Common questions, plainly answered

Light-duty pickups and vans, medium-duty box trucks and service trucks, Class 7 and 8 tractors, trailers (dry-van, reefer, flatbed), agricultural support vehicles, and off-road yard equipment. If it has wheels and a VIN, we have probably inspected one.

No. Carsaman is independent. We do not sell parts, we do not run a repair shop, and we do not take referral fees from anyone. That independence is the whole point — our reports are useful precisely because we have no interest in what the repair invoice says afterwards.

We do not. We inspect, document, and hand off the work order to your shop or a shop you trust. Several of our clients use our reports as the basis for their internal repair work; others forward them to a preferred outside vendor.

Yes. Single-vehicle pre-purchase inspections, pre-auction walk-throughs, and trade-in evaluations are a meaningful part of what we do.

Three ways. Per-vehicle single inspections (most common for pre-purchase and pre-auction). Monthly retainers for fleets with recurring needs (most common for our logistics, ag, and municipal clients). And project-based pricing for one-time large evaluations such as acquiring a fleet or auditing a yard.

No. Our standing fleet clients are on month-to-month arrangements. Most have been with us for years because the work is useful, not because they are locked in.

Yes. Our published pricing tiers reflect volume — see the Pricing page for current rates. We also negotiate custom terms with larger operators.

Inside our core service area (Galt, Lodi, Stockton, Elk Grove, Sacramento, Modesto), travel is included. For locations outside that radius we quote travel separately and transparently.

For single vehicles we are usually able to schedule within 2-3 business days. Urgent pre-auction inspections we can sometimes handle same-day if it lands in our routing. Standing fleet clients work on a fixed calendar.

Light-duty pickups and vans: about 45 minutes on site. Medium-duty box trucks: about 75 minutes. Class 8 tractors with combination units: 90 minutes to two hours. We bias toward thorough, not fast.

Standard turnaround on a written report is four business hours after the inspection, often the same day. Urgent reports we deliver verbally within minutes of finishing on-site, with the written version following.

Our core service area is Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties. That includes Galt (our home base), Lodi, Stockton, Elk Grove, Sacramento, Modesto, Manteca, and Tracy. We routinely travel as far as Yuba City and Merced for recurring fleet work.

For larger projects and pre-acquisition evaluations, yes — we have done work in the Bay Area, Reno, and as far as Bakersfield. Travel is quoted separately and we are upfront about whether the math makes sense for the client.

Either. Our standing fleet clients prefer that we come to them. Pre-purchase inspections we usually do at the seller's location. We have a small inspection bay at our Carpinteria Drive shop in Galt for clients who would rather drop off.

Yes. Alejandro is qualified to perform the FMCSA annual inspection under 49 CFR 396.19. We provide the sticker, the report, and a copy for your records.

Yes — the California Basic Inspection of Terminals program is part of what we do for terminal-based fleets. We provide BIT-aligned documentation and keep your files audit-ready.

The DOT annual is a specific regulatory document. Our recurring fleet inspections are broader — they include the DOT items but extend to operational issues that do not put a truck out of service but cost money over time: tire matching, fluid contamination trends, brake-pad wear trajectories, etc.

Each report includes an executive summary, a system-by-system findings list with severity grades, photographs of any flagged items, and a recommended action list with rough cost ranges where appropriate. Sample reports are available on request — email manage@carsaman.com.

Yes, and several of our clients route them directly to their underwriter. Documented inspection trails have measurably reduced premiums for some of our standing-fleet clients.

Indefinitely for active clients, seven years for past clients. We can pull historical reports on request.

Single-vehicle inspections are typically invoiced at completion. Fleet retainers are invoiced monthly, in arrears. Net-15 terms for established clients.

Business check, ACH, and major credit cards. We are not set up to take cash for invoices above $500.

Yes. We deliver W-9s on request and send year-end summaries to clients who need them for accounting.