Guides
SAAQ circle check: the walk-around before leaving
By Claude Piché, founder · Updated October 16, 2026
A truck circle check is not an excavator inspection. It is SAAQ / Highway Safety Code. Here is how to run it on a jobsite yard — without inventing a CSTC article.
Two regimes, two lists
Machine operators inspect excavators and lifts under the CSTC. Heavy-vehicle drivers do a circle check before departure under SAAQ rules. Mixing them invents fake CSTC articles.
The legal sheet says who regulates. This guide says how to walk the yard: order, findings, who signs, what a defect does to departure.
Before turning the key
Budget time. A thirty-second glance misses a flat and a leak. Use a SAAQ-shaped list, not a recycled excavator list.
Identify the vehicle, date, driver. Shift handoffs do not skip a new departure check by oral “night crew already did it”.
Walk, name, decide
Lights, tires, leaks, cargo securement, visible safety devices, then the cab. OK Sécurité transport / dump / boom-truck lists group points. They are not an official SAAQ form.
Write a sentence. Major defects under the SAAQ guide block departure. The SAAQ site outranks any summary.
Log versus jobsite app
A PDF from the app is internal evidence. It does not replace a SAAQ-required log. Keep defects and dates aligned.
A boom truck still needs a lifting-appliance check. Two questions, two lists.
Who trains, who fixes
The driver executes. The employer keeps unsafe vehicles off the road. The RSS does not sign the circle check for the driver.
Train from the current SAAQ guide. Forms change.
The rest of the fleet
Truck in the morning, loader in the afternoon: two inspections. Independent tool: the CNESST does not certify OK Sécurité and does not run highway circle checks.
For departure: vehicle list, SAAQ sheet, then the road.
Heavy-vehicle circle checks are SAAQ / Highway Safety Code, not CSTC. OK Sécurité is not certified by the CNESST and does not publish an official SAAQ form. Read the SAAQ guide and your program. For information only — this is not legal advice. OK Sécurité is an independent company with no affiliation to the CNESST: we are not mandated, endorsed or certified by it. Where there is any discrepancy, the official text published by Légis Québec or the CNESST prevails.
Sources
Informational only. Confirm obligations with your prevention program and:
- CNESST — Mesures spécifiques pour les chantiers de construction
- Safety Code for the construction industry (CSTC) and Regulation respecting occupational health and safety (RSST)
Official rules (French)
Related checklists
Lists for the rolling fleet:
Common questions
- Does the SAAQ check replace the crane-on-truck inspection?
- No. Circle check is roadworthiness. Lifting gear has its own list.
- Can I cite a CSTC article for the circle check?
- No. That is what the legal sheet forbids. Source: SAAQ.
- Is the app PDF the SAAQ log?
- Not by default. It records your walk-around. The SAAQ log, when required, stays separate.
- Who fills the list?
- The driver before departure, per your procedures and the SAAQ guide.