How long does a trucking company have to keep driver logs?

Under 49 C.F.R. § 395.8(k)(1), a motor carrier must retain records of duty status and their supporting documents for each driver for not less than 6 months from the date of receipt. After that the federal retention obligation has run, which is why a specific preservation demand needs to go out early.

How long is a carrier's accident register kept?

Three years after the date of each accident, under 49 C.F.R. § 390.15(b). It is often the quickest way to establish whether a carrier or a driver has a pattern.

How fast does surveillance video of a truck crash disappear?

There is no legal retention requirement for private or municipal video, and most systems overwrite on a cycle of days to a few weeks. Canvassing for footage is the most time-critical task after a crash, and it has to be done on foot.

Who is actually responsible in a Florida truck accident?

Often more than one party. The tractor, the trailer, the employer and the load may each belong to a different company, and the trade name on the vehicle may be none of them. Identifying the carrier, owner, broker and shipper determines who must preserve evidence and which policies respond.

What is the deadline to sue after a truck accident in Florida?

An action founded on negligence must be commenced within two years under s. 95.11(5)(a), F.S., and a wrongful death action within two years under s. 95.11(5)(e), F.S. Evidence deadlines arrive far sooner than the filing deadline. Confirm limitations with your attorney for your specific facts.

Can being partly at fault stop a recovery in Florida?

Yes. Under s. 768.81(6), F.S., a party found more than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages, other than in medical negligence actions. That makes independent early fault documentation strategically important.

What does a private investigator add that the police report does not?

The crash report is one officer’s record of a scene hours old. An investigator canvasses for video before it overwrites, measures and photographs the scene before it changes, locates witnesses who left before police arrived, and builds the records inventory that makes a preservation demand specific.

Truck Accident Investigations in Florida: The Evidence With a Clock On It

In a passenger-car collision, the proof is largely at the scene and in the medical records. In a commercial case, the decisive material sits inside a motor carrier’s systems: electronic logging device data, dispatch records, the driver qualification file, maintenance history, engine control module data, and the carrier’s own accident register. All of it is retrievable. Almost none of it stays retrievable forever.

The retention clock, in the regulations’ own words

Records of duty status — 6 months. Under 49 C.F.R. § 395.8(k)(1), a motor carrier must retain records of duty status and supporting documents for each driver “for a period of not less than 6 months from the date of receipt.” Hours-of-service data is where fatigue cases are won or lost, and after six months the carrier is under no federal obligation to still have it.
Accident register — 3 years. Under 49 C.F.R. § 390.15(b), carriers must maintain an accident register for three years after the date of each accident. It is often the fastest route to a pattern.
Video — days. Nothing requires a business, a municipality or a toll operator to keep footage. Fixed cameras along a route and at adjacent properties typically overwrite on a cycle measured in days or a few weeks. This is the clock that runs out first.
Engine and telematics data — until the vehicle is repaired or sold. Once the tractor is back in service, the opportunity to image its modules on your terms may be gone.

The practical consequence: a preservation demand sent in week one and an evidence inventory built in week one are worth more than any amount of work in month four. The point of an early investigation is not to prove the case — it is to stop the case from being quietly deleted.

What we do in the first days

Identify the real parties. The name on the trailer is frequently not the employer, the owner or the insured. Tractor and trailer are often separately owned; the load may be brokered. Establishing the carrier, the broker, the shipper and the owner-operator determines who receives a preservation letter and whose policy applies.
Canvass for video, on foot. Businesses, warehouses, residences, fuel stops and fleet vehicles along the route. This is door-knocking work with a short shelf life, and it is the single most common source of evidence that no one else obtained.
Document the scene while it still exists. Measured, photographed and recorded before resurfacing, repainting, sign changes, vegetation cutting or debris removal. See court-admissible scene documentation.
Locate and interview witnesses. Including those who left before police arrived and never appear on the crash report, and the ones whose phone numbers are already wrong.
Preserve the vehicles. Confirm where the tractor and trailer are being stored, and document their condition before repair.
Build the records inventory. A written list of every category to be demanded — logs, dispatch, bills of lading, trip documents, maintenance and inspection files, the driver qualification file under 49 C.F.R. part 391, drug and alcohol testing records, prior accidents, telematics — so the preservation letter is specific rather than generic.

Why specificity matters in a preservation letter

A letter that asks a carrier to “preserve all relevant evidence” invites a judgment call by the party that benefits from losing it. A letter that names the ELD provider, the date range, the unit numbers, the dispatch system and the engine module asks for things that either exist or demonstrably did. The investigation that produces those names is what converts a routine demand into a spoliation problem for the other side.

The two Florida deadlines that drive the schedule

An action founded on negligence must be commenced within two years under s. 95.11(5)(a), F.S.; wrongful death is also two years under s. 95.11(5)(e), F.S. And under s. 768.81(6), F.S. — headed “Greater percentage of fault” — a party found more than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages at all, except in medical negligence actions.

That second rule is why the fault investigation cannot wait for litigation. In a commercial case the defence will build a comparative-fault narrative from the carrier’s own data, and a few percentage points of allocation can be the difference between a recovery and nothing. Independent documentation gathered early is the counterweight.

What this looks like for a law firm

We work the evidence side so the firm works the case: parties identified, video secured, scene documented, witnesses located and statemented, vehicle storage confirmed, and a written records inventory your preservation letter can be built from. Reports are written so the investigator who produced them can testify to them.

If the matter has not been filed yet, the same work is the pre-suit investigation — see also the pre-suit checklist for Florida personal injury attorneys.

Miami Private Investigations is licensed in Florida under agency licence A1800135 and supports plaintiff and defence firms across Miami-Dade and statewide. Every matter is scoped and quoted individually. Call (305) 686-7826 or contact us for a confidential consultation.

Truck Accident Investigations in Florida