Trucking evidence preservation letter
A spoliation letter to send the motor carrier in the first days after a truck crash. It is built around the records federal rules let a carrier discard on a schedule: hours-of-service and ELD records (Part 395), maintenance and inspection records (Part 396), and camera and telematics data that many systems overwrite within days.
Fill it in for a specific carrier
Enter the carrier from the police report. The free CaseNorth report builds a version of this letter addressed to that carrier: its legal name, officer and registered address, its USDOT number and insurer of record, and, with the crash date, the FMCSA crash report number and the truck's VIN when FMCSA has the crash on file. The list adjusts to the carrier: paper logs for pre-2000 engines, short-haul time records, lease agreements when the carrier leases trucks. The letter is in the report's “Evidence preservation letter” section; no account needed.
The letter
[FIRM LETTERHEAD]
[DATE]
VIA CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, AND EMAIL
[OFFICER NAME]
[CARRIER LEGAL NAME]
[ADDRESS ON THE CARRIER'S FMCSA REGISTRATION]
Re: Demand to Preserve Evidence
Our client: [CLIENT NAME]
Date of crash: [CRASH DATE]
Location: [CRASH LOCATION]
Your USDOT no.: [USDOT NUMBER]
Vehicle VIN: [VIN] Trailer VIN: [TRAILER VIN]
Driver: [DRIVER NAME]
Dear [OFFICER NAME]:
This firm represents [CLIENT NAME] for injuries arising from the crash referenced above involving your commercial motor vehicle. Litigation is reasonably anticipated. You are on notice of your legal duty to preserve all evidence relating to this crash, the vehicle and the driver. Destruction, alteration or loss of any of the following may result in sanctions, including an adverse-inference instruction.
Vehicle and electronic data
1. The vehicle and any attached trailer, unrepaired, including all components, until our expert has inspected them.
2. Engine control module (ECM), event data recorder and all other electronic control unit data, downloaded by a qualified technician before the vehicle is driven, repaired or returned to service.
3. Dash-camera video (forward- and driver-facing) and telematics and GPS data, including speed, braking, location, fault codes and critical-event reports, for the 30 days before and after the crash, whether held by you or by your camera or telematics provider.
Hours of service (49 C.F.R. Part 395)
4. Electronic logging device (ELD) records for the driver from 6 months before the crash through today, including the ELD output file, all edits and annotations with their original entries, unassigned driving records, and personal conveyance and yard move entries. If the driver used paper logs or short-haul time records (49 C.F.R. § 395.1(e)), preserve those instead.
5. Supporting documents for the same period (49 C.F.R. § 395.11): bills of lading, dispatch records, expense and fuel receipts, toll records, fleet-management system messages, and payroll or settlement records.
6. Dispatch records, trip sheets, load assignments, rate confirmations and broker-carrier agreements for this trip, and all communications with the driver on the day of the crash, including in-cab messaging, text and email.
Inspection, repair and maintenance (49 C.F.R. Part 396)
7. Maintenance, repair and inspection records for the vehicle and any attached trailer for 12 months before the crash (49 C.F.R. § 396.3), including work orders, parts invoices, and brake and tire records.
8. Driver vehicle inspection reports and repair certifications for 90 days before the crash (49 C.F.R. § 396.11), and any pre-trip inspection records for the day of the crash.
9. The most recent annual (periodic) inspection report for each vehicle (49 C.F.R. § 396.17), and every roadside inspection report for them (49 C.F.R. § 396.9).
Driver
10. The driver qualification file (49 C.F.R. § 391.51): application, motor vehicle records, road test, medical certificate, prior-employer inquiries, PSP report and annual reviews, including any document the rule would otherwise let you remove.
11. Drug and alcohol testing records, including any post-accident tests required by 49 C.F.R. § 382.303, and Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse queries.
12. The driver's training records and safety and disciplinary file.
13. The driver's cell phone records for the day of the crash, and data from any company-issued device.
Company records
14. Your accident register (49 C.F.R. § 390.15), internal crash reports, photographs, witness statements and any preventability review of this crash.
15. Any lease, trip-lease or interchange agreement covering the vehicle or the driver, and the owner-operator's insurance certificates.
16. Every insurance policy that may cover this crash, including excess and umbrella policies, with their declarations pages.
Federal record-retention periods (for example, six months for hours-of-service records and three months for driver vehicle inspection reports) do not limit this duty. Suspend any routine deletion, overwriting or disposal of these materials now, including automatic overwriting of video, telematics and ELD data, and instruct your vendors to do the same. Please forward this letter to your insurance carrier and to anyone holding the materials above, and confirm in writing within ten days that this evidence is being preserved.
Sincerely,
[ATTORNEY NAME]
[FIRM NAME]
[PHONE] | [EMAIL]How long the carrier has to keep each record
The federal minimums. Once litigation is reasonably anticipated, the duty to preserve overrides them, which is what the letter puts in writing. The shortest clocks run on the evidence that matters most in the first weeks.
| Record | Rule | Federal minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Dash-camera video, telematics and GPS | Varies | Video and event-data retention varies by system, and many overwrite within days. Fleet-management system messages are hours-of-service supporting documents, kept 6 months |
| ECM / event data recorder | None | No federal rule: lost if the truck is driven, repaired or scrapped |
| Driver vehicle inspection reports | 49 C.F.R. § 396.11 | 3 months |
| ELD records, logs and supporting documents | 49 C.F.R. §§ 395.8(k), 395.11 | 6 months |
| Roadside inspection reports | 49 C.F.R. § 396.9(d) | 12 months from each inspection |
| Annual (periodic) inspection report | 49 C.F.R. § 396.21 | 14 months |
| Maintenance and repair records | 49 C.F.R. § 396.3 | 1 year, and 6 months after the vehicle leaves the carrier |
| Drug and alcohol tests | 49 C.F.R. § 382.401 | 1 year for negative results, 5 years for positive results and refusals |
| Accident register | 49 C.F.R. § 390.15 | 3 years after each accident |
| Driver qualification file | 49 C.F.R. § 391.51 | Employment plus 3 years; annual driving-record reviews and medical certificates may be removed 3 years after they're dated |
Sending it
- Send it within days, by certified mail and by email when the carrier lists an address with FMCSA.
- Address it to the officer and address on the carrier's FMCSA registration (MCS-150). If that address is stale, the carrier's process agent (its BOC-3 filing) and the secretary of state are the next places to look.
- Send copies to the driver, the truck or trailer owner if the equipment was leased, the freight broker, and the carrier's liability insurer.
- If you know the carrier's camera or telematics provider, send that company its own letter: video is often overwritten on the vendor's servers first.
- If the truck was towed, ask the tow yard in writing to hold it until the ECM is downloaded.
A starting point for counsel, not legal advice: adapt it to your jurisdiction and the facts of the crash.