Important DOT Paperwork To Keep In Your Truck At All Times

hey what's up everybody it's David McGill now in this video I'm gonna go over the paperwork that you need to have in your truck at all times and this is the paperwork that if you get pulled in for a d-o-t inspection this is what the officer is gonna expect you to provide to them now this stuff is gonna be relevant to company drivers however the company that you're driving for most likely they've already you know created this folder and they have these documents in the truck but it'd be a good idea just to you know when you start a job just to make sure as you're doing them your orientation are you going through your truck for the first time just make sure that these documents are in your truck now for the people out there who have their own authority or they're leasing onto an authority like the owner operators out there you need to make sure that you know you have these documents as well some of these things if you're leasing your authority you're gonna have to get from your authority lessor now if you have your own authority then these would have been some of the documents you would have obtained during your business setup now before I get into the exact documents you need to have I want to first give a quick tip on presentation now I like to keep my documents as neat and professional looking as possible because keep in mind you're gonna be dealing with you know DLT officers so I want my business to have a professional image I don't want you know things to be sloppy dirty you know disorganized and things like that because I don't want the d-o-t officer to you know have a negative opinion on my company and all my drivers because that opinion may impact the way that the inspection goes so for little small things that I can do like you know having a good folder in place that's what I do in order to you know present my company in a positive image so one of the first things I do is I get a three-ring binder now you know see on the on a three-ring binder I'll print off a cover page that'll just say you know deal T compliance I put my company name the city d-o-t number and MC number on the front basically like the same things you would expect to see on the side of the trucks now for every page for every document that's in the folder I use one of these little clear sheet protectors that you know are set up in a line to be used in a three-ring binder so again like I said you know spend a couple dollars on this stuff but for the image that it uh it conveys to to an officer as well worth it you get pulled over for an inspection and you hand them a pretty complete folder like this with all your documents nice and neat and organized it may go a long way with the officer now let's get into exactly what I have in these folders and by the way these folders need to be in every truck you have so if you have a fleet of trucks then the same information needs to be in you know included in every truck so the first thing you need to have is a copy of your trucks registration so that's what I keep on the first page next you're going to need proof of insurance so I keep a copy of a certificate of insurance and I also have my insurance identification cards in the same sleeve you got to need a current annual DoD inspection for your truck so I keep a copy of that the next thing you're gonna need the registration for your trailer you're also gonna need to do T inspection for your trailer now if you're reading or leasing your trailer you don't need a copy of that lease or rental agreement there's a copy of the IFTA fuel tax license for the current year by the way now this isn't necessarily required but I like to keep it in my trucks anyway this is a copy of the UCR registration receipt for the current year now depending on you know what states you travel in certain states have certain permit requirements and Kentucky is one of them and since we travel through the state of Kentucky I like to keep a copy of the Kentucky KY you permit license here's a copy of my sales tax exemption form now many you may not know this but typically truck and businesses are exempt from sales tax and when you buy in parts and trailers trucks and things like that so for the most part any companies that I deal with near near where I keep my trucks parked they already have this certificate on file with them however if I'm traveling one of my drivers it's traveling you know outside the vaad Normal area I keep one of these certificates in the truck with him just in case he needs to buy a part or if the truck needs to go into a shop and they're gonna charge me sales tax on something I like to have a copy of that on file so that I like to have a copy in the truck so that way I don't have to pay sales tax here is the eld do T reference cars a lot a lot of letters but the d-o-t eld reference card you need to have a copy of that you can find this this will be included in your LD box once you purchase one I use keep trucking and I actually printed this form off the internet here is the e LD malfunction guide now in the event that your eld isn't functioning properly you need to have instructions in your truck at all times that will instruct you on how to operate on the e LD basic like your troubleshooting guide now that looks like that's everything but there's one other thing that that you need to have also so I just printed off this quick this quick binder just for examples sake this isn't an actual binder of mine but if we were to go through an actual binder of mine you would have found also two paper logbooks and the reason why I need to have those paper logbooks is the d-o-t they require that you have at least eight days worth of blank paper logs now the log books that I use I think there may be like ten in each pack so I keep you know two packs in each truck so that way you know if my driver does have to go on paper logs because the eld is malfunctioning we still have enough we still have enough blank ones to satisfy the eight to a page requirement for the d-o-t so I usually just keep that in the in the back of the binder now hopefully this video was helpful and if you did find it helpful please give it a thumbs up you know leave a comment subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and if you know anybody else who could benefit from this information please share this video with them as always thanks again for watching

Channel: Trucking From Scratch [David McGill]

Views: 67,708

Rating: 4.9869409 out of 5

Keywords: trucking, trucking business, how to start a trucking business, semi trucking, hotshot trucking, dump trucking, celadon trucking, owner operator, operating authority, fraud, american greed, company driver, self employment, job security, celadon, taxes, irs, income tax, fuel tax, use tax

Id: RDdW6b9eqk4

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020