Digital Permit Book FAQs — Trucking Compliance Software
FMCSA does explicitly allow electronic records and documents to satisfy DOT compliance requirements (under 49 CFR Part 390 and related provisions), meaning fleets can legally maintain permits, credentials, and supporting documents in digital format instead of paper.
Digital Permit Book is built to meet those requirements. Every document is stored, retrievable, and presentable in formats that satisfy roadside inspections and DOT audits — accessible on iOS, Android, and Web, and available offline so drivers can present credentials at a scale or weigh station even without a signal. We continuously track changes to FMCSA, DOT, IFTA, and IRP rules, and the platform is updated to stay aligned with current requirements.
In practice, this means inspectors and auditors accept digital records produced through Digital Permit Book under existing federal and state rules. Drivers tap to present, inspectors view what they need, and the records are admissible under 49 CFR.
As with any compliance system, the legal responsibility for maintaining accurate, current, and accessible records sits with the carrier — Digital Permit Book is the platform that makes meeting that obligation practical, scalable, and inspection-ready.
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Billing is based on the maximum number of active drivers you have at any point during the month. You can add or remove drivers freely without affecting your monthly cost.
Enterprise plans are a simple flat fee every month. Annual billing is also available at a discount.
Many companies have trucks sitting idle — and you shouldn't pay for equipment that isn't moving. That's why we charge per active driver, not per truck. And with our automatic integrations, drivers are activated and deactivated for you without any manual work.
No! We do provide an agreement for legal purposes. You are auto billed month to month, or we can offer other custom plans based on your fleet needs.
Setup can take anywhere about 5-10min, and depends how fast you can provide import files for all drivers and equipment if you are not using integration to pull all the data into digital permit book.
Some documents can be bulk uploaded, and others will need to be uploaded 1 by 1 depends on customer documents, and document types.
No! You can have as many types documents as you need, and you can add as many formats and document descriptions as you need.
No! We have a bot that can do 1000's of documents at a time. Onboarding with us, or replacing expired documents takes just a few seconds.
A DOT audit — whether it's a New Entrant Safety Audit, a Compliance Review, or a focused investigation — typically requires you to produce driver qualification files, drug and alcohol testing records, hours-of-service data, maintenance records, accident registers, operating authority, permits, IFTA/IRP records, and proof of insurance, all current and organized for the auditor's review. For most fleets, the hard part isn't being compliant — it's gathering everything in time.
Digital Permit Book is built so audit prep happens continuously, not in a panic the week before the auditor arrives.
Everything lives in one place. DQ files, medical cards, MVRs, drug & alcohol records, IFTA and IRP records, hazmat endorsements, vehicle inspection histories, insurance certificates, and any custom document type your operation needs — all stored with unlimited document types and storage, organized automatically by driver, truck, and category.
Renewal alerts run automatically. Every credential and permit has an expiration tracked in the system, and the platform notifies the right person before anything lapses — so you're not discovering a missing medical card or expired permit during the audit itself.
When the auditor arrives, you produce records on demand. Search by driver, truck, document type, or date range. Export an audit-ready package. Grant read-only access to specific records. No file room. No missing folders. No faxing copies of documents you can't locate.
For fleets running TMS, ELDs, and maintenance software through our integrations, the picture is even cleaner — credentials, vehicle inspections, and driver records auto-sync into the platform, so the audit-ready record set reflects what's actually happening in your operation, not a manually-maintained spreadsheet that drifted out of date.
The result: most of our customers walk into a DOT audit with every required record already gathered, current, and exportable — and walk out faster, with cleaner findings and far less stress on the back office.
If you've just been notified of an upcoming audit and want a walkthrough of how Digital Permit Book handles your specific records, our team can sit with you and map it out.
Document sharing in Digital Permit Book is built around two ideas: every document is tied to a specific entity (a driver, vehicle, trailer, tag, or the company itself), and every document has a share toggle that controls whether the driver sees it. Together, that gives the back office complete control over what's visible to whom — and gives drivers exactly what they need, nothing they don't.
Here's how it works in practice.
Adding a document. When you upload any document — a permit, credential, insurance certificate, MVR, medical card, or any custom document type your operation requires — you assign it to one of five profile types: Driver, Vehicle, Trailer, Tag, or Company. You then choose whether it's shared with the driver. Sensitive internal files stay back-office only; everything the driver needs on the road is one tap away.
What the driver sees. In the driver app, documents are organized by category — their own driver profile, the vehicle they're currently assigned to, the trailer they're currently pulling, and company-wide documents. Context updates automatically: assign a driver to a different truck and the new vehicle's documents appear; hook to a different trailer and that trailer's permits are immediately accessible. Drivers never see documents that belong to a vehicle, trailer, or driver other than themselves.
The unified Documents tab. Drivers also get a single Documents tab where every document they have access to lives in one searchable place. They can search by name, type, or category; preview any record; share a document with an external party; or email a document directly from the app — useful when an inspector requests a copy, a broker needs proof of insurance, or a customer asks for a signed BOL.
At the roadside. When an inspector asks for a credential, the driver opens the document, presents it on screen, or emails it on the spot — no paper binder, no calling dispatch.
For the back office. Because every document is tied to a specific driver, vehicle, trailer, tag, or company, your records stay clean and auditable. You always know which document belongs to which entity, what's currently visible to which driver, and what's active across the fleet — all without spreadsheets.
The result is a document system that gives drivers what they need, gives the back office full control over what's shared, and gives inspectors and external parties an instant, professional way to receive what they request.
