Keep a Driver Qualification File That Survives an Audit
An auditor asks for the file on a driver hired three years ago. The medical card is in a filing cabinet, the motor vehicle record is in somebody's email, and nobody is certain the annual review was ever done.
The short answer
A driver qualification file is one folder per driver holding a fixed set of documents, two of which go out of date on their own schedule: the medical examiner's certificate and the annual motor vehicle record. A workflow uses the Read Details from File step to pull the driver, the document type and the date off each document, the Rename step to put that date at the front of the filename, and the Move step to file it under that driver. The On a Schedule trigger and the Send a Message step then report what is coming up for renewal.
Steps this uses
Before and after
What actually changes
As they arrive
- med card.pdf
- MVR_scan.pdf
- Scan_0087.pdf
- application.pdf
After the workflow
- Drivers/Alvarez, R/2028-03-12-medical-examiners-certificate.pdf
- Drivers/Alvarez, R/2026-01-08-mvr-texas.pdf
- Drivers/Boone, T/2026-02-20-road-test-certificate.pdf
- Drivers/Boone, T/2025-11-04-employment-application.pdf
Four documents filed under the driver they belong to, with the date that matters written into each name.
Setting it up
Described once, then it runs
This is the sentence. Send it to the builder and the steps below appear on a canvas, wired and named, for you to change before anything runs.
When a driver document arrives, read the driver name, the document type and any renewal date off it, put that date at the front of the filename, and file it under that driver. Email me monthly about medical cards and MVRs coming due within sixty days.
One folder per driver
The file is asked about per person and never per document type. A folder per driver, named surname first, matches how an auditor asks for it and how dispatch asks for it.
Keep drug and alcohol testing somewhere else
Testing records are held separately from the qualification file, not merely in a different subfolder inside it. Point that part of the flow at a different folder with different access and keep it that way.
Dates go at the front of the name
The Rename step writes the date the document was issued or runs to. A driver folder then reads in order, and the current medical card is the one with the latest date, without opening anything.
Report before it lapses, not after
The On a Schedule trigger runs over the driver folders and Send a Message reports what is approaching. Medical cards are the ones most likely to lapse unnoticed, because they renew on the examiner's schedule rather than on yours.
The file is a fixed list, which is what makes it tractable
The contents do not change from driver to driver: the employment application, a motor vehicle record from each state where the driver holds a licence, the road test certificate or the licence accepted in its place, the medical examiner's certificate, and each year the review of driving record and the list of violations. Because the list is fixed, the folder shape is fixed too. What changes between drivers is only which pieces are current.
Two documents move and the rest sit still
The employment application and the road test certificate are written once and stay put. The medical examiner's certificate and the motor vehicle record renew, the first on the examiner's schedule and the second annually. Putting the date at the front of every filename means the folder itself shows which is which, and a renewed card sorts below the one it replaces without anyone maintaining a spreadsheet.
What it does not do
It files each document under the right driver and names it by the date that matters. It does not decide whether a driver is qualified, which is a judgement with legal weight and belongs to the person who signs for it. It does not know a driver never sent something at all, because no workflow step compares a folder against a list; a file request with a document checklist is what does that. And it does not file drug and alcohol testing records, which belong somewhere else.
Limits
What to know before you build it
It can work through what is already there
This one runs on a schedule over a folder you point it at, so the documents sitting in it now are read and filed alongside the ones that arrive later. A large backlog is an overnight job rather than an instant one, because each document is read rather than pattern-matched.
It needs a connected account
This workflow reads files out of an email inbox, so it cannot run until that account is connected. Connecting one is on the Max plan, or on any team workspace. There is no version of this particular workflow that runs on the free plan, because the files it organizes never arrive in The Drive AI on their own.
FAQ
Common questions
What has to be in a driver qualification file?
The employment application, a motor vehicle record from each state where the driver holds a licence, a road test certificate or an accepted equivalent, the medical examiner's certificate, and each year the review of driving record and the list of violations. Drug and alcohol testing records are kept separately rather than in this file.
How long does a driver file have to be kept?
For as long as the driver is employed and for three years after they leave. That is a retention rule rather than a filing rule, and it is the reason a folder per driver should outlive the driver rather than being cleared out on their last day.
Can medical card renewal be tracked automatically?
The date is printed on the certificate, so it can be read off the document and written into the filename, and a scheduled run then reports what is approaching. What it cannot do is know that a card was renewed at a clinic and never sent to you, because nothing arrived for it to read.
Does this make us compliant?
No. It keeps the documents in one predictable place, named so you can see at a glance what is current, which is most of what makes an audit go quickly. Whether a driver is qualified is a decision a person makes and signs for.
One folder per driver, always current.
Dates read off the documents, written into the names, reported before they lapse.
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