Truck Maintenance Schedule Template (Free Excel Download) — 2026

The difference between a fleet that hits 95% uptime and one that limps along at 78% is almost always maintenance discipline — not the trucks themselves. And maintenance discipline starts with knowing what's due, when, on every unit. This template gives you that baseline.

Built for 5-50 truck fleets that need more than sticky notes on the dispatch board but aren't ready for enterprise fleet software yet. Every formula works. Every sheet is branded and printable. Hand it to your dispatcher or maintenance lead and it'll pay for itself the first time it prevents a missed PM.

📥 Download: FleetLegend Truck Maintenance Schedule Template (Excel, .xlsx)

What's In the Template

How to Use the Template

Step 1: Populate the Fleet Roster

Open the Fleet Roster sheet. For each truck, enter:

• Unit # (your internal reference — T-101, T-102, etc.)
• Year, Make/Model
• Last 8 of VIN (full VIN optional)
• Current mileage (today's odometer)
• In-service date
• Date of last PM A, PM B, and DOT annual inspection
• Any notes (active warranty, known issues, upcoming trade)

If you don't know the last PM date for an existing truck, set it to today's date and run a fresh PM A on the truck to establish a baseline.

Step 2: Confirm PM Intervals

Open the PM Schedule sheet. Row 5 sets your intervals. Defaults:

• PM A: every 25,000 miles OR every 3 months
• PM B: every 50,000 miles OR every 6 months

Adjust these numbers to match your OEM recommendations or duty cycle. Long-haul highway fleets usually run the default. Local-delivery fleets with lots of idle time should shorten time intervals (PM A every 2 months, PM B every 4-5 months).

Step 3: Let the Schedule Auto-Populate

Once Fleet Roster is filled, the PM Schedule sheet automatically calculates:

• Next PM A mileage and date per unit
• Next PM B mileage and date per unit
• Status column: "OK" / "DUE SOON" / "OVERDUE" with color coding

What the status colors mean:

• Green "OK" — more than 2,000 miles away from next PM
• Amber "DUE SOON" — within 2,000 miles of next PM (schedule the appointment now)
• Red "OVERDUE" — past due; prioritize this truck

Step 4: Run the PM and Log It

When a truck comes in for PM:

1. Print the PM A (or PM B) Checklist sheet
2. Fill in Unit #, Date, Mileage, Technician name at the top
3. Technician or maintenance lead works through every row — Pass / Fail / N/A
4. Anything that fails gets a note + follow-up work order
5. Sign and file (paper or scan)

Step 5: Update the Logs

After the PM is complete:

1. In Fleet Roster: update current mileage + last PM A (or PM B) date
2. In Cost Tracking: add a row with date, unit, service type, parts $, labor $, total, shop
3. The PM Schedule sheet automatically updates to show the next PM due

Customizing the Template

Adding more trucks

Fleet Roster and PM Schedule both support 15 trucks out of the box. To add more: select the last row, copy it down, and fill in. Formulas carry down automatically.

Changing intervals per truck

If you want per-unit intervals (e.g., older trucks on shorter cycles), add a column to Fleet Roster with each unit's interval, then modify the PM Schedule formulas to reference the per-unit cell instead of the global setting in row 5.

Adding trailer maintenance

The template is built for power units. For trailers (especially refrigerated trailers which have their own reefer unit service schedule), duplicate the workbook and use it as a separate trailer-focused version. Reefer units especially benefit from their own tracking.

Integrating with QuickBooks

Export the Cost Tracking sheet monthly and cross-reference to your QuickBooks maintenance expense accounts. Or — easier — move off the spreadsheet into a TMS with maintenance integration (see FleetLegend section below).

The PM A and PM B Checklists Explained

PM A — The Quick Service

Every 25,000 miles or 3 months. 2-3 hours in the shop. The basics: oil change, filters, lube, visual inspection. Catches ~70% of developing problems before they become failures.

PM B — The Intermediate Service

Every 50,000 miles or 6 months. 4-6 hours in the shop. Includes everything in PM A plus brake inspection, tire rotation, battery load test, cooling system test, and drivetrain fluid checks. This is where you catch the medium-developing problems (brake wear, bearing play, coolant issues).

PM C (not in template)

The annual major service — typically coinciding with the DOT annual inspection. 8-12 hours. Includes the DOT inspection plus fluid changes, full brake service, and transmission service. Most shops handle this as a dedicated appointment separate from PM A/B, which is why the template keeps PM C out of the routine worksheet.

