Vehicle Maintenance Files Over-View

Over the past few years, we have talked until we were literally blue in the face about driver qualification files.

But the other day I went into our blog archive and searched for vehicle maintenance and guess what I found?

Nothing!

What the heck was I thinking not writing something about this before now?

Anyways……

Now is the time.

Today we are diving deeper into vehicle maintenance files and exactly what you need to be 100% compliant.

Let’s get started with a simple list of everything you need.

1. Vehicle list that includes
   • When the vehicle was purchased
   • Year of vehicle
   • Make of vehicle
   • Model of vehicle
   • VIN
   • Tire Size (I know crazy right)
   • GVWR
   • Is the vehicle owned or Leased
   • Unit Number
   • License Plate
   • State registered in
   • Type of vehicle
     • Trailer
     • Truck
     • Tractor
   • If it is an ELD vehicle include
     • Make / Provider of ELD
     • Model of ELD
     • Year ELD was installed
   • Is the vehicle still in your fleet or have you sold it
     • This one is recommended not required by FMCSA
2. Maintenance records/log that includes
   • Date
   • What service was performed or repair that was made
   • Who made the repair
   • Mileage of the vehicle (if applicable)
   • When the next service is due
     • If it is a routine service item
   • Keep all records for a minimum of 1 year
     • For the resale value we recommend keeping all records
3. Maintenance Receipts
   • Keep all receipts for a minimum of one year for every truck
   • If you have the vehicle repaired at a shop all you need is the receipt from them
   • If you repair the vehicle yourself then you will need receipts from every part you purchase
     • If the parts come from a “donor” vehicle that you have then you need to document where the parts came from
4. Maintenance Receipts
   • Daily vehicle inspection reports
   • Only required to keep inspection reports for the past 90 days
   • Only need DVIRs (Daily Vehicle Inspection Reports) that show an issue.
   • If the DVIR shows any issues, then it requires 3 signatures
     • The driver that discovered the issue
     • The safety person/leader who acknowledge the issue was found and corrected
     • If it is not a safety-sensitive issue then there is a box you mark stating that it is not a safety concern
     • An example would be the radio is broken
     • A driver who signs off saying that the issue was corrected
   • Because of the paper-reduction act, there is no need to keep DVIRs without issues found.
5. Annual DOT Inspections
   • Last 14 months of DOT annual inspections
     • Last 2 inspections
6. Cab cards/registration
   • Current cab card / registration
7. All roadside inspections for that vehicle
   • FMCSA requires that you have 1 year of previous roadside inspections on file.
   • We recommend keeping 2 years of previous roadside inspections.
8. Maintenance schedule
   • A written maintenance schedule for each class of vehicle you operate in your company.

Ok, so this list might seem a little intimidating.

But here’s the thing. It’s really not!

Our team here at Eclipse DOT has the easiest way to make it happen with as little effort as possible on your end.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to dive deeper into each one of these steps.

Not only will we do a deep dive into each item on the list we are going to give you the tips and tricks that will make this extremely simple and easy to understand.

But for now, we wanted to get the basics for what you need out there so you can start digesting it.

In the meantime, if you have any questions and want answers now. reach out to our team and we will be more than happy to help you get on the right page for vehicle maintenance.