Mass Import Trailers from CSV

Mass Import Trailers from CSV

If you are bringing over an existing fleet from another system — or onboarding a fresh acquisition — entering trailers one at a time is not realistic. The CSV import, available on the Advanced plan, lets you load your whole fleet in a single pass.

Getting to import

Go to Trailers > Import CSV. You will see three things: a Download template button, a big drop zone for your CSV, and a log of previous imports so you can audit who imported what and when.

Download the template

Start by clicking Download template. It opens a CSV with every column TrailerBase understands — name, type, year, make, model, VIN, license plate, color, length, width, height, tongue weight, curb weight, payload, GVWR, axles, brakes, daily rate, weekly rate, monthly rate, security deposit, deposit handling, status, location, and a long description.

Required columns are marked in the header with an asterisk. Everything else is optional and can be left blank.

Map your file

If you already have a spreadsheet from another platform, you can upload it directly — the import will try to auto-match your columns to ours and then show a mapping preview. For any column it could not auto-match, you get a dropdown to pick the TrailerBase field manually. Unmapped columns are ignored.

The mapping preview also shows the first five rows so you can sanity-check that data is landing in the right place before committing.

Validation errors inline

When you click Validate, the importer walks every row and checks:

• Required fields are present.
• Enum fields (type, brakes, status) use valid values.
• Numeric fields are actually numbers.
• VINs that already exist in your account flag as duplicates.

Any row with a problem gets a red highlight, and a tooltip on the cell explains exactly what is wrong ("GVWR must be a number; got 'heavy'"). You can fix problems inline in the browser, or download an annotated CSV, fix it in Excel or Numbers, and re-upload.

Rollback on error

This is the feature that makes the import safe. If you click Import and any row fails mid-process, the whole batch is rolled back — no half-imported fleet. You either get all the trailers or none of them, and you can fix the CSV and try again.

On a successful import, you get a green confirmation with a link to the new trailers, and every one of them is created in whatever status you set in the CSV (default is Active).

Common gotchas

• Photos are not imported by CSV. You add those through the Photos tab after the trailer exists.
• VINs must be unique across your account. If you imported a trailer once and are retrying, delete the old record first.
• Commas in long descriptions. Use quoted fields or the CSV will split mid-sentence. The template is already set up correctly, so starting from it is the safest path.

Keep your import CSV

Save a copy of the imported CSV somewhere safe. It doubles as a snapshot of your fleet on import day, which is surprisingly useful a year later when you are trying to reconcile a discrepancy.