You need DD Form 788-2, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: PrivateVehicle Shipping Document for Motorcycle. Its official title is DD Form 788-2, Private Vehicle Shipping Document for Motorcycle, September 1998.
Then look at the edition date: not stated, publisher status not stated. After that, ask whether the form covers your situation. It almost certainly does regardless of your branch — DD forms run Department-wide rather than through a single service.
Then settle the schedule. You are working under not stated, with not stated responsible for the document, and your organization layers its own deadlines on that. Ask before you assume a date.
Last in this stage, choose your method: complete it on screen, or print the blank form and fill it out in pen. The sections below take each route step by step.
Start at the header. Complete your identification before anything else, then work through the main entries, then finish at the certification. Skipping around causes contradictions between the top of the form and the bottom.
Before your first entry, look at the corner of the page and compare the printed date with not stated. If they do not match, stop and download again. Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
If a particular field puzzles you, read the instructions printed on the form first, then go to not stated. When the two disagree, follow the directive.
Download the form
First, look at what you can download. The set covers PDF, the form runs 2 pages, and you will complete roughly 119 fields.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
Prefer typing over writing. Your form will likely be scanned and emailed onward, and typed text reproduces at every stage while pen strokes fade or blur. When you do write, print in capitals so the receiving clerk can read it.
All of it downloads free. When you are ready to work, do this: save the file locally, then open it in a full pdf application. Browsers often ignore field properties, and you can lose everything you typed.
What the form asks for
- TCMD data. 1. Doc ID, TP1.
- 2. Container number.
- 3. Consignor.
- 4. Comm-Ex.
- 5. Port of entry.
- 6. Point of destination.
- 7. Pack.
- 8. Transportation control number.
- 9. Consignee.
- 10. RDD.
- 11. TR account.
- 12. Pieces.
- 13. Weight.
- 14. Cube.
- 15. Doc ID, TP8.
- 16. POV year, make.
- 17. Owner's last name.
- 18. First and middle initials.
- 19. Grade.
- 20. State.
- 21. License number.
- 21. Color.
- 22. Body type.
- 21. Vehicle identification number.
Submit the completed form through the channel not stated or your local guidance specifies. Save a copy for yourself before it leaves your hands, whether that means a scan, a photograph or a duplicate file.
If the form points you to another document, you can find it by number alone. DD numbering runs across the whole Department, so you do not need to work out which service issued it — one number, one form, everywhere.
Be careful when a procedure pairs this form with a service form. Read the prefix, not just the digits. Service forms answer to a service proponent, while DD forms answer to not stated or an equivalent Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Grabbing the wrong prefix gets you a form that has nothing to do with your task.
Plan to repeat this step whenever the form comes up again. Revisions follow directive changes, changes in what data is collected, and updates to notice language. Since nobody notifies you, check not stated at download and you have covered it.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 788-2?
- DD Form 788-2, Private Vehicle Shipping Document for Motorcycle, September 1998
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?