Hi there smart drivers, Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to you today about the paperwork required for
professional drivers. This applies more to truck drivers then bus drivers. There
is a fair amount of paperwork to do and in the nineteen nineties when I was
running LTL freight—less than load—less than load stands for five, six, ten,
twelve drops on a trailer. And I was running into the United States, mostly in
New York and whatnot, I could spend—you know—a good hour, hour and a half
doing paperwork before I headed to the border to get across to the other side.
Also log sheets, trip sheets, those types of things. All of those can require
a fair bit of time and your ability to do paperwork is demonstrated even before
you do the job. We'll be right back to talk about that.
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Hi there, Rick with Smart Drive Test.
Welcome back, talking to you today about paperwork that you need to do as a truck or bus
driver. And your ability to do paperwork is demonstrated even before you
do the job with your application to that company. Your resume and cover letter and
a job application, if the company has one that you have to fill out, are the
first indicators that you are able to do paperwork. And sometimes, if you're running
long haul and you have to keep log sheets, trip sheets, bills of lading, receipts, all of
those types of things, the paperwork can be quite extensive. So make sure before
you apply to a trucking company, that your resume and cover letter are well
done.
Go to one of the agencies in your town: there's lots of employment agencies
around that will help you to design a cover letter. Type it out, make sure it looks
professional. If there is a job application that you have to apply for
for the trucking company or the bus company that you're working for, ask
him them a copy of the job application, take it home
photocopy it, fill the first one out with all of the information, and then transfer
it to the other one. That way if you make a mistake or you scribble something out, you have
a nice clean copy and it looks neat and well filled out. And that is an
indication that you can do the paperwork as part and parcel of the job you're
doing as a truck or bus driver. Next thing that you have to do as a truck
drivers, you have to keep track of bills of lading - freight
documents. This is the contract between the person who buys the freight and the
company that hires the trucking company to haul the freight. So you need to keep
track of bills of lading. Essentially bills of lading document how much
freight is on the truck or on your bus. It's a signed contract - you have to sign it as
the truck driver—as the representative for the trucking company—saying that you take
responsibility for it and what they put on the truck is actually what is on
the vehicle - the truck or bus.
So bills of lading and when you deliver the freight, you have to get the bills
of lading signed to indicate that, yes in fact, you delivered it and the receiver or the
consignee actually received the freight and then that way when you turn in your
paperwork to the company they have a signed copy of the bills of lading and
they can in turn bill the person who hired them to transport the freight and
they get paid. So the bills of lading are important because there are kind of a
form of currency, that's the way that the trucking company gets paid. So make sure
that you sign it when you pick up the freight and you get the person that
shipping or receiving to sign your document before you take off. Next thing,
log sheets. If you're required to keep log sheets because you're driving beyond 160
kilometers of your home terminal, or one hundred miles in the United States, you
have to keep a log book. And I'll put a card up here for you for the United
States and Canadian playlists. And you can look at those and figure out how to keep
a log book. If you're running into the United States or you're running from the
States into Canada, you're going to have to do customs paperwork - border paperwork
as well. And you can go on the web sites - I'll leave a link down in the comments here
to the United States Customs and Canadian customs depending on which way
you're traveling, about which paperwork you have to do and how to fill that
customs paperwork in. As well that you can get some direction from your company
personnel and other drivers in your company if you're running cross border. Trip
sheets - every company has a trip sheet and you have to fill out a trip sheet. It has to
be filled out accurately because the trip sheet is the way that you get paid.
I'll leave a card here for the video for the trip sheet so you can learn how to
fill out a trip sheet. Every company's a little bit different, and again like the
customs paperwork, talk to your company personnel, talk to the other drivers, ask
them and get them to help you fill out the custom [& trip sheet] paperwork. Finally, if you
have incident reports or accident reports: the freight gets damaged, you get
into a crash, or you damage the truck, somehow or something is inexplicable,
you're going to have to fill out an incident report. You're going to have to fill out an
accident report. Every company is a little bit different about
how to fill out an accident report, how to fill out an incident report. And again,
I'll leave a card up here for filling out an accident report - filling out an
incident report about damaged freight, damaged unit, or you got into a crash.
