Every document an Indian truck must carry

1. The full document set

A goods vehicle in India needs papers for four things: that the truck is registered and roadworthy, that it is allowed to carry goods for hire where it is going, that it is insured and taxed, and that the person driving it is licensed for that vehicle. Each paper comes from a different office and expires on its own cycle, which is why a fleet of 50 trucks and 60 drivers can have more than 300 dates to watch.

Section 130 of the Motor Vehicles Act requires the driver to produce his licence and the vehicle's documents when an officer asks. If he cannot, the general penalty under Section 177 applies: ₹500 for a first offence and ₹1,500 for a repeat. The RC, licence, insurance and PUC held in DigiLocker or mParivahan are accepted as valid under MoRTH's advisory and the CMVR amendment on electronic documents, so a driver with the right documents on his phone can answer most checks without the paper originals.

Tanker and chemical fleets carry an extra set: the driver's hazardous goods endorsement, the TREM card for the product loaded, and the tank's PESO licences.

2. Registration certificate

The RC records the vehicle's number, owner, chassis and engine numbers, class, body, unladen weight and gross vehicle weight, and any hypothecation to a financier. Registration is governed by Chapter IV of the Motor Vehicles Act, and Section 39 says no vehicle may be driven in a public place without it.

The point most owners miss: under Section 56, a transport vehicle is not treated as validly registered unless it carries a current fitness certificate. A goods vehicle's RC has no useful life of its own. The fitness date is the registration date that matters, and driving with a lapsed fitness is booked under Section 192 as driving without valid registration: up to ₹5,000 for a first offence and up to ₹10,000 for a subsequent one.

• Transfer of ownership: apply on the VAHAN citizen services with the sale papers. Clear road tax and challans first.
• Hypothecation: when the loan is closed, get the financier's NOC and apply to remove it from the RC before you sell the truck.
• Change of address: update it when a branch moves, or RTO notices and challan messages go to the old office.

3. Fitness certificate

Every transport vehicle must hold a fitness certificate. Under CMVR rule 62, a new transport vehicle's certificate is valid for two years and is renewed every two years until the vehicle is eight years old, then every year. A fleet with trucks of mixed ages therefore has trucks on two different cycles, and the switch to a yearly test is easy to miss.

Fitness testing is moving from the RTO's manual inspection lane to registered automated testing stations, in phases notified by MoRTH. The deadlines for that move have been extended before, so check what your state requires for your vehicle class before you book.

• Brakes out of adjustment, or a failed brake test
• Headlamps, tail lamps, indicators or the reverse light not working
• Missing, faded or peeling reflective tape
• A speed governor missing, unsealed or not working where one is required
• Worn tyres, visible smoke or a failed emission reading

Those are the most common reasons a truck fails. Most can be fixed in a day at the fleet's own workshop, so a pre-test check a week before the slot saves a second trip.

4. Permits

Section 66 says a vehicle may not be used as a transport vehicle without a permit. Goods vehicles hold one of three kinds:

• State goods carriage permit: covers the area it names, usually the home state. Running in another state needs that state's countersignature under Section 88.
• National permit: granted under Section 88(12) by the home state. It lets the truck run across India, but only while the annual authorisation is paid online. The base permit and the authorisation expire on different dates.
• Temporary permit: under Section 87, for a short period and a stated purpose. It ends on its printed date and is not renewed.

Using a goods vehicle without a valid permit, or against its conditions, is punishable under Section 192A: up to ₹10,000, and the section also allows imprisonment. On a national permit truck, the usual cause is a lapsed yearly authorisation, which leaves the permit valid only in the home state.

5. Insurance

Section 146 makes third-party insurance compulsory. It covers your liability to others for death, injury and property damage. A comprehensive policy adds cover for the truck itself and is usually required by the financier on a loan.

Driving uninsured is punishable under Section 196: ₹2,000 for a first offence, with possible imprisonment, and ₹4,000 for a subsequent offence. The fine is not the real cost. If the truck has an accident on an uninsured day, the third-party liability falls on the owner, and there is no claim for the truck's own damage.

• Start renewal 30 days before expiry and make the new policy start on or before the old end date. One day's gap is one day without cover.
• Check the schedule against the RC: registration number, chassis and engine numbers, vehicle class and use.
• Keep fitness and permit current too. An insurer can dispute a claim on a day the vehicle lacked a valid fitness certificate or permit.

