Purpose: This research studied the current document management (DM) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of a road freight transport sector in a South American city with the aim to determine strengths and challenges for improving information management. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted using a survey approach based on measuring information management capabilities (IMC) through the following main dimensions: perception about DM practices, DM policies and tools, IT usage, organizational climate, and problems related to document management. Findings: The main results from the work stated the challenges for these companies in adopting electronic document management systems (EDMS) and handling information effectively even though the business experience. Also, the study highlighted the top management commitment in terms of investments for IMC development. Nevertheless, this economic support tends to be not enough to afford the EDMS implementation. Originality/value: Regarding the importance of information in road freight transport sector, this paper explored DM practices in a field in which no previous studies related to DM had been conducted and set the basis to make decisions to improve information management performance.