Transport Canada Vehicle Recalls Database API

aid: transport-canada:transport-canada-vehicle-recalls-database-api
name: Transport Canada Vehicle Recalls Database API
description: Transport Canada's only first-party public REST API. Returns safety-related recall records
  for vehicles, tires and child restraints recorded by the Defect Investigations and Recalls Division.
  The service root is self-describing — GET the application root and it returns the tables (recall, recall-summary)
  and the query parameters each accepts (recall-number, make-name, manufacturer-name, minimum-model-year,
  maximum-model-year, year-range, model-name) in both English and French. Path-segment query style, format=json
  or format=XML, no API key, no rate limit published. English and French service trees are mirrored at
  /eng/ and /fra/.
humanURL: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1ec92326-47ef-4110-b7ca-959fab03f96d
baseURL: https://data.tc.gc.ca/v1.3/api/eng/vehicle-recall-database
tags:
- Recalls
- Vehicle Safety
- Road Transportation
- Open Data
properties:
- type: Documentation
  url: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1ec92326-47ef-4110-b7ca-959fab03f96d
- type: APIReference
  url: https://data.tc.gc.ca/v1.3/api/eng/vehicle-recall-database/?format=json
- type: ServiceDescriptor
  url: capabilities/transport-canada-vehicle-recalls-api-root.json
- type: Documentation
  url: https://open.canada.ca/data/dataset/1ec92326-47ef-4110-b7ca-959fab03f96d/resource/651cd076-d18c-49af-bd35-bfc89377e5cf/download/vehicle-recall-database-api-documentation.docx
  name: Vehicle Recall Database API Documentation (DOCX)
  description: The only written API documentation Transport Canada publishes — a Word document attached
    as a guide resource to the CKAN dataset record, dated 22 December 2016. Documents the path-segment
    query form, pipe-delimited multiple values, chained parameters, the /count modifier and the json/xml
    format parameter. Every behaviour it describes was re-verified live on 2026-07-28. A French version
    is published alongside it.
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/transport-canada-conventions.yml
- type: BulkDownload
  url: https://opendatatc.tc.canada.ca/vrdb_full_monthly.csv
- type: BulkDownload
  url: https://opendatatc.tc.canada.ca/vrdb_full_monthly.xml
- type: DataDictionary
  url: https://opendatatc.blob.core.windows.net/opendatatc/recalls_variables.txt
- type: License
  url: https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada