The Ten Minutes That Save You an Hour at the Roadside

Two documents you must be able to produce, a handful that make a bad hour shorter, and three that should never be in a car at all. It takes ten minutes to sort out and you will only ever notice it on the day it matters.

The two you have to be able to show

Evidence of insurance. California requires you to be able to show evidence of financial responsibility when you are driving, and Vehicle Code section 16028 expressly allows you to display it on a phone. That is genuinely useful — and a phone with a dead battery is not evidence. Keep the paper card too. They cost nothing and they do not run out of charge at the side of a road.

Your registration card. California expects the current registration card to be kept with the vehicle; the DMV's own registration pages set out what you should have and how to replace it if it has gone missing. If yours is two renewals out of date, that is a five-minute fix online rather than a roadside argument.

The ones that make a bad day shorter

• A card with your policy number and your insurer's claims line written on it. Not the sales number — the claims number. They are often different, and the one you want at 9pm is the claims one.
• A cheap pen and a small notepad. Phones get dropped, break, and are the one thing everyone is fumbling with anyway.
• The name of a tow service you would actually call, or a note of whether your policy includes towing. Deciding that in advance is worth more than it sounds.

Photographs of the car's current condition belong in your phone's cloud backup, not in the glovebox. If the car is stolen, anything inside it goes with the car.

The report most drivers have never heard of

If you are ever in a collision, there is a state report that is separate from any police report and separate from your insurance claim. Vehicle Code section 16000 requires a report to the DMV within 10 days when an accident caused injury or death, or property damage over $1,000 to any one person — regardless of who was at fault. People miss it because the police attended and they assumed that covered it. It does not.

And if you hit a parked car or unattended property, Vehicle Code section 20002 requires you to leave a note with your name and address, or to find the owner. A note takes thirty seconds; the alternative is a criminal matter.

Three things to take out today

The title. If the car is stolen, the thief should not also get its ownership document. Keep it at home.

Spare keys and the garage remote. A remote in a car that also carries your address on the registration card is a route into your house.

Anything valuable. Comprehensive coverage insures the vehicle. Personal property taken from inside it is usually a different question entirely, and often a homeowners or renters question rather than an auto one — ask your own insurer how yours handles it, because this genuinely varies.

The five-minute version

1. Current insurance card, paper, in the glovebox. Digital copy on the phone as well.
2. Current registration card with the vehicle.
3. Claims phone number and policy number on a card.
4. Title, spare keys and remote out of the car and into a drawer at home.

If you are not certain what your policy actually includes for towing, rental or glass, have us read your declarations page with you. It takes a couple of minutes and it is the cheapest hour of preparation you will ever do.