FileFlo vs Roadworthy HQ: An Honest Side-by-Side for 1–10 Trucks (2026)

If you have narrowed it down to these two, you already know they are the same kind of product. Both are records workspaces: you put your driver files, drug and alcohol paperwork, and vehicle records in, and the software tells you what is missing and builds what the auditor asks for. Neither is an ELD or a drug-testing provider. The differences are in price, in how each one reads your paperwork, in who decides when an old record is deleted, and in what you hand the auditor.

This page is written by Roadworthy HQ, so here are the terms. Every FileFlo fact below comes from FileFlo's own pages (pricing, home, features, setup and security at getfileflo.com), read on October 27, 2026. Where FileFlo is the better fit, this page says so, and there are real cases where it is.

If you want the wider field first (seven options, including doing it yourself), start with the 2026 new-entrant audit software comparison. This page is the two of them side by side.

The short version

Prices change. Check both pricing pages before you decide.

What it costs at your fleet size

FileFlo prices software by the fleet, not the driver. The software path starts with the Audit-Ready Setup at $499, which includes your first 30 days of Core; after that, Core continues at $199 a month for 1 to 15 trucks, or Fleet at $399 a month for 16 to 50. FileFlo's pricing page states the first year with Core as $2,688. Two dated details from the same page: the $499 is a launch price "until Dec 31, then $749," which would make the same first year $2,938, and annual billing charges 10 of 12 months, which puts Core at $1,990 a year.

Roadworthy HQ prices by size band: $39 a month Solo (1 driver, 1 vehicle), $89 a month Fleet (2 to 5 drivers and 2 to 5 vehicles, 3 user seats), $149 a month Fleet+ (6 to 10 of each, 10 seats). Annual billing is $390, $890 and $1,490. There is no setup fee and no contract, and if you cancel, the workspace stays readable for 30 days so you can export.

What that means in practice:

• At 1 truck: $39 a month against FileFlo's $199 a month after its $499 Setup. FileFlo's Core price is the same at one truck as at fifteen.
• At 4 trucks: $1,068 against $2,688 for the first year on monthly billing. Count drivers as well as trucks: four trucks with six drivers puts you on Roadworthy HQ's $149 tier.
• At 10 trucks: $149 against $199. FileFlo's own page puts that at "$20 a truck a month."
• At 11 to 50 trucks: FileFlo covers you and Roadworthy HQ does not. Our plans stop at 10 drivers and 10 vehicles.

If you expect to pass ten trucks soon, that last line matters more than the monthly difference.

How each one reads your paperwork

Both products use an AI model to read uploaded documents. They point it at different jobs.

FileFlo is built to take your records as they are. Its features page says "FileFlo's AI classifies the document type, extracts key data, and flags missing fields," counts "600+ compliance document types," and offers to "upload thousands of documents at once." Records can come in as phone photos, scans, a ZIP, each driver's own phone link, a cloud folder imported and checked on a schedule, or an email to your company's own inbox address. A record that fails a rule is held with a review item naming the rule and the fix, and "a held record never counts as on file." FileFlo's security page names the models: OpenAI reads uploaded documents "to classify them and pull out names and dates," with Google Gemini and Anthropic as fallbacks. The Setup goes further: from your USDOT number and the records you send, FileFlo builds each driver's file for you.

Roadworthy HQ reads one document at a time, at the moment you upload it. When you add a file to a driver's qualification file or to the company documents card (insurance certificate, MCS-150 filing confirmation, consortium enrollment, supervisor and BAT/STT training certificates), the workspace suggests two things:

• which record it is, chosen only from the record types that belong in that slot;
• the dates printed on it, such as the date a medical certificate expires.

You check the suggestion against the paper and confirm or correct it. Nothing is filed until you do, and the retention window comes from the type you confirmed, computed by the database, not from the suggestion. The model is Anthropic's, named in the privacy policy, and it sees only the file you chose, when you chose it.

What ours does not do is sweep a pile. There is no ZIP import, no email-in address, and no cloud-folder sync, and suggestions are capped at 100 in any 24 hours per company. Vehicle records, drug and alcohol test results, and hours-of-service documents go in through their own forms without suggestions.

Which matters to you depends on where you are starting. If you inherited years of unlabeled PDFs, or your files live in five places, FileFlo's bulk intake and its Setup are built for exactly that job, and they are worth paying for. If you are a new carrier building files as you hire, which is most carriers facing their first audit, you add documents one at a time anyway, and a suggestion you confirm on each upload covers it.

Retention: who decides when a record goes

The federal rules set how long each record has to be kept, and they differ by record:

• A driver qualification file is kept "for as long as a driver is employed by that motor carrier and for three years thereafter" (49 CFR §391.51(c)). Some items inside it, such as the motor vehicle record from each annual inquiry, may be removed "three years after the date of execution" (§391.51(d)).
• Maintenance records are kept "for a period of 1 year and for 6 months after the motor vehicle leaves the motor carrier's control" (§396.3(c)).
• Driver vehicle inspection reports, with the repair and review certifications, are kept "for three months from the date the written report was prepared" (§396.11(a)(4)).

