A chip truck and a chipper in front of a house stops traffic. The lettering should make the people slowing down into the next three estimates.
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Example text for a tree service business (a made-up company; 555 numbers are placeholders). Real text, so you can read it the way a customer would.
Tree service is one of the heaviest home-service trades on the road: a chip truck is a medium-duty chassis with a steel dump box, usually towing a chipper that weighs thousands of pounds on its own; bucket trucks and grapple trucks are heavier still; and even the crew pickup tows a trailer with a stump grinder or mini skid steer. Most of these rigs are rated above the federal marking line, so the DOT markings are the normal case, and the combined truck-plus-chipper rating is what the rule looks at.
The federal rule (from the same verified data as our checker): name and USDOT number on both sides of the power unit from 10,001 lbs (49 CFR 390.21T(b)(2)); other triggers in the federal box below.
Verified 2026-07-23 · next review 2026-10-21
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These are the tree service vehicle-marking rules we have read in the state's own statute or regulation. States not listed: we have not verified a rule for them (our research notes list which ones were checked).
| On the vehicle | Business name and contractor's license number, in or on each commercially registered motor vehicle used in the construction business, in a clearly visible location, at least 72-point type or 3/4 inch high and wide. |
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| On the vehicle | The licensee's name and license number on each commercial motor vehicle registered under the licensee's name, letters and numbers approximately 1 1/2 inches high. |
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In most cases the truck's GVWR, or the truck plus chipper combined rating, is over the federal line, so if you cross state lines the federal markings apply, and many states apply their own rule to trucks that never leave the state. The checker above runs your numbers and lists the exact markings.
The required USDOT and name markings go on the power unit (the truck's cab doors). The chipper can carry your company name and number as advertising, and a stay-back decal, but the compliance set belongs on the truck.
Service lines 12 to 24 inches tall, phone number 8 to 12 inches, so they read from across the street and from passing cars. We lay it out on a photo of your truck on the proof.
Only California and Nevada, through their general contractor-licensee rules, came up in the states we checked; both are quoted below. Only where the state licenses tree work as a contractor trade and has a vehicle rule for licensees. Tree work is more often regulated by cities and counties.
Yes. Same approach: compliance set on the cab doors, company name and services on the biggest flat panels, unit numbers where your crew and dispatch can see them. Fleet pricing from 15 trucks.
Fleet pricing from 15 vehicles, matched layouts across every unit, unit numbers included, one proof for the whole batch.
See fleet & volume pricing →General information, not legal advice. Each rule above shows the date we last verified it against the cited source; the state agency has the final word.