Cost Tracking: Why It Matters

Cost-per-mile (CPM) is the single metric that tells you whether a truck is profitable. The Cost Tracking sheet gives you raw data — every maintenance event — that you can roll up into per-unit annual maintenance cost.

Rough benchmarks for small fleets (2026):

• $0.08-$0.14/mi — Truck under factory warranty, low-trouble
• $0.12-$0.20/mi — Typical out-of-warranty truck (3-7 years old)
• $0.20-$0.30/mi — Older truck, but still economical if not exceeded
• $0.30+/mi — Red zone; truck may be costing more than it earns

To calculate your per-unit CPM: Total maintenance $ spent on a unit over 12 months, divided by miles driven by that unit in the same period. The Cost Tracking sheet gives you the numerator; the Fleet Roster gives you starting and ending mileage for the denominator.

Limits of the Template

This template covers 80% of small-fleet maintenance needs. It has real limits:

• No integration with telematics fault codes — you have to watch those separately
• No parts inventory tracking
• No automated driver notifications when PM is coming due
• No integration with QuickBooks or accounting
• No cross-reference to DVIR data from driver apps
• Doesn't track warranty claims or parts under warranty

These are all reasons to graduate to integrated fleet management software once your fleet is large enough to justify it. For a 5-15 truck fleet, this template is plenty. At 15+ trucks, you'll feel the limits.

When to Graduate to Software

Signs you've outgrown the maintenance spreadsheet:

• You have 15+ trucks and updating the spreadsheet takes more than an hour a week
• You're copy-pasting between the maintenance spreadsheet, QuickBooks, and your TMS
• You've missed a PM because the spreadsheet wasn't updated in time
• Drivers report DVIR issues on paper and it takes more than 48 hours to route them into work orders
• You want telematics fault codes to automatically create maintenance tickets
• You need cost-per-mile reports without spending a Saturday in the spreadsheet

FleetLegend integrates maintenance tracking with dispatch, settlements, IFTA, and QuickBooks. Fault codes from Motive or Samsara automatically create work orders. DVIR from the driver app routes directly to maintenance. Costs flow into QuickBooks bi-directionally. Start a free trial.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this template really free?

Yes. No email gate, no signup, no license. Download the .xlsx and it's yours. Modify it, share it, rename it. We built it because small fleets shouldn't have to cobble together maintenance tracking from 10 YouTube tutorials.

Does it work in Google Sheets?

Yes. Open the .xlsx file in Google Sheets. Formulas, dropdowns, and color coding all translate. Conditional formatting on the Status column may need a quick re-application if Google Sheets doesn't render it automatically.

Can I adjust PM intervals per truck?

The default setup uses one interval for all units. To customize per-unit, add a per-unit interval column in Fleet Roster and adjust the PM Schedule formulas to pull from that column instead of the global setting in row 5.

What PM intervals should I use?

Start with your engine OEM's recommended intervals (Cummins, Detroit, Paccar, Volvo publish them in the owner manual). For highway linehaul operation, 25K/50K PM A/B works well. Short-haul or heavy-idle operations should shorten time-based intervals — 3-month PM A becomes 2-month.

How often is the DOT annual inspection due?

Every 12 months from the last inspection date. Miss it and the truck is out-of-service until re-inspected. Many fleets time their PM C to coincide with the DOT annual so one shop visit handles both.

Does the template handle trailers?

The template is built for power units (tractors/trucks). For trailers, duplicate the workbook and modify the checklists — most PM A items don't apply to trailers but trailer-specific items (ABS module, electrical, landing gear, tire condition, reefer unit if applicable) need their own checklist.

How does this compare to using real fleet management software?

The spreadsheet gives you 80% of what a small fleet needs for 0% of the software cost. Fleet management software adds automation (telematics fault codes → work orders, DVIR routing, QuickBooks sync, CPM auto-calculation), multi-user access, and audit-defensible history. The spreadsheet is a great starting point; software becomes worth the switch at 15+ trucks.

Download the Template

Click below to download the Excel workbook. Five sheets, branded, formulas working out of the box.

📥 Download the FleetLegend Truck Maintenance Schedule Template (.xlsx)

File size: ~16 KB. Hosted on Sanity CDN. No email required. No tracking.

Related Reading

• Fleet Maintenance Scheduling: How to Prevent Costly Breakdowns
• Fleet Management for Small Trucking Companies (pillar)
• Motive vs Samsara: Complete Comparison
• Owner Operator Settlement Template