Vehicle maintenance log: service plan, history and expiry dates in one file

Why keep a maintenance log for every vehicle

A vehicle maintenance log is not paperwork for its own sake. It answers five questions that come up sooner or later on every fleet, usually at the worst possible moment.

• Warranty: a manufacturer can refuse a claim when the service schedule was not followed. In the EU and the UK, block exemption rules let you use an independent garage without losing the warranty, as long as you follow the manufacturer’s schedule and can prove it. The log is that proof.
• Resale value: a used vehicle with a complete, dated history is easier to sell and to value than one that comes with a shoebox of invoices. Buyers and leasing companies ask for it.
• Safety: brakes, tyres, lights and steering wear out whether or not anyone writes it down. Employers who put vehicles on the road are expected to keep them in a safe condition, and a dated record shows that the checks happened.
• Cost control: when each intervention carries its parts, labour and cost, the vehicle that eats the budget stands out, and so does the repair that comes back every three months.
• Audits and incidents: after an accident, an insurer, an auditor or an investigator will ask when the brakes were last checked. “Recently” is not an answer.

What a good vehicle log holds

The workbook follows the logic of a manufacturer’s service book, extended to what a fleet manager needs. Keep one sheet per vehicle and copy the tab for each new one.

• Vehicle identity: licence plate, make and model, year, VIN, fuel type, first registration date, current odometer and the date it was read, primary driver, tyre size and engine oil specification.
• Service plan: each operation with two intervals, in kilometres and in months, the kilometres and date of the last service, and the next due point.
• Service history: date, odometer in km, work done, parts fitted, cost, and the garage or technician. One line per intervention, never overwritten.
• Documents and expiry dates: roadworthiness test, insurance, registration, road tax, special permits and the primary driver’s licence, with number, provider, expiry date and the date a reminder was sent.
• Notes: defects reported by drivers, recurring problems, warranty repairs and manufacturer recalls.

How to set service intervals

Start from the manufacturer’s service schedule, vehicle by vehicle. It gives each operation an interval in distance and in time, for example an oil and filter change every 15,000 km or 12 months. Both limits matter: oil ages even when the vehicle is parked, brake fluid absorbs moisture and rubber belts harden.

Then check whether your use counts as severe. Most service books set shorter intervals for short trips with a cold engine, stop-and-go delivery rounds, towing, dusty roads, long idling or extreme temperatures. Delivery vans, site vehicles and anything that tows usually belong there.

Finally, apply the whichever-first rule. A van covering 40,000 km a year reaches 15,000 km in about four and a half months, long before the 12-month limit. A pool car covering 6,000 km a year hits the 12-month limit first. Tracking only one of the two counters means servicing one of those vehicles too late. For forklifts, tractors and site plant, engine hours replace kilometres.

In the sheet, the next due point is the last service plus each interval: last kilometres plus the kilometre interval, last date plus the months. Whichever arrives first is the real due date.

Mistakes that make a vehicle log useless

A log fails for the same few reasons on almost every fleet, and none of them is about the spreadsheet itself.

This is not specific to fleets. FreeMaint Research (2026) found that 27.1% of the sites it analysed log no preventive maintenance at all, and that the median share of preventive work is 22.5%. A written plan with due points is the first step out of pure breakdown repair.

• Only the calendar, or only the kilometres: one of the two counters always runs ahead, and the service comes late on the vehicles that need it most.
• History scattered across invoices: the garage bill sits in accounting, the tyre receipt in an email, the odometer reading nowhere. Rebuilding the history takes a day when a buyer or an insurer asks for it.
• No odometer on the line: a service without a kilometre reading cannot be used to calculate the next one.
• Expiry dates in someone’s head: one person remembers the roadworthiness test and the insurance renewal. When that person is on leave, the vehicle drives with an expired document.
• One file edited by everyone: lines get overwritten, formulas break and three versions circulate by email.

What FreeMaint does, and does not do, for a fleet

FreeMaint is a maintenance system for fleets, not a GPS or telematics tracker. It does not locate vehicles and it does not read the odometer from the vehicle. Readings are entered in the mobile app, when a work order is closed, or with a fuel entry that carries the odometer. If you already use a tracker, keep it: readings can also be pushed through FreeMaint’s authenticated API as a custom integration, with GraphQL on the Business plan.

The free Core tier already replaces the spreadsheet for calendar-based plans, service history and costs, for unlimited users. Meter readings and plans by kilometres or engine hours come with Starter. The fleet module, with vehicle profiles, documents and expiry alerts, drivers and licences, the fuel log, bookings and nested services, comes with Business. Every plan is billed per company, never per vehicle.