Truck Office

Does anyone have a printer in their truck? If a copy, message, etc. is needed, how can it be printed from the truck?

Does anyone have a printer in their truck? If a copy, message, etc. is needed, how can it be printed from the truck?

Take it into the truck stop, they will make you a copy, fax it or email it to you so you can forward it. They've never charged me a dime.

I use a camscanner app. It takes a picture of a document and makes a PDF, which you can email.

Bruce, we are living in a great age. Paper is seldom needed to save a document. I use my phone for copies of documents and can send them anywhere anytime by attaching them to an email. I can only think of one time in the past eight years that I needed something printed. I called the truck stop I was planning on spending the night with and they gave me an email address to send it to. They printed it and had it waiting on me when I arrived there. That particular incident was where I picked up a pre-loaded trailer after hours, but the shipper had put the wrong BOL with the trailer. Rather than waste my time waiting until they came back the next day, I made sure the trailer was loaded properly and then took off. I called in the morning and got them to email me the proper bills. I printed them so the customer would have what they needed. I have also handled a situation like this by having my shipper email the documents directly to the customer. That way they have them when I arrive.

I've seen company drivers who keep a file system of paperwork from their deliveries. They will keep papers for months at a time. I never understood it. They claim it is to make sure they are getting paid for their deliveries. I keep everything on my phone. I can easily tell when I have been paid for my jobs. I don't like clutter, especially when living in such a small space. My phone can keep up with two or three full size file cabinets worth of work. It takes up the space equivalent to a pack of cigarettes. That's efficiency.

They will keep papers for months at a time.

I keep paper BOLs for a few months, it doesn't take much space, I put them in an envelope and give to our office girl when I go to Chicago to change oil. As far as I know, they keep paper copies for a full year, this is how book keeping works, and I don't care why it is so. I guess it may have to do with legal aspects of genuine signatures?

It depends on what you’re doing honestly. I still have a printer even though I rarely use it but for oversized and speciality loads, I used it quite regularly. I would like to add something to the response O.S. made. Keep a few blank Bills of lading with you on the truck. In the situation he describes where the BoL was the wrong one, you’ll need to fill one out which is correct for your load until you receive the proper paperwork en route. Having incorrect bills can get you into a little bit of trouble during an inspection.

I totally agree with Robert. Anytime I was doing oversize work I always had paper copies of permits, routes, etc. The scale houses always wanted to see that I had them. Sometimes they looked at them sometimes they didn't, but I always had to show them that I had them with me.

I also should have mentioned the blank BOLs. In the situation I referred to I had to make my own BOL just in case anyone needed to see it. I used that one until I had the proper BOL.

Does anyone have a printer in their truck? If a copy, message, etc. is needed, how can it be printed from the truck?

If you DID have one, I'd 3D send you a BIRTHDAY CARD!!!!

Happy Birthday (a few minutes early,) Good Sir!

Quite the PERFECT TIME to inhabit the new office, for sure!!!

Happy Birthday; A BIG TEN FOUR!!

:) Anne :)

Any paperwork that we transflo into Schneider is required to be kept by the driver for 6 months. Company policy.

And I see that a copier would take up too much space in the truck.

I keep copies of our bol, my delivery receipt, and trip sheets, all in chronological order, stored in a notebook. The delivery sheet has all the load info and if we end up doing a t-call, we need to leave it and the bol in the trailer clip board. I use the cat scale app on my phone and I just write down the weights on the delivery receipt if I'm dropping it for t call. Everything else is on my phone and laptop.