Need A DOT Compliance Services Partner?

DOT compliance services are types of businesses that help trucking companies ensure that they comply with federal and state regulations related to the transportation of goods on public roads.

Why Should You Consider Working With A DOT Compliance Services Company?

Larger fleets will typically have an in-house safety manager or even a safety department and owner-operators can usually manage their own DOT compliance and fleet safety pretty well.

But, those fleets in between usually need some assistance with managing their huge DOT compliance burden.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA ) regulations that govern commercial motor vehicles in the US is over 400 pages long and it the DOT regulations change regularly.

The problem is that most fleet owners lack the resources (time, energy, manpower and/or money) to effectively manage their DOT compliance and the FMCSA doesn’t like you picking and choosing which regulations that you adhere to.

Check out this very short video about why you should consider working with a DOT compliance service like My Safety Manager:

With a fleet growing from 1 to even 2 or 3 power units, the compliance burden grows dramatically. This is especially true for compliance with the Hours of Service and Vehicle Maintenance regulations. 

The costs of non-compliance come from lost time (from your trucks or drivers receiving an out of service violation after a roadside inspection) fines (resulting from a DOT audit) and from higher truck insurance premiums. 

So, what options do you have?

DOT Compliance Management Options

Do Nothing

Ignorance is bliss in some cases, but certainly not for trucking compliance sand fleet safety. Ignoring the US DOT regulations will see your trucking company quickly shut down pretty quickly.

Every new trucking company must undergo a New Entrant Safety Audit within the first 12 to 18 months of your DOT authority being granted.

If you lack any basic safety and compliance processes, you’ll fail your NESA. You’ll be prohibited from operating until you can show that you have the required compliance structure in place.

Even if you pass the New Entrant Safety Audit, your fleet will start racking up Level 3 roadside inspections and eventually Level 1 roadside inspections.

If you’re not staying on top of your DOT compliance, these inspections won’t go well for you and your CSA BASIC scores will start to increase. There’s a good chance that you’ll have an increased amount of DOT recordable accidents as well.

These high CSA scores will eventually cause you to undergo a DOT audit (Compliance Review) where you’ll likely be fined for non-compliance and you may be issued an Unsatisfactory or Conditional Safety Rating. 

If the DOT audit doesn’t force you out of business (most freight brokers won’t do business with a motor carrier with a Conditional Safety Rating), any insurance company that your insurance agent can talk into providing a quote will drive your truck insurance pricing through the roof. 

We call this the “DOT Death Spiral” and it’s very hard to recover from once you get too far down the road. 

Manage Your DOT Compliance Internally 

At first, you’ll probably be tempted to handle all of your DOT compliance and fleet safety responsibilities yourself.

But, you’re also trying to grow your business, dispatch trucks, manage your drivers, handle the accounting, vehicle maintenance and everything else that goes along with normal trucking operations. 

You’ll quickly realize that this is all too much to handle and try to bring on some help to ease the workload. 

This will help. But, you’ll probably develop what we like to call the “Wanda in Accounting” problem. 

You bring on “Wanda” (or “Jim” or whoever) to help with accounting and some of the back office tasks to help ease the workload around the office.

They’re great and they do help ease your burdens. But, Wanda is only so good. She may even have some experience in helping with DOT compliance in a prior role. 

She can wear a few hats at once and she can’t work 24 hours a day.

She may be able to take a few hours to handle a complete driver qualification. But, what else won’t be done while she is busy doing that? 

Doing things like enrolling in a drug and alcohol consortium to comply with the drug and alcohol regulations will also help.

But, will that company manage your entire drug and alcohol compliance program? 

You may fill some gaps and plug some holes in your FMCSA compliance. But, this will be an incomplete solution at best. 

You could hire a safety manager to help manage your DOT compliance and fleet safety. But, the typical salary for a good fleet safety manager is around $60,000 to $70,000 annually plus benefits.

Honestly, most safety managers would rather “run” than “build” a safety and compliance management program. Plus, how do you know if they know what they’re doing?