FileFlo keeps records "for the retention period after a driver leaves," and FileFlo "tells you when they can go," which leaves the deleting to you.

Roadworthy HQ makes deletion a schedule. Every document gets a purge date the moment it is filed, computed by the database from its record type's retention period. Before that date you get a warning email, and the document then sits in a seven-day grace window where you can extend it. A legal hold stops the clock entirely. When a document is deleted, a record that it existed, and when it went, stays behind.

Neither approach is wrong. If you would rather nothing is ever deleted without your hand on it, FileFlo's model fits. If you would rather the regulation's clock run itself, so each record leaves when the rule says it can, that is what ours is built for.

When the auditor asks

The new-entrant safety audit comes once you have "sufficient records" for FMCSA to evaluate, a period that "will generally be at least 3 months," and every record it needs has to be "made available for inspection upon request" (49 CFR §385.307(b)–(c)). The 12-month timeline post covers when each record has to exist. This section is about handing them over.

FileFlo keeps "the audit packet on demand, indexed to the regulations." It comes with a sealed inspector link you can revoke, an inspector copy without your gap notes, an insurer copy without personal details, and a public page where anyone holding the packet can confirm it is the copy you issued. Drug and alcohol records appear in it "as a count."

Roadworthy HQ builds a binder in one click: a ZIP of every document you have uploaded, sorted into seven sections (driver qualification, drug and alcohol, maintenance, DVIRs, roadside inspections, accidents, filings), with a PDF cover and a manifest that lists each document beside the CFR section it answers. Exports are unlimited on every plan. It is a file, not a link: you send the ZIP yourself, and there is no separate insurer copy. The ZIP also holds documents only, so a record you typed into the workspace instead of uploading shows on screen but not in the binder.

What each one does not do

The overlap first. Neither product is an ELD, so you keep whichever logging device you run today. Neither product's software runs your drug and alcohol program or queries the Clearinghouse for you. FileFlo says so plainly about Core: "You or your providers query the Clearinghouse, order MVRs, run your drug and alcohol program, file with FMCSA and represent you at an audit. Core tracks each one and files the result you send." The same is true of Roadworthy HQ, whose Clearinghouse feature is a query tracker, not an integration, and which does the random-pool math for you without running the tests.

What FileFlo does that Roadworthy HQ does not:

• reads your FMCSA record every day and opens a work item if your authority goes inactive or your insurance filing drops;
• tracks UCR, 2290, IFTA and IRP;
• once you switch it on, asks drivers and the office for renewals by email or text, with an upload link;
• bulk intake, email-in, and cloud-folder import;
• a shareable inspector link and an insurer copy of the packet;
• coverage from 11 to 50 trucks, and a done-for-you department priced for 8 to 25 trucks;
• a written refund: "If an auditor finds a required record missing from a driver file FileFlo shows complete, FileFlo refunds your last 12 months." Roadworthy HQ offers no comparable guarantee. Its trial is how you judge it before paying.

What Roadworthy HQ brings to the comparison:

• a lower price than FileFlo's at every size from 1 to 10 trucks;
• a 14-day trial with no card;
• retention the database enforces, with warnings, a grace window and legal hold;
• random-pool math for your drug and alcohol program;
• a driver self-service portal on the Fleet and Fleet+ plans.

Which one fits

Choose FileFlo if:

• you are starting from a backlog: an inherited archive, scattered files, a box of paper;
• you want driver renewals chased for you;
• you run 11 or more trucks, or will soon;
• you want an inspector link or the done-for-you department.

Choose Roadworthy HQ if:

• you run one to ten trucks and are building your files as you go, or your records are already in order;
• you want the lower price of the two and a trial without a card;
• you would rather the retention clocks run themselves.

You can try both before you pay anything. FileFlo's public-record check needs no signup. Roadworthy HQ's 14-day trial needs no credit card, the demo fleet is one click, and the whole product is on the tour page. Either way, run the free audit readiness check first: it scores the same areas an auditor samples, so you know which of your gaps the software has to close. Audit-ready is the goal, and a week with real records in each product will tell you more than this page can.

If you are also weighing a service rather than software, Foley and J.J. Keller are compared in the J.J. Keller alternatives post.

How this page was put together

Every FileFlo price and feature above was read from getfileflo.com on October 27, 2026. Third-party listings can lag the vendor's own page: FileFlo's G2 profile, read the same day, still showed an older price list (Starter $89 a month, Professional $299 a month, a 5-day trial). Where the two disagree, this page uses FileFlo's own pricing page. Roadworthy HQ's prices are from our pricing page the same day. If either vendor's page now says something different, the vendor's page wins.

Related violation codes

The requirements covered above are cited as these violation codes in audits and roadside inspections:

• §391.51 — Driver qualification file incomplete — 49 CFR §391.51
• §396.3 — Inadequate inspection, repair, and maintenance — 49 CFR §396.3
• §396.11 — Driver vehicle inspection report violations — 49 CFR §396.11