Curious about how you can improve your truck fleet management? Read on to learn about the requirements, challenges, and best practices that can make running a fleet of large vehicles easier and more productive.
Requirements For Truck Fleet Ownership
Truck fleet management or ownership typically refers to coordinating the activities of five or more semis and the trailers that they pull. So, if your fleet consists of work vans, work trucks (pickup trucks), SUVs, or cars, you may not have to meet all of the requirements in this article.
That said, you can still learn a lot from the challenges and best practices that we discuss here because they apply to fleets of all types and sizes.
Federal Registration Numbers
Fleet vehicles that transport passengers, interstate freight, or hazardous materials must have one, if not two, federal registration numbers.
The first, a United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) number, is a unique vehicle identifier that serves to distinguish commercial vehicles when reporting and monitoring safety information acquired during audits, compliance reviews, crash investigations, and inspections.
The second, a Motor Carrier (MC) number (sometimes called an Operating Authority), gives a business the legal right to conduct specific transportation activities within their state and across state lines.
Depending on what your business does, you may need to obtain multiple MC numbers to authorize the daily activities of your fleet.
To find out if you need an MC number, visit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) website for more details.
International Fuel Agreement Registration
Businesses that operate commercial vehicles with two or more axles that weigh over 26,000 pounds need to register with the International Fuel Tax Association (IFTA).
The IFTA manages and enforces the International Fuel Tax Agreement (also IFTA), which is a tax collection agreement between the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. and the 10 provinces in Canada that border those states.
After the registration process is complete, the IFTA (the association, not the agreement) will supply credentials that the business will then need to display on the outside of all applicable vehicles along with photographic proof of your IFTA license.
Intrastate License And Registration
Some states may require additional licensing and registration depending on a variety of factors, including geographic variables such as:
- Whether cargo or passengers are transported across state or international borders
- Whether goods are transported within one state but part of the trip crosses into another state
- Whether goods are transported within one state but the cargo originates or finishes the trip outside the state
To ensure that you’ve got all the proper intrastate licensing and registration necessary for your fleet vehicles, check with your local state driver licensing agency (typically a DMV or BMV).
Heavy Vehicle Use Tax
If any number of your fleet vehicles weigh more than 55,000 pounds and operate on public highways, you’ll need to register for and pay Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (HVUT).
Registration is done through the IRS on Form 2290, and fees are based on the weight of each vehicle in your fleet.
If your vehicle weighs between 55,000 pounds and 75,000 pounds, you’ll be required to pay a base fee of $100 and $22 for each additional 1,000 pounds.
So, for example, if one of your vehicles weighs 60,000 pounds, you’ll be required to pay an additional $110 ((5,000 pounds / 1,000 pounds) x $22) for a total of $210. If your vehicle exceeds 75,000 pounds, the IRS gives you a break of sorts and charges a flat fee of $550.
Truck Fleet Management Challenges
Cost Management
Truck fleet management comes with many costs, including fuel, supplies, tolls, parking, repairs, scheduled maintenance, and many more.
Control and monitor driver spending while they’re on the road by adding a smart fuel card, like Coast, to the workflow.
Vehicle Maintenance
Another large cost center of truck fleet management is vehicle maintenance. Emergency repairs while on the road can cost a pretty penny, and even regularly-scheduled maintenance isn’t cheap.
However, with the right maintenance program, you can minimize what your business spends to keep company vehicles running smoothly.
Safety Management
Truck fleet safety is rife with challenges, and many can be extremely difficult to control. Driver behavior and vehicle condition are two challenges that can be especially perplexing.
That doesn’t mean you have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Later on in this article, we discuss some of the best practices that can help you maintain the safety of your drivers and your vehicles while they’re away from home base.
Route Optimization
The routes that your trucks have to travel also pose a significant challenge to your productivity, efficiency, and bottom line.
High traffic corridors can contribute to excessive idling and risk of accidents as well as increased vehicle wear and tear. Or, if you decide to route your semis around congested areas, they’ll have to travel more miles (and maybe even pay tolls to get through).
