{
  "slug": "add-customers-and-assets",
  "title": "How to Add Customers and Equipment (Assets) in Blue Collar Parts, Including VIN Decode",
  "description": "How to add a customer and the trucks, trailers, generators, and marine engines you service in Blue Collar Parts: required fields, why the customer's email matters, USDOT numbers, and decoding a VIN.",
  "track": "product",
  "kind": "article",
  "status": "available",
  "isRegulatoryAdjacent": false,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-18",
  "cfr": [],
  "related": [
    "getting-started-with-blue-collar-parts",
    "start-a-service-event",
    "send-a-record-to-your-customer"
  ],
  "topics": [],
  "nextStep": {
    "kind": "start",
    "target": "/start/vin-decode",
    "text": "Fill in a truck's details from its VIN"
  },
  "sources": {
    "citations": [],
    "reviewed": "2026-10-18",
    "reviewedEdition": null,
    "reviewedText": "Reviewed 2026-10-18"
  },
  "url": "https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/add-customers-and-assets",
  "markdownUrl": "https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/add-customers-and-assets.md",
  "body": "**Every record in Blue Collar Parts belongs to a customer and a piece of equipment, called an asset.** Add them once, and every later service event starts from them.\n\n## Add a customer\n\n1. Open [Customers](/customers) and press **ADD CUSTOMER**, or go straight to [add a customer](/customers?new=customer).\n2. Fill in **Customer name** (required). Add **Contact name**, **Email**, **Phone**, **DBA (doing business as)**, **City**, **State**, and **ZIP** as you have them.\n3. Press **SAVE CHANGES**.\n\n**Add the customer's email.** Records are delivered by email. A customer with no email shows **No email — cannot receive records**, and you cannot send them a record until you add one.\n\n**USDOT number (optional).** For a motor carrier, adding the **USDOT number** lets Blue Collar Parts show public FMCSA reference information about the carrier's fleet alongside your work. It is reference data, not a finding about the customer.\n\nTo change a customer later, open them and press **EDIT CUSTOMER**.\n\n## Add an asset\n\n1. Open the customer and press **ADD ASSET**, or open [Assets](/assets) and press **ADD ASSET**.\n2. Choose the **Type**: **Truck**, **Trailer**, **Generator**, or **Marine**.\n3. Enter the **Asset identifier (e.g. unit number)** (required): the name the customer uses for it.\n4. For trucks and trailers, enter the **VIN** and press **Decode VIN**. Blue Collar Parts fills in the vehicle details from the NHTSA vPIC database. Review or edit them before you save. Generators and marine engines use **Serial number** instead.\n5. Fill in **Make**, **Model**, and **Model year** if they are not already filled, and press **SAVE CHANGES**.\n\nAfter you save, Blue Collar Parts opens a **Record preview** of the asset: what your customer's record will look like, with a **Start work** button.\n\n## Why the asset type matters\n\nThe asset type decides which preventive-maintenance form opens when you start work: the truck, generator, and marine forms each follow their equipment. Trailers do not have a dedicated PM form yet, so you choose the form you are working to when you start the service event. See [record a PM service](/kb/record-a-pm-service).\n\n*Links into the app open your account. If you are not signed in, you will be asked to sign in first.*",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}