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Vehicle number

The number a fleet assigns to each of its vehicles, painted on the door and used on its own records. The trade often calls it the unit number. The federal carrier rule calls it the company number and wants it on the maintenance record beside the make, serial number and year.

Every fleet numbers its trucks, and nobody at the fleet talks about a VIN. The rule knows this: a carrier's record for each vehicle must include "an identification of the vehicle including company number, if so marked, make, serial number, year, and tire size" (49 CFR § 396.3(b)(1)). The company number is the fleet's own number, and it is the first item in the list.

For the shop that services the fleet, the number has two jobs. It is how the fleet asks for history ("everything on 214"), so the shop's record has to be searchable by it. And it is how the invoice gets paid. A fleet's accounts clerk matches an invoice to the truck by the number on the door, not by the VIN, so an invoice without it is a query, not a payment.

It is a field on the vehicle, not a note on the customer, because the same fleet renumbers, sells and replaces trucks, and the plate and VIN are still the shop's own keys.

In Wrenchy a fleet's vehicle carries its fleet number, and the fleet's own page lists every vehicle with that number first. The fleet page covers the account.

Sources (1)

  • Purchase order number

    The reference a business customer issues to authorize a purchase, which its accounts office uses to match the shop's invoice before paying it.

  • Hour meter

    A meter that counts the hours the engine has run.

  • Fleet shops

    A fleet account is a business customer with many vehicles, a manager who approves up to a limit, a PO number on every invoice and a statement at month end. The shop's job is to be the fleet's maintenance record, because the federal rule says the carrier has to keep one.

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