Trust us, being a member of a large fleet safety team is quite different than running their own show at your company.

So, there may also be some conflict between your expectations and their expertise.      

Hire A DOT Compliance Services Provider 

Transportation compliance services, like My Safety Manager, can typically provide a range of solutions that help trucking companies manage their USDOT compliance responsibilities and help improve their fleet safety.

Trucking compliance services may offer assistance with tasks such as qualifying new drivers, maintaining driver qualification and vehicle maintenance files, ensuring compliance with hours-of-service regulations, managing your drug and alcohol testing program and staying up-to-date with changes in transportation laws and regulations.

Overall, DOT compliance services help trucking companies and drivers navigate the complex and ever-changing regulatory landscape of the transportation industry, ensuring that they operate in a safe, legal, and efficient manner.

A DOT compliance company can handle most of the compliance related tasks that you need for your fleet safety program to be successful.  

The best DOT compliance companies will help develop, implement and manage the processes and systems needed to fully and effectively manage your safety and compliance. 

DOT Compliance Services Pricing

Because DOT compliance companies offer many different services, the pricing for what they do can range greatly. 

On the low end, some companies may only charge you perhaps $5 or $10 monthly per driver to house your driver qualification files on their system and remind you about upcoming CDL or DOT medical certificate expirations.  

On the high end, you could hire a DOT compliance consultant to help with specific issues that you may be having in your fleet. They typically charge between $150 to $500 per hour for their time. 

Trying to upgrade your Conditional Safety Rating could cost you up to $1,500 to $2,000. 

It really just depends on the DOT compliance services that you need and the prices available. 

We like to keep things simple. So, we only charge a flat $49 monthly per driver for ALL of the fleet safety and trucking compliance services that we provide. 

If you need to upgrade your Conditional Safety Rating, we only charge $725 to handle that for you (if you’re not enrolled in our My Safety Manager program). 

DOT Compliance Services Frequently Asked Questions:

Do most transportation compliance services require us to sign a contract? 

Yes, most often you’ll be expected to sign up for at least a year to work with a DOT compliance company. 

You would have a contract with us! Everything that we do is on a month to month basis. Though, most of our clients stay for years. 

Do DOT Compliance companies charge enrollment fees? 

Yes, beware of setup or enrollment fees! Some DOT compliance services will charge you for these. (We don’t do that either.)

We strive to offer complete compliance services for a fixed monthly cost. You’re getting nickel and dimed by most of your other service providers. 

What Sets My Safety Manager Apart From Other Trucking Compliance Services? 

I’m pretty biased, but here’s how we strive to be different:

We handle your DOT compliance and fleet safety with and for you. Unlike many DOT compliance companies, we don’t run a DIY compliance type of program. Everything that we do is a “done for you service”. Esentially, we serve as your entire safety and compliance department for only $49 monthly per driver. 

Flat based pricing is also a critical difference. We don’t nickel and dime you like some other DOT compliance services do. What you see is what you get. We’re transparent in what we provide and what we charge. We don’t charge for running annual MVRs, any drug and alcohol testing

Our pricing is simple and up front. We also feel that we provide a tremendous value for all of the services that we provide (Who doesn’t, right?!?!?) 

Another key advantage to working with us is that you’re not just a number on a spreadsheet and your account won’t be “handled” by a recent college graduate. We have an intentionally smaller footprint in the trucking compliance service marketplace. This allows our experienced safety and compliance professionals to work very closely with a more exclusive group of fleets. 

We are selective about who we work with and we would rather invest our time and energy in woring with like-minded business partners than try to sell one-off compliance services to any fleet with a DOT number.  

We also qualify new drivers within 3 hours of receiving their online or paper driver application. Time is money and new truck driver candidates wait for nobody! Having a super fast turnaround in completing the initial driver qualification process is critical.

Within 3 hours, you will have a new driver candidate’s MVR, PSP report and NRCME verification in hand with our team’s recommendations about their fit for your fleet.

Of course, we will have their full Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse query and their pre-employment drug test set up as well. If you decide to bring the driver candidate on, we’ll complete their Safety Performance History (prior-carrier background check) as well.

