Blue Collar Parts User Guide: From First Customer to Sent Service Record

The Blue Collar Parts user guide in order: set up your account, add customers and equipment, start the work, record the PM or inspection, and send the record your customer opens. Each step links to its full how-to.

Published: 2026-10-20
Updated: 2026-10-21

/kb/user-guide.md /kb/user-guide.json

Every job in Blue Collar Parts follows the same path: a customer, a piece of equipment, the work, and a record your customer opens. This guide lists the steps in the order you take them. Each step has its own page with the screens and buttons.

1. Set up your account

Create an account, confirm your email, and follow the short setup that adds your first customer and asset. See Getting started with Blue Collar Parts.

2. Add your customers and their equipment

Add each customer once, with an email address, because the record is delivered by email. Then add each truck, trailer, generator or marine engine you service. For trucks and trailers, enter the VIN and press Decode VIN to fill in the vehicle details. See Add customers and assets.

3. Know the carrier before you start

For a motor carrier, save the customer's USDOT number. Blue Collar Parts then shows you the carrier's public FMCSA roadside inspection record. Only you see it. It is not on your customer's record. See Look up a carrier by USDOT number.

4. Start the work

Start a service event for the asset. The work gets a record number as soon as it starts. See Start a service event.

5. Record what you did

Walk the PM form item by item while you are at the equipment, and note what you found and what you fixed. Blue Collar Parts has PM forms for over-the-road trucks, marine diesel engines and diesel generators. See Record a PM service. For repair work, write it up as complaint, cause and correction.

6. Send the record to your customer

When the work is complete, send the record. Starting and recording work is free. You pay when you send, and the price is on the button before you pay. See Send a record to your customer.

7. What your customer receives

Your customer gets a page they can open, read and keep. It names the asset, the date, and you, with every item you recorded beside it. See What your customer receives.

8. Read the record the way your customer does

Every result on the record is said in words and marked with a color and a shape: green for work that passed, red for a failure you recorded, amber for a caution, gray for a fact with no pass or fail. The app uses the same words while you work, so what you see when you file is what your customer reads. See how to read a service record.

9. Keep track of the work

The dashboard shows work in progress, records ready to send, and records already sent. The calendar lists next service dates from completed work. It is your own schedule, and your customer is not notified. To put a visit on another calendar, use Add to calendar. See Work, Sent, and Records.

Start from the problem in front of you

Most technicians reach this guide from a job, not from the product. These pages cover the work itself, and each one names the step above where Blue Collar Parts comes in.

A truck, generator or marine PM. Read the semi truck PM checklist, the diesel generator checklist or the marine diesel checklist, then record the PM (step 5).
What to tell the customer. What belongs in a PM report for the customer covers what the customer should get. Sending it is step 6.
Air brakes. The air brake system cluster covers slack adjusters, brake chamber air leaks and the trailer ABS light.
A failed inspection or out-of-service order. Unsafe operation and out-of-service explains what follows. Knowing a carrier's roadside history before the job is step 3.
Recordkeeping. Where Blue Collar Parts fits against 49 CFR Part 396 says what a sent record is and what it is not. Blue Collar Parts records what you enter and sends it in your name. It does not make an operator compliant.

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

See what your customer receives and what sending a record costs

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Getting Started with Blue Collar Parts: Create an Account and Set Up Your First CustomerHow to create a Blue Collar Parts account, confirm your email, and use the four-step setup to add your first customer and asset and see what your customer's record will look like.
How to Add Customers and Equipment (Assets) in Blue Collar Parts, Including VIN DecodeHow 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.
Look Up a Carrier's FMCSA Roadside Record by USDOT NumberHow to see a motor carrier customer's public FMCSA roadside inspection record in Blue Collar Parts: save the USDOT number, read inspections, recorded violations and out-of-service violations, and fill the customer's details from the FMCSA census. Only the technician sees it.
How to Start a Service Event in Blue Collar PartsHow to start a preventive maintenance service event in Blue Collar Parts: choose the customer and asset, pick the type of work, and open the work.
How to Record a Preventive Maintenance Service in Blue Collar PartsHow the PM form works in Blue Collar Parts for trucks, generators, and marine diesel engines: answering items, readings and notes, reviewing each system, and filing the service record.
How to Send a Service Record to Your Customer in Blue Collar PartsHow to mark work complete, set the next service date, and send the record to your customer in Blue Collar Parts, what it costs and when you pay, and how to resend or change who receives it.
What Your Customer Receives: The Blue Collar Parts Service RecordWhat happens on your customer's side when you send a record from Blue Collar Parts: the email, confirming the record, how long the link works, and what the service record shows, including the record number.
How to Read a Blue Collar Parts Service Record: What the Colors and Marks MeanWhat the green, red, amber and gray marks on a Blue Collar Parts service record mean, for an annual inspection and for a PM: the result at the top, the mark beside each point, and why every mark also has a shape and words.
Work, Sent, and Records: Tracking Jobs, the Dashboard, and the Calendar in Blue Collar PartsHow to find your jobs in Blue Collar Parts: the Work, Sent, and Records lists, the dashboard tiles, the calendar of next service dates, adding visits to Google Calendar, and looking up a record.