California narrowed the 90-day BIT inspection cycle. Most heavy equipment stayed in it. Lighter straight trucks moved to the federal annual inspection instead. And the thing that decides which category you’re in isn’t just what your truck weighs, it’s what you tow.
If you pull a trailer for a living, nothing changed for you. If you run box trucks or utility trucks, something did. Here’s how to tell, and what to do about it either way.
Does your truck still need a 90-day inspection? The short answer
Check your own equipment against this. The code sections are there so you can verify any line yourself.
| What you run | Still on the 90-day cycle? | Code reference |
| Truck tractor, any weight | Yes | CVC §34500(b) |
| Commercial vehicle 26,001 lb GVWR or more | Yes | §34500(k) |
| Any commercial vehicle towing a trailer over 10,000 lb GVWR | Yes | §34500(k) |
| Straight truck, three or more axles, over 10,000 lb GVWR | Yes | §34500(a) |
| Trailers and semitrailers used in those combinations | Yes | §34500(e) |
| Anything hauling placarded hazmat, any weight | Yes | §34500(g) |
| A combination over 40 feet coupled together | Yes | §34500(f) |
| Two-axle straight truck, 10,001–26,000 lb, no trailer, no hazmat | No — federal annual instead | 49 CFR §396.17 |
If you’re pulling, you’re still in. Every truck tractor is covered with no weight qualifier at all. The trucks that came off the cycle are the lighter two-axle straight trucks that were never really the reason the programme existed.
What AB 3278 actually changed
Assembly Bill 3278 was the 2024 transportation omnibus bill, Stats. 2024, Chapter 226, signed on 12 September 2024. Most of it has nothing to do with trucks. One section rewrote which vehicles fall under California’s 90-day inspection requirement.
The mechanism is simple once you see it. Vehicle Code §34505.5, the section that mandates 90-day inspections, doesn’t list vehicles itself. It points at categories in §34500. AB 3278 removed subdivision (j) from the list §34505.5 relies on.
Subdivision (j) was the catch-all, “any other motortruck” regulated by the DMV or the federal government that didn’t fit anywhere else. In practice it swept in two-axle straight trucks roughly in the 10,001 to 26,000 pound range. Box trucks. Larger delivery vehicles. Utility trucks. Vehicles that were being pulled in for a full mechanical inspection four times a year alongside Class 8 equipment.
Those vehicles now fall under the federal annual inspection under 49 CFR §396.17 instead, once every twelve months rather than four times a year.
Why you’ll see two different dates for this
Search this topic and you’ll find some sources saying the change took effect 1 January 2025 and others saying 1 January 2026. Both are describing something real.
The §34505.5 amendment, the one that changed which vehicles need 90-day inspections, is recorded as effective 1 January 2025. A separate restructure of §34501.12, the section governing the BIT programme’s overall scope, became operative 1 January 2026.
Two changes, two dates. If you’re making a decision about whether to stop inspecting something, confirm your specific situation with your CHP Motor Carrier Safety Unit rather than relying on a date you read in an article, including this one.
The trailer rule that catches people
This is the part most operators get wrong, and it’s the part that matters most around Bakersfield.
Two provisions keep combination vehicles in scope:
§34500(b) covers truck tractors. Full stop. No weight threshold, no conditions. If it’s a truck tractor, it’s on the 90-day cycle.
§34500(k) covers any commercial motor vehicle of any GVWR towing a trailer, semitrailer, or dolly with a GVWR over 10,000 pounds. Camp trailers, trailer coaches and utility trailers are excluded from that.
Read those together and here’s what it means: a truck that’s well under 26,001 pounds by itself is still a 90-day vehicle if it pulls a heavy trailer. The weight of the power unit doesn’t settle the question on its own.
We see this constantly with smaller operators around Lamont, Arvin and Shafter running a light truck with a heavy equipment trailer behind it. On paper the truck looks exempt. In practice the combination isn’t.
Can CHP still inspect a truck that came off the BIT cycle?