So that's other paperwork that you may or may not have to do. Finally with your
trip sheet, you'll have to keep track of receipts. Receipts are important for
expenses that you may or may not have. You'll have fuel receipts, any expense
receipts, toll receipts, cross-border receipts, if you're crossing the border. All
of those receipts have to be kept, have to be collated, and have to be recorded on
your trip sheet. So make sure you keep receipts. The best way to keep receipts is just
have an envelope; keep all the receipts in the envelope. Make sure you write your
unit number on the receipts so they can track them in case they go get misplaced
or out of sorts with the pile of paperwork that you hand into your company.
That way if they pick up the receipt, they know which unit number to allocate that
receipt to. So keep them in an envelope, and keep them in one of the cubbies inside the
truck or bus or keep them in your briefcase or wherever else you keep your
paperwork in the unit. So make sure you keep track of receipts because you do
want to get paid right. So again the receipts need to be kept and they need
to be kept with your trip. If you do lose a receipt and this sometimes
happens. Just write one out, hand write it out - the date that you purchased
whatever item you purchased, the cost of it,
and then sign it and that way and just leave a note on your trip sheet in
additional comments, that you lost the receipt. That way you can get paid for it.
In conclusion, the paperwork for truck and bus drivers can sometimes be fairly
extensive, especially if you're running log books, trip sheets, cross-border. All of that can
be fairly extensive. Now the first way that you have to do paperwork and
demonstrate to the company that you, in fact, can do paperwork is your job
application, your resume, and cover letter. Make sure your resume and cover
letter look professional. Go to one of the employment agencies in your town or
city or community, & get them to help you. Get them to show you how to write out
your cover letter and resume so that these looks professional. That way it indicates
to the company that you in fact can do the paperwork that's required as a bus
or truck driver. Bills of lading - get them signed, you sign them, hand them in to your
company so they can get paid. Trip sheets - make sure you fill out the trip sheet out
correctly because that's the way that you get paid. As well,
receipts - keep track of the receipts, keep them in an envelope, keep them in a safe
place so that they can turn them in with all of your paperwork. Finally, incident
and accident reports, if something happens to the unit you're driving, the
freight gets damaged.
If you're a bus driver - if one of the passengers gets injured or you had, or you were
delayed for whatever reason. Finally, crash reports, if you get into a crash
you can also fill out a crash report. For bus and truck drivers the paperwork can
be fairly extensive. Question for my smart drivers: how do you keep all of
your paperwork together? Do you keep it in a briefcase, do you just kind of keep it
in a ziplock bag, what do you use to keep track of your paperwork and where do you
find the best place to do your paperwork is? Leave a comment down in the comment
section. All that information helps out the new drivers we're trying to help out here
on the channel. So leave a comment down in the comment section. If you like the video,
subscribe, share, leave a comment.
All of that helps us out. For new drivers, head over to my website get your free
checklist for going into the weigh scale, for bus and truck drivers the paperwork
that you have to take into weigh scale— that you have to give to authorities—if
you get pulled over by the CVSE, the DOT, the MTO, whichever authority is responsible
for policing commercial traffic in the area or location where you're at.
It requires a fair bit of paperwork. Registration for the truck and trailer
or the bus, if you're driving a bus
license, insurance papers, MVI (motor vehicle inspection) paperwork, as well.
Freight documents, bills of lading - all of that paperwork has to be taken into
authorities and they want to have a look at it as part and parcel of your pre
inspection that they're gonna look at before they determine whether they're gonna go
into a full inspection on your vehicle. So if you are able to have all of that collated
in a nice neat pile and take that into them with your checklist you're gonna be
less likely to have a full inspection of your vehicle and less time spent at the
scale. So head over to my website, get the free checklist, sign up for our newsletters as well.
All of that will help you and give you great information. I'm Rick with
Smart Drive Test. Thanks very much for watching. Remember: pick up best answer,
not necessary the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.
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