Real-time truck fleet management software that incorporates GPS, telematics, and other technologies can help you optimize the routes your fleet takes, control costs, and keep your vehicles in better working order.
Regulatory Compliance
The rules and regulations for truck fleet management (i.e., compliance) can change overnight. Is your business equipped to keep up with those changes? If not, you could face fines, out-of-service restrictions (for vehicles), and even legal action in some extreme cases.
Avoid these challenges by implementing the best practices of truck fleet management discussed in the next section.
Truck Fleet Management Best Practices
Control Costs With Technology
When it comes to truck fleet management, one of the largest expenses you’ll likely have to contend with is fuel costs.
It takes a lot of diesel to keep your semis running, and if you neglect tracking fuel purchases, the expense and the record-keeping can quickly get away from you.
Adding a smart fuel card with an online dashboard — like Coast — to your workflow can give you access to powerful controls, monitoring, and reporting that help you understand exactly what’s going on within your fleet of trucks.
Optimize Fleet Maintenance
Optimizing fleet maintenance is one of the main ways that you can control costs throughout your operation and maintain high standards of truck fleet management.
A comprehensive maintenance program gives everyone in your business a clear picture of what needs to be done (and when) to maintain the safety, integrity, and continued operation of each vehicle.
For more information on optimizing your truck fleet maintenance, check out these articles from the Coast blog:
- Fleet Maintenance 101: A Guide For Managers
- The Complete Preventative Maintenance Checklist
- A Pre-Trip Inspection Checklist For Fleet Managers
- A Post-Trip Inspection Checklist For Fleet Managers
Focus On Safety
Encourage driving techniques that prevent accidents and promote fuel savings. Prevent behaviors such as speeding and distracted or aggressive driving, excessive idling, heavy acceleration and late braking, fatigue, and ELD violations.
Train your drivers to avoid these detrimental driving techniques while they’re on the road in your company vehicles.
Enhance Route Planning
Routing plays a big part in keeping your truck fleet on time and under budget. You can incorporate static routing, dynamic routine, real-time dynamic routing, or a combination of all three.
Static routing is useful when your destinations, loads, and timetables don’t change (or change very rarely).
Dynamic routing allows you to change vehicle schedules on a daily — or even a trip by trip — basis.
Real-time dynamic routing is even more flexible and allows you to change the dispatch orders of company vehicles that are already in the field.
Prioritize Compliance
As we mentioned, abiding by the rules and regulations that the DOT, the FMCSA, and other organizations set for truck fleet management helps prevent accidents, breakdowns, and driver errors that could put people and property at risk.
If one or more trucks in your fleet are out of compliance, the DOT can impose hefty fines on your business and require that you remove those vehicles from service until you complete the necessary maintenance or repairs.
Prioritize compliance at all times to avoid these drains on your bottom line and your productivity.
Why Coast Is The Smart Choice For Trucking Fleet Management
Truck fleet management requires a balance of cost control, security, and operational efficiency. Coast delivers on all fronts.
With industry-leading features designed to simplify fleet management, Coast helps trucking businesses save time and money while enhancing security.
Here’s what makes Coast fuel cards the ultimate fleet card solution:
✅ Powerful card controls and fraud protection – Set limits, restrict spending categories, and prevent unauthorized purchases with Coast’s advanced security features, backed by a $25,000 annual fuel fraud guarantee.
✅ Seamless integrations with top telematics providers – Improve oversight with GPS-based transaction declines, automatic odometer readings, and real-time vehicle sync.
✅ Fuel savings at 30,000+ gas stations – Coast customers enjoy rebates of up to 10¢ per gallon, helping fleets cut costs on every fuel-up.
✅ Automated IFTA reporting – Eliminate manual tracking and simplify compliance with an automated fuel tax report.
Whether you’re optimizing fuel spend, improving security, or increasing efficiency, Coast is the all-in-one fleet card solution built for modern trucking businesses.
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