A fleet manager in Dallas found out one of his vehicles had been running for weeks with an expired annual inspection — nobody had flagged it because the due date lived in a spreadsheet nobody had opened that month. The vehicle wasn’t pulled off the road until a routine weigh station stop caught it.
Beyond every driver’s paperwork, each commercial vehicle in your fleet carries its own set of deadlines, and an expired one puts the entire truck out of service, not just the driver.
The 4 Vehicle Documents FMCSA Requires
1. Annual DOT Inspection. Regulation: 49 CFR 396.17. Every 12 months. The inspection report must be retained for 14 months. At roadside, drivers may need to produce evidence of the inspection — typically the inspection decal or a copy of the report.
2. Insurance Certificate (COI). Regulation: 49 CFR Part 387. Renewed annually or per policy term. FMCSA requires minimum levels of financial responsibility: $750,000 for property carriers hauling non-hazardous freight in interstate commerce, and $1–5 million for hazardous materials operations depending on cargo. The insurance certificate on file with FMCSA must be current at all times.
3. IRP / IFTA Credentials. International Registration Plan and International Fuel Tax Agreement. Renewed annually, for fleets operating across multiple states. Expired IRP apportioned plates or IFTA fuel tax decals at a weigh station or port of entry result in fines and potentially an OOS order for the vehicle.
4. Vehicle Registration. State and federal regulation. Renewed annually, state-specific. Registration must be current for every commercial vehicle in the fleet — expiration dates vary by state and vehicle type.
Unlike driver documents, which are tracked per person, these four are tracked per vehicle — a 20-truck fleet has 20 inspection dates, 20 policies, and 20 registrations to watch, each running on its own cycle.
Recommended Alert Lead Times
| Document | Frequency | Recommended Alert |
|---|---|---|
| Annual DOT Inspection | Annual | 60 days |
| Insurance (COI) | Per policy | 60 days |
| IRP/IFTA | Annual | 60 days |
| Vehicle Registration | Annual | 30 days |
An expired CDL or missing medical certificate puts the driver out of service — an expired vehicle document does the same to the entire truck, even if the driver’s paperwork is spotless. And a Compliance Review that finds missing inspections or registrations counts as a violation just like an incomplete DQF.
GoExpirely tracks documents, licenses, and certifications for any vehicle or driver — with automatic alerts before every deadline. No spreadsheets, no missed renewals.
Start your free trialAutomating Per-Vehicle Tracking
Spreadsheets work for 1–2 vehicles. Above that, manual tracking creates gaps — a missed annual inspection, an expired IFTA decal at a port of entry, a registration nobody renewed on time.
GoExpirely gives every vehicle its own compliance profile: upload each document with its expiration date, and alerts go out automatically at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days before each deadline. Start a free 15-day trial — set up your full fleet in under 30 minutes and never miss an FMCSA deadline again.
Written by Julio Alvarez — builder of GoExpirely and other software tools for operators and small businesses in the US.