Welcome to ESI Trucking

Business Solutions for the
Independent Contractor

Entrepreneur Success is happy to bring you "one-stop shopping" for all of your new business startup needs.

Our services include:
  • US DOT Numbers
  • Master Carrier Authority
  • IFTA Filings
  • Federal UnifiedCarrier Registration
  • BOC-3 Process Agent Filings
  • State Highway Use Tax HUT
  • Legal Entity Filings (LLC, S-Corp, etc.)
  • Bookkeeping
  • Income Tax Preparation
  • Payroll Services
  • Business Strategy Consulting
Our Bookkeeping & Tax Services include:
  • Posting Weekly Settlements
  • Posting out-of-pocket expences
  • Reconciling business checking account
  • Monthly P & L and Ballance Sheet
  • Annual W-2s for Employees
  • Franchise Tax Returns (if applicable)
  • Local Tax Returns (if applicable)
  • Annual Registration Renewal (available at an additional cost)

Additional Services Provided for LLC's:
  • Calculate Quarterly Federal & State Income Tax Payments
  • Federal & One State Personal Return and Schedule C for your business

Additional Services Provided for S-Corps:
  • Federal & One State Personal Return
  • Federal & One State Corporate Return

The best way to protect your personal assets is to form a legal entity for your business.

In the trucking industry the most common legal entities are S-Corporations and Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

Our Services include the following:
  • Name Reservation
  • Filing of articles of incorporation or organization with the Secretary of State
  • Obtaining your Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN)
  • Obtain State Unemployment Insurance Tax Account Number (UIN)
  • Legal newspaper filings (if applicable)

DOT Registration & Motor Carrier Authority

Our Services include:
  • DOT Registration
  • Master Carrier Registration
  • BOC-3 (Process Agent)
  • Unified Carrier Registration (UCR)
  • State DOT Compliance
  • Obtain State Unemployment Insurance Tax Account Number (UIN)
  • Obtain State Withholding Tax Account Number
  • IFTA Tax Returns
  • State Highway Use Tax (HUT)

Every IFTA licensee must maintain records of all interstate and intrastate operations of qualified motor vehicles. The carrier's records must support the information reported on the tax report. Either an Individual Vehicle Mileage Record, as required for the International Registration Plan, or, at a minimum, individual vehicle mileage records or trip reports including the elements below are acceptable for recordkeeping:

1. Dates of trip (starting and ending)
2. Trip origin and destination (including city and state)
3. Routes of travel and beginning and ending odometer readings
4. Total trip miles
5. Distance by jurisdiction
6. Vehicle unit number
7. Vehicle fleet number, and
8. Carrier's Name 		 

RECORD RETENTION PERIOD

These records must be maintained for four years from the due date of the return or the date the return was filed, whichever is later.

Motor carriers are reminded that when any changes occur in the circumstances surrounding the original issuance of an ITFA license and the underlying decals for that license, the party to who the IFTA license was issued must notify the Bureau of Motor Fuel Taxes of such changes.

Once a licensee establishes an ITFA account, it must notify the bureau in writing of any changes to the account including, but not limited to, account cancellations, address changes, changes to the use of issued decals, etc. The account is the licensee's responsibility.

Proper recordkeeping requires both maintaining proper records for vehicles under a licensee's control of ownership, as well as notifying the bureau when things such as decals and license identification cards (i.e., cab-cards) pass from the licensee's control or become unrecoverable. For example, when a vehicle to which IFTA decals have been affixed is sold, traded or otherwise disposed of by thee operator, or passes from control of the operator through lease or otherwise, the motor carrier must notify the bureau within 30 days after the vehicle leaves the licensee's service.

Proper notification must include the taxpayer/carrier's account number, decal number, tractor registration plate number, the date of disposition change and the name and address of the person having gained possession of the vehicle.

This notification should be mailed or faxed to the bureau. The licensee need not mail the cancelled decals to the bureau; rather, then decals themselves, if recoverable, should remain in the licensee's files for at least four years for auditing purposes. Decals cannot be transferred from one vehicle to another or from one company to another. A licensee must remove its decals and keep them with its files for four years for auditing purposes. Once decals are removed from a vehicle, they are considered void. Similarly, once a decaled/licensed vehicle passes control from one taxpayer to another, the decals and license are immediately voided, unless otherwise provided for by statute.

Decals that are purchased but not used during the registration year should be kept in the licensee's files for four years for auditing purposes. Unused decals may not be affixed to any vehicle other than the vehicles employed by or leased to the original licensee. The party responsible for the decals is the party required to account for any taxes due the taxing authority for the activity of the decaled vehicles. Such responsibility for tax liability may include the statutory assessment of four miles per gallon for inadequate recordkeeping.

FUEL RECEIPTS

The following records must be maintained:

1. Date of withdrawal
2. Number of gallons withdrawn
3. Fuel type
4. Unit number of the vehicle into which the fuel was placed
5. Purchase and inventory records to substantiate tax was paid on all taxable fuel disbursements, and
6. Cash disbursements and other normal business records.

Also, any person using a bulk storage facility to fuel its vehicles must maintain receipt and disbursement records for such activity.

BULK FUEL STORAGE

Every carrier must maintain complete records of all feul purchases. The records, at minimum, must include feul data on each vehicle and be reflected in monthly fleet summaries. Seperate totals must be compiled for each fuel type. Fuel types include among others, gasoline, gasohol, diesel, kerosene, liquified petroleum gas and compressed natural gas.
The fuel records must contain the following:

1. Date of purchase
2. Name and address of the seller
3. Number of gallons purchased
4. Type of fuel purchased
5. Price per gallon
6. Unit number of the vehicle into which the fuel was placed, and
7. Purchaser's name

PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO MAINTAIN RECORDS

Noncompliance with any recordkeeping requirement may be cause for revocation of the license, and the department may impose a penalty of 100 percent of tax due based on an assessment calculated on the best information available to the department.

ENFORCEMENT

Failure to keep proper records, making false statements and operating a qualified motor vehicle without required decals are among the citable offenses for violation of Chapters 21 and 96 of the Motor Vehicle Code. A person convicted of such a summary offense could face fines up to $500 per first offense.

Coming soon

ESI Trucking

A Division of Entrepreneur Success, Inc.

4204 E. Lake Chapin Rd.
Berrien Springs, MI 49103
Phone 269-357-7974
Sales Dept 269-743-4009
Fax 269-533-4799
www.ESITrucking.com

Copyright © 2025 ESI Trucking. A subsidary of Entrepreneur Success, Inc. All Rights Reserved.