Yes. And this gets misread more than anything else in the whole change.
Vehicles that are no longer subject to the BIT programme can still be subject to non-BIT inspections conducted by the California Highway Patrol. Coming off the 90-day cycle doesn’t make a truck invisible, and it certainly doesn’t make it exempt from being roadworthy.
Everything else still applies:
- The federal annual inspection under §396.17
- Daily driver vehicle inspection reports
- The requirement to actually repair what gets written up
- Roadside inspection at any scale or checkpoint in the state
What changed is the inspection interval. What didn’t change is that the truck has to be safe, and that you have to be able to prove you maintained it.
What happens to the inspection records you already have
Don’t purge them.
A truck that moved off the 90-day cycle still generated inspection records during the years it was in scope, and those records still have to be retained, two years from the inspection date, held at the terminal. If CHP audits your terminal and asks for the history on a vehicle that was covered until last year, “we’re exempt now” isn’t an answer.
The same goes for the paper trail underneath everything else. Repair orders still have to tie back to DVIR write-ups. A driver reporting an air leak and no corresponding repair order is the most common finding in a California terminal audit, and it has nothing to do with which inspection cycle the vehicle sits on.
The truck’s status changed. Your recordkeeping obligation for the period before that didn’t.
Should you drop your terminal designation?
Careful with this one. Deregistering a terminal you still need is a considerably worse outcome than running a few inspections you didn’t have to.
If your fleet is genuinely all light equipment
Two-axle straight trucks under 26,001 pounds, nothing towing anything heavy, no hazmat, then the change is real and worth taking. Confirm your scope with your CHP Motor Carrier Safety Unit first, in writing if you can get it.
If you run a mixed fleet, most operators are better off keeping everything on 90 days.
You can technically split a terminal into two pools. In practice you end up running two record systems, two alert schedules and two retention clocks, and the shop time you save rarely covers the audit exposure you add.
The reason is worth understanding: it’s the consecutive record CHP looks for. A missed interval doesn’t just cost you that one inspection, it leaves a gap in the history, and gaps are what fail terminal audits. Trucks fail inspections. Paperwork fails audits.
Kern County agricultural operators: this one’s worth checking
There’s a piece of this that hasn’t been widely covered, and if you’re hauling agricultural freight out of Kern County it may affect you.
An exception existed for agricultural vehicles as defined in Vehicle Code §34500.6. Compliance sources indicate that exception remained in effect only until 1 January 2026.
If that reading is right, some agricultural operators may have moved back into scope in the same period everyone else was hearing that the rules got easier. That’s an unusual position to be in, and it’s not one you’d notice unless you went looking.
We’re a repair shop, not a compliance consultancy, so we’re not going to tell you how §34500.6 applies to your operation. But if you run agricultural equipment in Kern County, this is the specific thing to raise with your CHP Motor Carrier Safety Unit. It’s a short phone call and it’s a lot cheaper than finding out during an audit.
What if a truck has been parked for months?
Vehicles that are out of service for more than 90 calendar days don’t need to be inspected at 90-day intervals, as long as they’re inspected before they go back on the highway.
That matters more here than in most places. Plenty of agricultural equipment and spare units around Kern County sit for a season and then go straight back to work. You don’t have to run inspections on a truck that’s parked. You do have to inspect it before it turns a wheel on a public road again.
This one gets misunderstood in both directions. Some operators keep inspecting parked equipment they didn’t need to. Others put a truck back in service after four months without inspecting it, which is the expensive version of the mistake.
What the 90-day inspection covers, for the trucks still in it
For vehicles that remain in scope, the statute sets out the minimum. The inspection has to cover:
- Brake adjustment — pushrod travel physically measured, not eyeballed
- Brake system components and leaks — chambers, slack adjusters, valves, lines, the compressor and air dryer
- Steering and suspension systems — linkage, tie rods, kingpins, springs, hangers, bushings, shocks
- Tyres and wheels — tread depth measured at the shallowest point, sidewall condition, rims and fasteners
- Vehicle connecting devices — fifth wheel, kingpin, mounting, safety devices, landing gear
It has to be documented, and it has to carry the signature of the carrier’s authorised representative attesting that the inspection was done and required repairs completed.
