Construction & Vocational Fleets
Your dump trucks are a trucking company.
Dump trucks, mixers, water trucks, lowboys, pickups — running under DOT and FMCSA rules your maintenance software pretends don’t exist. Dockex runs the maintenance and the regulated half. One system.
Last updated June 13, 2026
The 9 PM problem
Nobody told you the iron made you a motor carrier.
- DUMP #1210,001+ lbs GVWR, used in commerce — needs a USDOT number
- REYES, J.CDL driver, no §391.51 DQ file on record
- MIXER #4Annual inspection past due, no record to show
- AUDITFMCSA asks for DQ files, D&A records, HOS, 2290 — clock starts
You didn’t set out to run a trucking company. The plates say you do.
Your maintenance software treats your fleet as iron that breaks.
Maintenance software is built to track the iron. Service intervals, work orders, parts, fault codes. That’s real, and you need it. But most maintenance software treats a dump fleet as a pile of assets that wear out — and that framing quietly leaves out the half that gets you fined.
Here’s the thing nobody put on a sales call: a contractor running dump trucks is a regulated motor carrier. The same federal rules that govern an over-the-road carrier govern your yard. Driver qualification files. Drug-and-alcohol testing. Hours of service. Annual inspections. Heavy vehicle use tax. Maintenance software isn’t built for most of it, so you end up running two systems — the software for the iron, and a binder, a spreadsheet, and a tag agency for the part that actually gets audited.
Dockex does both. The maintenance — service-due tracking, work orders, parts, inspections, fault codes from a connected telematics provider — and the regulated half — DOT applicability, DQ files, D&A result tracking, IRP/IFTA, 2290, UCR — in one system. Keep what you use for the iron if you want. Dockex runs the regulated half. Or run the whole thing here.
One weight line decides whether you’re regulated.
The rules aren’t a judgment call — they’re thresholds, and most contractors are already over them without knowing it.
- 10,001+ lbsA vehicle at or above 10,001 lbs GVWR or GCWR, used in interstate commerce, needs a USDOT number, DQ files, hours of service, and inspections. Stay inside one state and most states still require a state DOT number. A loaded tandem dump clears this easily.
- 26,001+ lbsAt or above 26,001 lbs, you add CDL drivers and drug-and-alcohol testing. Most mixers and triaxle dumps live here.
- Placardable hazmatHauling a placardable quantity of hazmat pulls you into CDL and additional federal rules regardless of the weight class.
- Intrastate-onlyStaying inside one state does not get you out. Intrastate dump fleets are DOT-regulated under federal-adopted state rules. The audit still comes.
Most contractors don’t realize they’re motor carriers until an audit asks for paperwork they never built. Two minutes settles it: Am I DOT-regulated? walks your fleet through the thresholds, and the FMCSA record lookup shows your public SMS record straight from FMCSA.
What FMCSA asks a contractor for.
A new-entrant or compliance review is a checklist. Here’s the list, and where each item lives in Dockex.
- Driver qualification files (§391.51)Full DQ file per driver — application, MVR, medical card, road test, annual review — with audit-packet export.
- Drug-and-alcohol testing records (§382)Track every test result, fire alerts on positives, generate the §382.403 annual MIS report. Bring your existing consortium.
- Hours-of-service / ELD logsFull HOS — clocks, logs, violations — through a connected Samsara or Motive ELD.
- Annual inspections + DVIRsDOT pre-trip eDVIR from any phone, defects open on the vehicle’s file, DOT-ready export.
- Maintenance recordsService-due by mileage and time, work orders, parts, and tires — every record dated and exportable.
- Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (Form 2290)Get your 2290 prepared in-app on every plan — file it yourself for free, or Dockex files it for you for a flat $25 and your Schedule 1 lands in your account once the IRS processes it. The heavy-use tax you pay the IRS directly. Federal, nationwide.
