Holy cow! We have five articles just on vehicle maintenance files!
What a process it is just to track your vehicle’s maintenance for your CMVs!
Well, let’s not waste a ton of time chatting and just start digging into what’s left for vehicle maintenance files.
- Annual DOT inspections
- The last 14 months of DOT annual inspections
- Last 2 inspections
DOT annual inspections are required for all units that are part of a CMV combination.
Yes, that includes the trailer.
One of the biggest questions we get here at Eclipse DOT is, What if the trailer has a GVWR less than 10K? Do I still need a DOT annual inspection?
The answer is pretty simple.
We’ll ask you a few more questions. Lol
Is the trailer being used in commerce (for business)?
If the answer is yes, then we ask you: is the trailer rated at more than 3500 lbs.?
If the answer is yes to both questions, then yes, you do need to have a DOT annual inspection on your trailers too.
The regulations say that you need to keep the last 14 months of inspections on file. To miss (Keep It Simple), what it really means is that you need the last two DOT annual inspections on file.
Nothing else!
To learn more about DOT annual inspections, you should check out our other article about them! Let’s move on.
- Cab cards and registration
- Current cab card or registration
This is already stupid. Keep your current cab card or registration in the file!
Next!
- All roadside inspections for that vehicle
- FMCSA requires that you have one year of previous roadside inspections on file.
- We recommend keeping 2 years of previous roadside inspections.
We actually don’t store roadside inspections in the vehicle maintenance folder!
Ours has its very own folder.
The reason we do that is for litigation reasons. You see, when asked, you still have to be able to produce the roadside inspections.
But we have had some attorneys request vehicle maintenance files, but not roadside inspections.
Like we said in the last article,.
When they ask for the gun, you have to give it to them. That doesn’t mean that you need to hand over all the ammunition too!
Make them hunt for the ammunition!!
The other thing here that you’ll notice is that this is one of the only times that we recommend keeping more than the bare minimum.
Why?
Well, your SMS scores are currently compiled and calculated based on the last two years of inspections.
If they can use that date to select you for an audit, you should have access to it too!
And that’s why we say to keep two years of roadside inspections.
Let me tell you, we have had multiple officers tell us after an audit that they are glad that we kept it for 2 years. Because it saved our bacon more than once.
It shows that you know the regulations, and you know how you are scored too!
The last item needed for vehicle maintenance is
- Maintenance Schedule
- A written maintenance schedule for each class of vehicle you operate in your company.
This can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.
We have had companies write a different maintenance plan for every vehicle.
In my opinion, that is not very simple.
So, the way we miss this part of the regulation is to make it part of our fleet policy!
We include all vehicles in specific classifications (keep it vague) and loop them all into one specific maintenance plan.
The other thing to keep in mind for this is that you need to follow what you have listed in routine maintenance.
Let’s say that you think you are going to impress the auditing officer by saying that you will change the oil every 1500 miles. I mean, if it’s supposed to be 5000 miles, 1500 sounds like we really care!
Right?
WRONG
If you say that you are going to do a service at a specific interval and you miss it, it shows that you don’t care about your maintenance schedule!
You could get cited for not performing routine maintenance as prescribed in your policy.
Crazy right?
So, here’s what we do. Let’s say that you change oil every 15,000 miles in a big truck. We say in the fleet policy that we will change oil every 18,500 miles!
Then, when we change oil every 15,000 miles, they look at it as if we are going above and beyond what our recommendations are.
I know it’s crazy, but hey, it works!
We had a customer once who said, Well, if that’s the case, let’s just say that we will be servicing the vehicles every 100,000 miles. Then we are covered!
Right?
WRONG!!!!
That shows a lack of integrity, and no one ever buys into it.
Oh man, five articles just on vehicle maintenance.
I didn’t even expect that!
Talk about overdelivering! That’s what we do here at Eclipse DOT: overdeliver!
So, here’s what I want you to do right now!
Go to www.dotdocs.com and sign up for a free trial to check out the only platform that misses everything, DOT!
What are you waiting for?
Go get it done.
NOW!!!!!
Discover our CDL & DOT Compliance blog for an exclusive trial at DOTDocs.com. Also, claim your FREE micro audit at THE ECLIPSE DOT MICRO AUDIT. Ready for smoother operations?
