Fleet and municipal truck specs, read into a draft build sheet and quote lines.

A fleet manager or public works department sends a specification, sometimes a few lines in an email, sometimes a numbered bid sheet with addenda. Your estimator reads it for the chassis rating and cab-to-axle, picks a body type and length, works out the power take-off and hydraulics, counts the lighting and options, then writes a build sheet and prices it. Whatever the sheet leaves unsaid goes back as a question to the buyer or the chassis dealer.

For the test, AI reads copies of specs you already answered and drafts the build sheet and the quote lines: every requirement in the buyer's own numbering, the body and equipment it points to, a marked exception where your builds differ, and the list of what a person must confirm before pricing. A line gets a price only from your past quotes or lists, and stays blank for your estimator otherwise.

Fit questions get handed back to the builder. When the City of Grand Junction, Colorado put five dump trucks out to bid in 2026, a bidder asked what cab-to-axle it wanted: a 10-foot body might need frame extensions on a 60 CA and sit too close to the drive tires on an 84 CA, while a 9-foot 6-inch or 11-foot 4-inch body would suit one or the other. The city's addendum said the dimension is whatever the body installer requires for a proper fit, and that its approximate 10-foot length allowed bids near that size. So the draft never treats a body length as settled. It reads the body and chassis lines together and marks the pair for your estimator.

Specs can contradict themselves, and a fix moves other lines. That same addendum corrected an engine line after a bidder pointed out that the size called for as gasoline was a diesel size, and that the answer decided the PTO and pump behind the hoist. Another bidder asked about an electric-over-hydraulic hoist; item 39 allows one only if a PTO option isn't compatible with the unit bid. Lines like those go on the list to confirm with the buyer or the chassis dealer, with the reason written out.

Each buyer has its own way to show an exception. Louisiana's transportation department, in its August 2026 specification 156-200D for a tandem dump truck with a removable pusher axle, plows and a salt spreader, wants additions, deletions and variations on a page called Bidder's Exceptions, along with any installation the vendor does instead of the manufacturer. Failing to note them can mean rejection at delivery, and it won't accept an exception below a minimum. Grand Junction's form has Meets, Does Not Meet and Comments columns and a separately labeled exceptions sheet. Portsmouth, New Hampshire's bid 16-16 puts each one in a column headed Actual Bid. Louisiana also wants a build sheet delivered in plain language rather than company codes, the very document this job drafts.

Small lines carry real work. The Louisiana sheet calls for a PTO aperture on the transmission and a front crankshaft-driven PTO whose driveshaft stays clear of the radiator, charge air cooler and condenser. Warning lights go in through an upfitter who regularly does that work, on one labeled in-cab switch, after a call to the department to confirm flash patterns. Its pusher axle comes off in winter so an underbody scraper can use the same suspension. When a line touches the frame, 49 CFR 393.201 comes up too: it restricts bending, cutting or notching the flanges between the axles, drilling the top or bottom flanges and welding parts on, except as the vehicle maker allows. The draft sends such a line to a person.

What your reviewer will watch. Are the requirements in the buyer's order? Is the chassis rating as written, or marked to confirm? Does each body length sit with its cab-to-axle line? Is every exception taken where your estimator took it? A line the draft couldn't read should be marked, never filled in. Nothing here is legal or engineering advice, and whether a build meets a standard stays with the qualified people at your shop.

After a yes, each new spec gets a draft build sheet and quote lines as it lands, for about 30 days.

Your estimator confirms every line, prices it and sends the quote from your own system, and nothing enters that system or goes to a buyer without that step. Live drafts keep getting marked on the table your reviewer used for the test.