Clean Truck Check Credentialed Tester

Setting up your CTC-VIS account

A five-step walkthrough from zero to a downloaded compliance certificate. Plain language, screenshots of each CTC-VIS screen you'll see, and notes on the spots where most operators get stuck.

Before you start

Have these things on hand and the process moves quickly:

  • An email address you check (this becomes your CTC-VIS username)
  • Business name and physical address (or your personal name + address for owner-operators)
  • For each vehicle: VIN, license plate, registration state
  • A payment method — credit/debit card recommended for fastest certificate issuance

Plan on about 30 minutes from start to a downloaded certificate if your fee payment clears immediately. Up to 5 business days if you pay by eCheck.

Step 1: Create an account

Go to cleantruckcheck.arb.ca.gov and click Create an Account. CARB's account creation flow asks two key questions up front: account type (Individual or Entity) and entity type (within Entity). The right answer is almost always Entity Account, Company entity type — even for single-truck owner-operators. Company entity type unlocks User Management, which lets you grant access to a spouse, driver, broker, or carrier later without recreating the account.

Step 1 — pick Entity Account, then Company as entity type on the next screen.

Use your monitored email address as the username. Fill in the required business fields, verify the address (CTC-VIS validates against USPS — small format differences are usually fine, structural typos block submission). Hit Next, check the acknowledgement box, and click Submit. CARB sends a verification email within a few minutes.

Step 2: Set your password

Open the inbox for the email you registered with. Look for a message from CARB with subject line containing "Welcome to CARB"— if you don't see it within 5 minutes, check spam, and confirm the email address on the registration matches what you're checking.

Click the activation link. Choose Set Up and create your password.

Step 2 — set your password. This is the password you'll use to log into CTC-VIS from now on.

Save this password carefully.Password managers occasionally save CARB credentials against the wrong URL (cleantruckcheck.arb.ca.gov vs. arb.ca.gov vs. one of the login subdomains), which makes the password manager unable to autofill it later. Take a screenshot of the credential entry, or write the password down in your fleet operations binder. We've seen operators lose half a day to a password manager that filed the credential under the wrong domain.

Log into the Clean Truck Check portal with your new password. You should land on the CTC-VIS dashboard.

Step 3: Add your vehicles

From the dashboard, click the My Entity circle.

Step 3 — start at My Entity from the dashboard.

Scroll down to the Vehicles section. Click Actions, then Add Vehicle. CTC-VIS opens a multi-section form. The form's top field is a Form Objective— enter something descriptive like "adding trucks". The objective is for your own audit trail; CARB doesn't inspect it.

Click NEXT through the early sections to advance to Section 5: Vehicle Information. At Section 5, click Actions → Add Vehicle again. This opens the per-vehicle entry pane.

Step 3 — Section 5 vehicle entry. Fill in Location, VIN, License Plate, and Registration state.

Fill in Location (where the vehicle is primarily based), VIN, License Plate, and Registration state. CTC-VIS offers an Auto Populate Databutton — use it; it pulls vehicle details from CARB's registration database and saves typing. If Auto Populate comes back empty, that's usually because the vehicle is recently registered, registered out of state, or has a registration discrepancy. Fill the fields manually in that case.

Save the vehicle entry. Advance to Section 7 and submit the form. Return to the dashboard by clicking the CARB logo at the top.

Repeat for each additional vehicle. Large fleets can use the bulk import workflow (covered in a future walkthrough), but for under ~10 vehicles the per-vehicle add flow is usually faster than wrangling the bulk import spreadsheet.

Step 4: Pay the annual compliance fee

Back on the dashboard, click the Fees & Payments circle.

Step 4 — Fees & Payments. May take a few minutes to load after adding vehicles.

CTC-VIS may take a few minutes to compute fees for newly added vehicles. If the page shows zero fees right after you added vehicles, wait 2-3 minutes and refresh.

Select individual fees or click Add All Fees to Cart. Hit Proceed to Checkout.

For payment method: credit or debit card if you need your compliance certificate within 1-2 business days. TeleCheck (eCheck) works but can delay certificate issuance by up to 5 business days because CTC-VIS waits for the eCheck to fully clear before issuing the certificate. Operators stacked against a deadline should use the card.

Step 5: Download the compliance certificate

Once payment clears, return to the dashboard via the CARB logo. Click My Entity, scroll to the Vehicles section.

Step 5 — Vehicles section. Each Compliant vehicle has a Download Certificate option.

For each vehicle showing Compliant, you can now download the compliance certificate directly from the Vehicles section. Save copies. Most operators put a PDF in the truck's document binder and another copy in fleet shared storage.

