Free Preventive Maintenance (PM) Checklist

Tie PM frequency to your maintenance schedule — typically every oil-change interval for light checks and a deeper inspection at larger mileage milestones. Severe-duty fleets run PM more often.

A qualified technician for the mechanical items. Drivers can handle daily walkaround checks, but a full PM requires someone able to assess brake wear, fluid condition, and leaks.

A DVIR is a driver's daily defect report; a PM is a scheduled, technician-led service inspection. They complement each other — the DVIR catches day-to-day issues, the PM catches wear before it fails.

Common categories are time-based (fixed calendar interval), usage-based (mileage or engine hours), and condition-based (triggered by an inspection finding, like fluid analysis flagging early wear). Most fleets run mileage-based PM with condition-based checks layered on top.

Beyond the inspection items themselves: a defined interval schedule (commonly tiered as A/B/C service levels by mileage or hours), a way to track which vehicle is due and when, technician sign-off and defect close-out, a parts and consumables plan so a PM doesn't stall waiting on stock, and a review cycle that adjusts the intervals when a duty cycle changes. A checklist is the execution step — the program is what makes sure the right checklist happens on the right vehicle on time.

Start from your manufacturer's service schedule for the baseline intervals and items, then add whatever your own failure history shows you're missing — a component that keeps failing between scheduled services usually means it needs its own line item and a shorter check interval, not just a note to "keep an eye on it." Group items by system so a technician can work through the vehicle in one physical pass rather than jumping around, and pilot it on a handful of vehicles before rolling it out fleet-wide.