FMCSA technical-corrections rule drops tire size from vehicle records
On July 21, 2026, FMCSA published a final rule in the Federal Register titled General Technical, Organizational, Conforming, and Correcting Amendments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (docket FMCSA-2025-0754). The rule took effect the same day. It is a final rule, not a proposal.
FMCSA describes the action as minor changes to correct inadvertent errors and omissions, remove or update obsolete references, and improve the clarity and consistency of certain regulatory provisions. Rules of this kind are issued periodically and generally do not change what carriers must do.
One change does touch day-to-day recordkeeping. The vehicle-identification record every motor carrier keeps under Part 396 (inspection, repair, and maintenance) no longer has to include tire size. FMCSA removed it from the recordkeeping requirement because the agency considers it obsolete. The rest of the identification record for each vehicle is still required.
Petitions for reconsideration of the rule must be submitted to the FMCSA Administrator no later than August 20, 2026.
What this means for your operation
If you run a small fleet, nothing in this rule requires action beyond noting that tire size is no longer a mandatory line in each truck's maintenance-record identification. Do not strip the rest of the record: the identifying information, inspection and maintenance history, and the periodic inspection documentation are unchanged, and those files are the first thing an auditor or a new-entrant safety audit asks for. WeLink's safety and compliance desk keeps these records current for the carriers it supports; whoever maintains yours should note the change and leave the rest of the file exactly as it was.
Source: Federal Register
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