No! You can add as many admin users as you need.
Digital Permit Book can be found on both Google Play Store for Android and Apple store for all IOS devices. We can also provide APKs, run as Web App, Samsara Tile, Platform Science Tablets, or custom developed flow app for specific enterprise customer needs.
Digital Permit Book can support owner operators. After signup you will be forwarded to mobile app that will allow you to manage your documents.
Yes! The mobile app will make a automated backup of all documents, and if there is no internet, all the documents will open offline.
Yes! We do have few QR Code options available.
Integrations lets you sync and manage drivers, vehicles, and trailers in both platforms with single update.
If you change or update drivers current vehicles and trailer within other apps, it will also update vehicle or trailer and new documents in the Digital Permit Book driver app in some of the integrations.
Integrations lets you sync and manage drivers, vehicles, and trailers in both platforms with single update.
If you or driver changes or updates drivers current vehicles and trailer within Samsara, it will also update vehicle or trailer and new documents in the Digital Permit Book.
Digital Permit Book can be also accessed via Tile from Samsara Driver App.
We support English, French, and Spanish in both the admin and driver apps.
Yes! So you can connect your custom workflows and other systems.
Yes! We support multiple SSO systems like OKTA.
Digital Permit Book is trusted by 500+ fleets and 50,000+ drivers, from single-truck owner-operators to enterprise carriers running 1,000+ trucks. Our customers span the full spectrum of trucking and logistics — solo owner-ops handling their own DOT compliance from the cab, mid-market regional carriers, and large enterprise fleets managing thousands of permits and credentials across multiple states, divisions, and terminals.
What lets one platform serve that full size range is how it's built, not how many features it stacks. Owner-operators get a phone-first experience that replaces their paper binder without requiring a back office. Fleet managers get the same driver experience plus the back-end controls they need to run compliance at scale: TMS webhook integrations, ELD sync, maintenance software API access, role-based permissions, multi-user access, and real-time visibility into every permit and credential across the fleet.
The platform is built with enterprise-level security and reliability — including offline-capable mobile clients on iOS, Android, and Web so drivers stay compliant even when they're outside cell coverage, and an architecture designed to keep pace with evolving FMCSA, DOT, IFTA, and IRP requirements.
The result is one Digital Permit Book that works whether you're running 5 trucks or 1,000+. That's why fleets across the size spectrum choose us, why we maintain a 5.0 rating from customers on Google, and why both first-truck owner-operators and the largest enterprise carriers in our customer base run their daily compliance on the same platform.
Digital Permit Book is perfect for any fleet size. We do have customers from 5 to over 1000 drivers. Bigger the fleet, more time and money we can save for you.
Sometimes to manage all the documents is endless task, and emailing the documents to drivers mostly do not end up in permit binders.
Paperwork is missing during DOT Inspection, and leads to dot violations.
Routing drives back to terminal to replace paperwork can cost $25+ in fuel just for 1 document.
Doing drop and hook is challenge that we solve for most customers and allow drivers to view and assign any trailer and get new trailer documents instantly.
Calling and texting drivers about all the expiries, another task that takes much time from your day, and Digital Permit Book will notify all drivers about their expires, and about the equipment they have attached at current time.
The moment of truth in trucking compliance happens at the roadside, not in the office — and most fleets are still running compliance on paper, spreadsheets, or generic tools that weren't built for trucking. Digital Permit Book is built specifically for fleets and owner-operators who need compliance that works the way their operation actually runs. Here's why 500+ fleets and 50,000+ drivers trust it.
Roadside-ready in one tap. When an inspector asks, your driver taps. Every permit and credential lives on the driver's device — iOS, Android, or Web — always current, always accessible, even with no signal.
Built into the systems you already run. Digital Permit Book syncs with your TMS via webhooks, your ELDs in real time, and your maintenance software through our open API. Records flow in automatically — your back office stops re-entering data, and your drivers always have current credentials.
Audit-ready, every day. DQ files, MVRs, medical cards, drug & alcohol records, IFTA and IRP records, and any custom document type live in one searchable platform — organized by driver, vehicle, trailer, and company. Export an audit-ready package on demand instead of scrambling for a week.
Renewal alerts before things expire. Every credential and permit has an expiration tracked, and the platform notifies the right person before anything lapses. No more expired medical cards discovered at a roadside inspection or during a DOT audit.
Save thousands in avoided violations and rerouting. Missed permits, expired credentials, and out-of-service events are some of the most expensive things a fleet hits — and they're preventable with current records on the right driver at the right time. Customers report saving thousands in fines and rerouting costs and hundreds of hours in administrative work each year.
By truckers, for truckers. Digital Permit Book is built by people who have run trucks, run safety departments, and lived through DOT audits — not software people guessing what trucking needs. That shows up in every workflow.
Scales with your operation. From single-truck owner-operators running compliance from their phone to enterprise carriers with 1,000+ trucks across multiple states, the same Digital Permit Book scales with you. Role-based permissions, multi-user access, custom document types, and a custom-branded driver app (APK distribution and SSO available for enterprise) fit any size of operation.
Enterprise-grade reliability and 24/7 support. Continuous data backups, redundant infrastructure, and offline-capable mobile clients mean your compliance never goes down. And our support team is available around the clock whenever you need help.
The result: fleets save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours, drivers stop dreading inspections, and compliance moves from a back-office burden to a system that runs itself. That's why customers rate Digital Permit Book 5.0 on Google.
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