---
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
source: https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/add-customers-and-assets
license: CC BY 4.0
---

# How to Add Customers and Equipment (Assets) in Blue Collar Parts, Including VIN Decode

**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.

## Add a customer

1. Open [Customers](/customers) and press **ADD CUSTOMER**, or go straight to [add a customer](/customers?new=customer).
2. Fill in **Customer name** (required). Add **Contact name**, **Email**, **Phone**, **DBA (doing business as)**, **City**, **State**, and **ZIP** as you have them.
3. Press **SAVE CHANGES**.

**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.

**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.

To change a customer later, open them and press **EDIT CUSTOMER**.

## Add an asset

1. Open the customer and press **ADD ASSET**, or open [Assets](/assets) and press **ADD ASSET**.
2. Choose the **Type**: **Truck**, **Trailer**, **Generator**, or **Marine**.
3. Enter the **Asset identifier (e.g. unit number)** (required): the name the customer uses for it.
4. 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.
5. Fill in **Make**, **Model**, and **Model year** if they are not already filled, and press **SAVE CHANGES**.

After 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.

## Why the asset type matters

The 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).

*Links into the app open your account. If you are not signed in, you will be asked to sign in first.*

## Sources

Reviewed 2026-10-18