6. PUC certificate

The pollution under control certificate shows the exhaust was tested within the limits for the vehicle's emission norm. Under CMVR rule 115, validity depends on the vehicle and the norm: commonly one year for BS-IV and BS-VI vehicles and six months for others. Read the printed expiry date rather than assuming a period.

Driving without a valid PUC is punishable under Section 190(2): up to ₹10,000. It is one of the most common challans on goods vehicles, and some cities now match camera-read number plates against vehicle records, so a lapsed PUC can bring a challan without the truck being stopped. Because the driver is the one who can pull into a PUC centre on the route, the reminder should go to him.

7. Road tax

Road tax is a state levy under each state's motor vehicles taxation act, so the amount, the period and the late penalty differ by state. Goods vehicles commonly pay quarterly or annually; some states charge a one-time tax for some classes. Unpaid tax is also one of the most common reasons an RTO application for fitness, permit or transfer is held up.

A national permit truck still pays road tax to its home state. The national permit authorisation fee is a consolidated fee shared among the states, so the truck does not pay separate goods vehicle tax at every state it enters. Our state rules pages set out the structure for each state we cover, with the date each was last checked.

8. Speed governors, VLTD and reflective tape

Three certificates sit in the vehicle file rather than on the RTO's expiry list, and all three come up at the fitness test.

• Speed governor: CMVR rule 118 requires a speed limiting device on transport vehicles, with listed exemptions. Keep the fitment certificate from the manufacturer or authorised dealer with the device serial number, and get a new one after any repair.
• VLTD: a GPS tracking device with an emergency button certified to AIS-140. CMVR rule 125H applies it to public service vehicles. For goods vehicles on a national permit, applicability depends on notifications and differs by state, so check with your registering RTO before treating it as optional or mandatory.
• Reflective tape: goods vehicles must carry retro-reflective tape on the sides and rear. Use certified tape from an authorised dealer and keep the fitment certificate.

Running a vehicle that does not meet the prescribed construction and safety standards is an offence under Section 182A of the Motor Vehicles Act.

9. Driver licences

A driver needs a licence for the class of vehicle he drives. After the 2019 amendment, a licence to drive a transport vehicle is valid for five years. Renewal needs a medical certificate (Form 1A) and is applied for on the SARATHI services. The transport validity can end before the non-transport validity printed on the same card, so check the right line.

The LMV weight rule. The Supreme Court has held that an LMV licence holder may drive a transport vehicle whose gross vehicle weight does not exceed 7,500 kg (Mukund Dewangan, 2017, upheld by a Constitution Bench in November 2024). Anything heavier needs the right goods vehicle class on the licence.

Hazardous goods. A driver carrying dangerous or hazardous goods needs a hazardous goods endorsement on his licence, backed by the training set in CMVR rule 9. The endorsement is valid for one year.

Driving without a valid licence is punishable under Section 181: up to ₹5,000. The owner who allows an unlicensed person to drive faces up to ₹5,000 under Section 180.

10. E-challans

Section 136A, inserted in 2019, provides for electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety. Under it, ANPR cameras at junctions and toll plazas and speed cameras on highways issue challans without stopping the vehicle, and officers issue them on handheld devices at checkpoints. All of them land in the Parivahan e-Challan system against the vehicle number.

1. Check by vehicle number on the Parivahan e-Challan website or your state traffic police's e-challan page, daily if you can.
2. Match each challan's date, time and place to the driver on duty from your trip log.
3. Pay correct challans online and keep the receipt with the challan number.
4. Pay or contest challans sent to a virtual court on the virtual courts portal before the date shown.
5. Raise a grievance with the issuing authority, with your GPS record, for any challan that is wrong.

Pending challans can hold up RTO services for the vehicle, which means a pile of unpaid camera challans can surface on the day you apply for a fitness test or a transfer. The challan guide lists the 15 offences that matter most to goods vehicles, with the section and the Act amount for each. States can set different compounding amounts.

11. The fleet document register

Every chapter above comes down to one table: one row per truck and per driver, one column per document, with the expiry date and the person who has to act. The PRACHSO fleet document register is that table as an Excel workbook, with the columns from this guide, the validity rule for each document and a conditional format that colours each date red, amber or green by days left.

Ask for it on the get started page and we send the workbook with your trial. If you would rather not type 300 dates, send us your vehicle list instead and we load every date from the vehicle and licence records for you.