random testing program and in the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse; each driver's hire date, pre-employment test and result, and annual Clearinghouse query; your company policy and each driver's signed receipt of it; the supervisor's reasonable-suspicion training certificate; and the annual summary (MIS) report from your testing provider.