Customized DOT Compliance Systems
For new trucking operations, whether for-hire or not, getting your DOT compliance systems in place during your first 30 days in busniess is absolutely critical. Statistically, if a company waits beyond about 30 days after start-up to actively pursue putting together their DOT compliance systems, it will likely never be a very compliant company. At a minimum, there will be several items that will "fall through the cracks" on a regular basis, and there are actually some items that must be completed within those first 30 days. CCM can provide you with a complete DOT compliance system set-up service that will ensure that, from the beginning, your company will be well within the boundries of compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations in the six major focus areas of:
1. Driver Qualifications (hiring practices and recordkeeping)
2. DOT Drug & Alcohol Testing (forms, compliant policy, procedures)
3. Financial Responsibility (insurance recordkeeping requirements)
4. Hours of Service (forms, policies, and procedures for keeping driver duty status records)
5. Accident Recordkeeping (forms and procudures)
6. Vehicle Inspections & Maintenance (forms, policies, and procedures)
This service is provided on-site at your location, and includes training of your designated personnel on how to maintain compliance on an on-going basis. The benefits of this service to your company don't stop with just getting you in a position to successfully navigate your way through a DOT audit (such as the new entrant review audit that is mandatory within 18 months of issuance of a new USDOT number). The greater benefit is that this service ensures that, in the event of an accident that leads to a lawsuit against your company for damages, you can rest assured that the plaintiff's attorney will not be able to use "failure to maintain compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations" as a bullet against you in court.
FMCSA (formerly ICC) Authority & USDOT Number Filings We can assist you with the process of filing for your federal interstate common or contract carrier authority from FMCSA, as well as your USDOT number. Our fees are very competitive, and include handlling all of the paperwork issues, providing your required process agent service, and coordinating with your insurance provider to get the necessary proof of insurance filings completed as quickly as possible. Our goal is to stay on top of your filing so that you get your authority as quickly as possible. We offer a very personal level of service in this area and stay in contact with you regularly throughout the process so you stay as informed as we are about your filing status. We also offer the service of filing for your base state IFTA account in conjunction with this service. Driver Log Auditing
Driver logs, and the failure to properly audit them and follow up with documented counseling regarding the violations, are the cause of a large percentage of the fines imposed by the DOT each year. And since the implementation of the new DOT hours of service rules, driver log audits have come under ever increasing scrutiny. We offer two levels of log auditing services. Level 1 audits cover basic form and manner of logs and review each driver's logs for Hours of Service (HOS) violations. In Level 2 audits, we perform falsification reviews where the logs are compared to fuel records, toll tickets, citations, etc., in addition to what we review for in a Level 1 audit. Independent third-party log audits not only lighten your administrative workload but also add credibility in the event of litigation.
Quarterly IFTA Fuel Tax Reporting
IFTA fuel tax record keeping and quarterly filings are a specialty for us. Working closely with your company, we can relieve you of the burden of extensive record keeping and filing quarterly fuel tax reports with your home jurisdiction.
IRP, UCR, & FHUT Filings
The process of filing annual renewals of IRP, Unified Carrier Registration, and Federal Heavy Use Tax (IRS Form 2290) is a time-consuming and tedious process. As a part of a package of services, we offer these annual services at a very reasonable rate. We can also process any supplemental filings you may need as a result of adding equipment during the middle of the year.
Periodic DOT Compliance Reviews
Employing an outside firm to perform a DOT compliance review gives you an opportunity to review your compliance status from a completely objective, unbiased perspective. After all, that's the perspective a DOT auditor will have when performing an official audit. Our compliance review process covers the full range of auditable items such as driver logs and Hours of Service issues, vehicle inspections and maintenance records, training records, accident recordkeeping, insurance, driver qualification files, and drug and alcohol testing records. A comprehensive summary is provided after each review and recommendations are made for bridging any gaps that are discovered.
Periodic OSHA Compliance Reviews
Similar in nature to a DOT compliance review, we can conduct a review of your OSHA compliance status by conducting an on-site review of your operations. OSHA field auditors frequently state that most violations and citations could be avoided by simply conducting some form of periodic review of compliance with OSHA workplace regulations. A comprehensive summary is provided after each review and recommendations are made for bridging any gaps that are discovered.
Training Services
We provide onsite training of your personnel covering a number of topics such as:
* Proper logging methods * The Decisive Driver (defensive driving alternative)
* Vehicle inspections * Reasonable suspicion training
* Load securement * Driver safety training
* Drug & alcohol policy training * Warehouse & Shipping Operations Safety Training
* Forklift Certification Training * and much more
All employees who complete a training class receive a certificate which also serves as a record of their training.
Staff Training & Development
We also offer a variety of Human Resource level training modules that target support staff and management development. By training your leaders and supervisors / dispatchers in items such as Basic Supervisor Skills, Teamwork Dynamics, Leadership Skills, Dealing Effectively with Difficult People, Busniess Etiquette, Telephone Etiquette, and Legal Issues Awareness for Supervisors/Managers, you will see a positive effect on driver retention. The better trained your staff and support groups are in how to make others feel that they are a part of the team, the lower your driver turnover will be. You will see the dynamics of your whole organization improve as well. To learn more about our Human Resource level training, visit our affiliate company website, www.high-impacttraining.com
Driver Qualification File Management
With the high number of driver related items that have annual or bi-annual expiration dates, it is easy for these items to "fall through the cracks" or go unnoticed upon expiration. We will maintain a database of expiration dates on CDLs, medical examiner's certificates, MVRs, annual driver reviews, and other important date-sensitive, renewable items and remind you of these pending expirations so they aren't overlooked. In some cases, we'll even help you renew these items.
Drug & Alcohol Testing Programs
Another common reason for fines imposed by the DOT is the failure to either have a drug & alcohol testing policy in place, or not following the proper procedures for pre-employment, post-accident, random, reasonable suspicion, and return-to-duty testing. We can assist with this by providing the necessary DOT compliant policy and setting up the mandated procedures you need to be following. We can also assist by placing your drivers in our random selection consorium and producing a list of names each quarter to insure that you have met the quota for your number of drivers each year.
Expert Witness Service
Hopefully, you will never need this service. However, if you find yourself in the middle of a lawsuit resulting from an accident, it is often very helpful to be able to produce an independent expert witness who can testify as to your level of compliance with FMCSA and industry standards for DOT compliance, vehicle maintenance programs, operational practices and trucking safety practices. We can provide just that type of assistance. Defending the trucking industry is a subject we are very passionate about and we would welcome any opportunity to work with your legal counsel to assist in its accomplishment.
Our services are competitively priced and we offer multi-tiered volume discounts to fleets with over 20 units. Please take a moment to look at what our other clients have to say about working with Compass Compliance Management, and then give us a call or use the "Contact Us" button to the left to request more information or a rate quote.