One rule people miss: under §34505.5(b), a vehicle subject to the section can’t be operated on the highway other than to a place of repair until every defect listed in the inspection has been corrected and attested to by signature. Finding a defect and driving on it isn’t an option, even if the truck feels fine.
If you want the full component-by-component breakdown of what we check, that’s on our 90-day BIT inspection page. And if you want to know what happens when the intervals slip, we’ve covered that separately in what happens if you 90-day BIT inspections.
Running a split fleet without losing the thread
If you do end up with units on two different cycles, a few things make it manageable:
Tag every unit with its cycle in whatever system you use, right on the vehicle record. Don’t rely on remembering which truck is which.
Set alerts ahead of the window, not on it. A reminder on day 90 is a reminder you’re already late. Day 70 gives you room to schedule around a load.
Keep both record types in one place. A CHP Motor Carrier Specialist will ask for both. Two filing systems means one of them is the one you can’t find.
Stagger the 90-day units. Don’t let four trucks come due in the same week, or you’re parking a chunk of your operation at once.
Fold other work into inspection dates. If a truck is coming in for its 90-day, that’s when the oil service and anything else scheduled should happen too. One day off the road instead of three.
Not sure where your units land?
Bring us your unit list, year, make, GVWR, axle count and what each one tows. We’ll go through it with you and tell you which trucks are still on the 90-day cycle and which moved to the federal annual.
If something’s genuinely borderline, we’ll say so and point you at CHP rather than guess on your behalf. Guessing is how gaps end up in records.
We do 90-day BIT inspections and DOT annual inspections at our shop on Pepper Drive in east Bakersfield, just off Highway 58, and because we’re a full repair shop, anything the inspection turns up can usually be fixed in the same visit instead of becoming a second appointment next week.
Call 661-567-0020 · 681 Pepper Dr, Suite A, Bakersfield, CA 93307
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need a 90-day BIT inspection in 2026?
It depends on the vehicle. Truck tractors, anything at 26,001 lb GVWR or more, anything towing a trailer over 10,000 lb GVWR, three-plus-axle straight trucks over 10,000 lb, hazmat vehicles and long combinations all remain on the 90-day cycle. If you pull a trailer, you’re almost certainly still in.
Is my box truck exempt now?
A two-axle straight truck between 10,001 and 26,000 lb GVWR that isn’t hauling placarded hazmat and isn’t towing a trailer over 10,000 lb moves to the federal annual inspection under 49 CFR §396.17. Confirm your specific vehicle with CHP before you change anything.
Does a truck tractor need a 90-day inspection?
Yes. Vehicle Code §34500(b) covers truck tractors with no weight qualifier.
I pull a small utility trailer does that put me in scope?
Not through the towing provision. Utility trailers are specifically excluded, and that provision applies to trailers over 10,000 lb GVWR.
Do trailers need their own inspections?
Yes. On a combination vehicle the tractor and the trailer are each inspected and documented separately.
Can CHP still inspect my truck if it’s off the BIT cycle?
Yes. Vehicles no longer subject to BIT can still be subject to non-BIT inspections by CHP, and the federal annual inspection still applies.
Do I have to keep my old 90-day inspection records?
Yes, two years from the inspection date, retained at the terminal. Don’t clear the file because the vehicle’s status changed.
What if my truck has been parked for four months?
Vehicles out of service more than 90 calendar days don’t need inspecting at 90-day intervals, provided they’re inspected before returning to the highway.
Does BIT apply if my company is based out of state?
The programme attaches to terminals and commercial vehicle operations in California, not to where the company is domiciled. If you maintain or stage vehicles at a California location, that location is a terminal.
Did the federal annual inspection change?
No. 49 CFR §396.17 is unchanged. What changed is which vehicles rely on it as their primary inspection requirement.