- UCR registrationSize your fleet to the right tier and get the application pre-filled in-app on every plan — file it yourself for free, or Dockex files it for you for a flat $45. The UCR fee you pay the UCR system directly. Federal, nationwide.
Maintenance
The iron, handled.
Service-due tracking by mileage and time, work orders, parts, tires, and warranties. Connect Samsara, Motive, or Geotab and fault codes flow in and open work orders automatically. Every night Dockex checks NHTSA recalls for each truck's year, make and model, and you confirm which VINs they apply to. The maintenance side runs nationwide, no Oklahoma required.
- Service-due by mileage and time
- Work orders, parts, tires, warranties
- Fault codes from a connected telematics provider, plus NHTSA recalls
Works on any phone · English & Spanish
The regulated half
DQ files, inspections, D&A.
A §391.51 DQ file per driver with audit-packet export. DOT pre-trip eDVIR from any phone. Drug-and-alcohol result tracking plus the §382.403 annual MIS report — bring your own consortium, Dockex tracks the results.
- Full §391.51 DQ files + audit-packet export
- D&A result tracking + annual MIS report
- Your public FMCSA record comes in monthly, and the percentiles you copy in from your FMCSA login stay on file with the date
Export Inspections
PDF Report
DOT-ready inspection report
CSV Export
Raw data for analysis
Bulk Export
All inspections, date range
Where the lines actually are.
I’d rather tell you exactly what this does than sell you a promise that breaks on your fleet. So, plainly:
Maintenance is by mileage and time. Service intervals run on odometer miles and calendar days. Not engine hours — that’s the metric a lot of vocational shops want, and it’s not how the scheduling works today.
Live GPS and HOS need a connected telematics provider. Connect Samsara or Motive for the live map plus hours of service. Geotab gives you the live GPS map. Dockex isn’t a native GPS or ELD device — it’s the system the device feeds.
2290 and UCR are self-serve on every plan; file them yourself free or let Dockex file for a flat fee. Enter the data and the filing gets prepared on any plan. File it yourself for free, or Dockex files it for you for a flat fee — $25 for 2290, $45 for UCR. The heavy-use tax and the UCR fee you pay the agency directly. These are federal — nationwide.
IFTA is prepared nationwide; IRP and the done-for-you filing are Oklahoma-only. Everywhere, Dockex tracks your miles by state and builds the IFTA return. In Oklahoma, we file it for you and run your IRP too. Outside Oklahoma, you get the IFTA return ready to submit — IRP isn’t handled there yet.
Drug-and-alcohol: result tracking and the annual MIS, not your TPA. Dockex tracks every test result and generates your §382.403 MIS report. It is not your consortium or third-party administrator — bring the one you have.
Keep what you use for the iron. Dockex runs the regulated half.
The gap
- Driver qualification (DQ) filesFleetioNot builtDockex
- Drug & alcohol result trackingFleetioNot builtDockex
- IFTA quarterly returnsFleetioExport only, not filedDockex
- IRP apportioned filingFleetioNot builtDockexOklahoma only
- Form 2290 (HVUT)FleetioNot builtDockex
- UCR registrationFleetioNot builtDockex
- FMCSA SMS record (monthly)FleetioNot builtDockex
Fleetio runs the iron. Dockex runs the iron and the audit.
IT'S ALWAYS 6:02 AM IN HERE
Walk into a 28-vehicle fleet.
A seeded Oklahoma construction fleet, live, in about 20 seconds. No signup, no card. Poke the DQ files, run an inspection, see the regulated half for yourself.
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Sourcing & corrections
Comparison based on Fleetio's public product + pricing pages, G2 reviews, and public industry-forum discussions as of 2026-09-06. Dockex LLC is not affiliated with Fleetio. Competitor trademarks are used for identification purposes only under comparative-advertising fair use. See our full audit process on the methodology page. Found something wrong? contact@dockex.io — we'll correct within 48h.