If a vehicle shows Non-Compliant, click the status to see the specific requirement that's outstanding. The most common causes (in order): fee payment hasn't cleared yet, no passing test on file for the current compliance window, or a previously-failed test that wasn't followed by a passing retest. See the FAQ below for next steps on each.

Common errors and how to handle them

"Address could not be verified." CTC-VIS validates against USPS. Re-check for structural typos (street suffix missing, ZIP off by a digit). If the address is genuinely valid and CTC-VIS still rejects it, use the USPS lookup tool to find the exact USPS-validated form of your address and paste that in.

"Vehicle already registered to another entity."This means the VIN exists in another CTC-VIS account — typically the previous owner. Contact CARB's Clean Truck Check helpdesk; they can release a vehicle from a previous owner's account with proof of current ownership (typically a copy of the current registration or bill of sale).

"Fee payment declined."Card declines usually trace to the cardholder address mismatch — CTC-VIS's payment processor verifies the billing address against the card's issuer record. Re-enter the billing address exactly as it appears on the card statement. eCheck declines usually mean a typo in the routing or account number.

"Form objective is required." CTC-VIS won't let you save Section 5 without something in the Form Objective field. Anything works — "adding trucks", "new fleet entry", "Q2 onboarding".

The dashboard shows a vehicle I didn't add. Two causes. (1) If you bought a used truck, the previous owner's registration may have flowed through; you can transfer or release it (see above). (2) If you're running an Clean Truck Check device subscription or a service that adds vehicles on your behalf, that workflow can populate vehicles automatically.

FAQ

Should I create an Individual Account or an Entity Account?
Entity Account, always. CTC-VIS treats individual accounts as throwaway sandboxes — you cannot add multiple vehicles cleanly, you cannot grant access to a spouse, driver, broker, or carrier, and you cannot run a real fleet workflow. Even single-truck owner-operators benefit from creating an Entity Account because it leaves the door open to adding another vehicle or another user later. Within Entity, choose 'Company' as the entity type if you want a User Management section that lets you grant access to others.
I never got the welcome email — what should I do?
Check spam first. Then check whether the email address you used in account creation matches what you're checking — the most common cause is a typo on the registration form. If neither resolves it, you can request a new verification email by attempting to log in: CTC-VIS will detect the unverified state and offer to resend.
Auto Populate Data is not pulling my vehicle info — what now?
Auto Populate pulls from CARB's vehicle registration database. If your truck was recently registered, is registered out of state, or has a registration discrepancy, Auto Populate can come back empty or wrong. Fill in the fields manually — VIN, license plate, registration state — and CTC-VIS will accept the submission. Mismatches between manual entry and CARB's record sometimes trigger a Notice to Submit to Testing (NST) later, which the NST walkthrough (coming soon) covers.
Credit card vs. eCheck — which should I use?
Credit or debit card if you need the certificate fast. Card payments typically clear within minutes, and CTC-VIS issues the compliance certificate the same day. eCheck (TeleCheck) can take up to 5 business days to clear, and the certificate doesn't issue until the payment clears. If you're stacking against a deadline, use the card.
My vehicle shows 'Non-Compliant' even though I paid the fee. Why?
Three common causes. (1) The fee hasn't fully cleared yet — eCheck payments take time, and even card payments can take a few minutes to reflect. Wait 15 minutes and refresh. (2) The vehicle is missing a passing test submission for the current compliance period. The annual fee alone doesn't make the vehicle compliant; it has to have a current test on file from a CARB-credentialed tester (or an remotely-submitted test). (3) The vehicle is flagged for a non-fee issue — for example, a previously-failed test that was never followed by a passing retest. Click the status to see the specific requirement.
Can I add a vehicle that's registered out of state?
Yes. Clean Truck Check applies to any non-gasoline vehicle over 14,000 lb GVWR operating in California, regardless of registration state. Enter the registration state as it actually is — CTC-VIS handles out-of-state registrations directly.
How do I add another user to my CTC-VIS account?
Only available on Entity Accounts where you chose 'Company' as the entity type. Look for the User Management section in your dashboard. The owner of the account can invite additional users by email; each user gets their own login but operates under the same entity. If you set up as an Individual Account, you cannot add users — you'd need to recreate as an Entity Account.

Next steps

You have a CTC-VIS account, vehicles added, fees paid, and certificates downloaded. Now choose how the actual testing gets done:

Log into CTC-VIS →

This walkthrough is adapted from the operator's tutorial at smartctc.com/ctc-vis-log-in. Screenshots are illustrative placeholders pending redacted captures from a live CTC-VIS session. CTC-VIS workflows change occasionally as CARB iterates the portal — confirm any step-by-step UI detail against the live CTC-VIS interface before treating it as authoritative.