All DQFs (and other DOT compliance files) are maintained electronically and available for review through your ComplianceHub dashboard 24/7. 

How do Trucking companies stay compliant? 

Well, by following all of the DOT regulations. As we pointed out earlier, that’s much easier said than done. Getting help from a DOT compliance services provider is a great way to help improve your DOT compliance and fleet safety.

Yes, you and your team may be able to handle many of the day to day compliance management tasks. But, having experts who live and breathe DOT compliance should serve you much better. You’ll probably be surprised how cost and time efficient a good transportation compliance services company can be.   

What is the toughest safety and or compliance challenge facing small trucking companies today? 

That’s a hard question to anwer because each trucking company is unique. But, in reviewing a huge amount of FMCSA compliance statistics, roadside inspection information and the results of thousands of DOT audits, it’s safe to say that two areas stick out: Hours of Service and Vehicle Maintenance.

Our take is that as your fleet size grows, it’s simply harder to monitor DOT compliance for more drivers and trucks.

For instance, how are you monitoring your driver’s use of personal conveyance?

Are you tracking your driver’s pre-trip inspections to prevent Level 1 DOT inspections?

Are you also tracking violations received from all roadside inspections and taking corrective action with those drivers to prevent the DOT violations from happening again?

As the industry continues down the path of an independent contractor business model, that lack of monitoring and effective corrective action leads to more unsafe driving events and crashes. 

Good DOT compliance practices should begin before the ink dries on your FMCSA registration documents.

Good DOT compliance practices should begin before the ink dries on your FMCSA registration documents. It’s much easier to lay a great foundation and build on it than it is to play catch up. So, try to start off on the right foot. 

Not sure where to begin? Just call us at 1-855-211-5550 or check us out at www.MySafetyManager.com for more information. 

Our trucking compliance services are designed to make it easier to comply with the HOS and vehicle maintenance DOT regulations.

For instance, we help you comply with the DOT tire regulations by tracking tire tread depths and working with you to enact a proactive tire replacement program.

We help improve hours of service compliance by regularly monitoring your ELD information for HOS violations, ELD disconnects, unidentified driving time and personal conveyance abuse.

We would update your information in your ComplianceHub dashboard each week and alert you to trends and other areas of concern.

Can’t I just type DOT Compliance Services Near Me In Google?

Yes, you can! But, beware of what you may find.

There are only about a half dozen or so truly “national” DOT compliance companies. While you may be fortunate enough to have one in your backyard, chances are they won’t be.

You’re much more likely to find a DOT compliance consultant rather than a DOT compliance company by doing this. Nothing against these great professionals.

They are usually retired or former FMCSA investigators or State DOT motor carrier enforcement officers who have elected a different pace of life.

Their primary drawback is that they usually lack the ability to provide full DOT compliance management services.

They may be able to help diagnose issues, root out potential causes and prescribe a plan of action for correction. But, they usually fall short on helping you implement and manage the plan that they lay out for you.

As mentioned before, they usually tend to charge a few hundred dollars per hour for DOT compliance help.

Many fleets believe that they need to have a transportation compliance service provider come on site. Sometimes that may be the case.

Generally, we find that our virtual approach to fleet safety and DOT compliance management offers the best of both worlds: Knowledgable DOT compliance experts managing your entire safety and DOT compliance program while you’re spared the trouble and expenses of having a full time safety and compliance manager in house.

You should talk to a few different transportation compliance services to make sure that the company can provide the support that you need while meeting your expectations. Just like every trucking fleet is different, every trucking compliance services firm is different too.

Final Thoughts

Choosing to handle your own DOT compliance and fleet safety in house could be a viable option. But, partnering with a quality DOT compliance services company (like My Safety Manager) can help save you time, energy and money.

You have many options of trucking compliance services to choose from and each have benefits and drawbacks. Hopefully, you’ll now have a better understanding of what a DOT compliance company can provide and what kind of questions you should be asking potential compliance management partners.