What is a Conditional DOT Rating?
A Conditional safety rating can be issued to a motor carrier by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) at the end of a DOT compliance review (or DOT audit). This is one of 4 possible FMCSA safety ratings that can be received by a trucking company.
An FMCSA conditional rating suggests that the trucking company has a lack of effective safety management controls.
Trucking companies are selected for a compliance review after they receive violations from DOT roadside inspection activity. Bad roadside inspections lead to high CSA scores, which causes a motor carrier to eventually land on the audit list if effective improvement steps aren’t implemented.
How do you improve your Conditional FMCSA safety rating?
There are only 2 ways to change or upgrade your FMCSA safety rating.
1) You can request a safety rating upgrade by submitting a Corrective Action Plan to the FMCSA. This is how to request an upgrade to your safety rating based on corrective action.
2) The FMCSA will conduct another comprehensive compliance review and potentially issue your company a new safety rating.
Option 1 is the quicker, easier and much less stressful of the two choices.
This sounds very simple at first, but most CAPs submitted by trucking companies are denied. So, many company owners turn to DOT compliance services (Like My Safety Manager) to help upgrade their Conditional safety rating.
The most common reason that safety rating upgrade requests are denied is a lack of supporting evidence that your company is now in compliance with the regulations. This is especially true for hours of service violations.
What is a Corrective Action Plan?
A corrective action plan is the document that you must draft and submit to the FMCSA in order to have your safety fitness upgrade request reviewed. These are required if you receive an Unsatisfactory safety rating if you would like to continue to operate.
If you’re trying to upgrade your Conditional safety rating, you’ll have to submit one as well.
What should my Corrective Action Plan Include?
You’re Corrective Action Plan should be straightforward and complete.
Begin by reviewing each of the critical or acute violations that you were charged with.
You must:
- Explain why each violation occurred
- What actions you took to correct each violation
- What corrective actions you are taking/will take to prevent the violation from occurring again
- Evidence of the corrective actions that you mentioned in your plan
There is no magic length to these plans. If you can get it done in a few pages, great. It’s usually much more than that though.
I’ve seen some companies or consultants brag that their reoports are like 300 pages long. I’m sure that they’re including all of the evidence that was included with their Corrective Action Plan to sound better.
The actual Corrective Action Plan itself should probably be between a few to maybe a dozen pages long. But, again, it all depends on your specific circumstances.
I’ll try to put together a good Corrective Action Plan template that folks can use and update this article once that’s complete.
If you need one in a hurry, feel free to reach out to us and I’ll try to put something together for you.
Evidence to include with your Corrective Action Plan
A question that we’re often asked is “what evidence should I include with my Corrective Action Plan?”.
It depends on the violations that you received. But, the auditor who completed your compliance review or FMCSA enforcement specialst who is handling your safety rating upgrade request can tell you exactly what they would like to see.
Their contact information is found in your Compliance review closeout document (the information that the auditor left with you at the conclusion of your DOT audit).
If you would like a good list of what is expected, click here and I’ll send you one.
How long does it take to upgrade a Conditional DOT rating?
At least 2 to 6 months.
After your compliance review, the auditor will give you a “closeout document”. That document outlines how you did in the major areas of fleet safety and DOT compliance. Those areas are Unsafe Driving, Crash, Vehicle Maintenance, Hours of Service, Driver Fitness, Drug and Alcohol Testing. It will also included your “proposed safety rating”. 95% of the time, that is what your FMCSA safety rating will end up being.
Once that document is finalized and sent to you, the clock starts ticking.
Within 60 days, all major stakeholders will know that you have been issued a Conditional safety rating. This is published with your FMCSA CSA information in their Safety Measurement System (SMS). This is public information and is not hidden from view like your CSA BASIC percentile scores. Everyone will see your score on this test!
Once you (or a DOT compliance consultant) drafts your Corrective Action Plan and gathers all of the supporting evidence, you have to submit it to your regional FMCSA field office.
After submitting the CAP, it generally takes the FMCSA field office about 30 to 45 days or so to get back to you with their decision.
How does a Conditional Safety Rating affect your company?
Having a Conditional safety rating or an Unsatisfactory safety rating can seriously impact your ability to operate your trucking company. Safety ratings are a huge deal and every motor carrier should work hard to ensure that they have good safety fitness scores.
Freight Brokers and Shippers
If you’re issued an FMCSA safety rating of Conditional or Unsatisfactory, most freight brokers and shippers will not do business with you. They typically use carrier monitoring software services like SaferWatch/TruckStop.com and others. These companies are alerted once your safety rating changes and they update your shipper and broker partners quickly.
You’ll receive less loads and you’ll receive a cheaper freight rate on the lanes or loads that you do run.
Insurance Companies
Insurance companies want to insure trucking companies that have effective safety controls in place. Companies that have effective safety and compliance programs generally have less crashes…and cost the insurance companies less money.
Most insurance companies will review your DOT safety rating when you apply for coverage or when your coverage is coming up for renewal. If they choose to insure you, expect to pay much higher premiums than you would have without a Conditional FMCSA rating.
If you have an Unsatisfactory rating, the DOT is the most pressing threat to your operations.
Plaintiff Attorneys
For plaintiff attorneys, a Conditional safety rating is like a fresh goldmine!
If you have a Conditional rating and one of your drivers is involved in a serious crash, you can count on a much larger insurance claim settlement or jury award. There’s just no two ways about it. If the FMCSA is on record as saying that your safety and DOT compliance systems are ineffective, your already digging out of a very deep hole in trying to defend yourself.
How long should we wait before submitting a trucking safety rating upgrade request?
It really depends on the violations that were found during your compliance review and some other considerations.
Striking a balance here is key and there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” answer.
You need to give yourself enough time to generate the needed evidence to prove that you’ve taken corrective action. That can take some considerable time, especially if your were cited for Hours of Service violations. This is even more true for 395.8 Log Falsification violations.
Those are often considered some of the most serious violations and the FMCSA wants to know that you’ve really taken serious measures to prevent them.
For other compliance areas, you may need to do some driver training or additional inspections of your motor vehicles. Those can take some time as well.
This must all be considered against your urgent desire to fix your conditional DOT rating.
How long does a Conditional rating last?
A Conditional safety rating can last as long as a trucking company is in business unless you make a safety rating upgrade request. You can be moved to a different safety rating under 49 CFR 385.17 by providing evidence that you have taken actions to correct the deficiencies that resulted in the safety rating.
It can also be changed if the FMCSA completes another compliance review and determines that you qualify for a different safety rating.
Based on additional activity discovered during recent DOT roadside inspections, the FMCSA or their State DOT partners may want to visit with you sooner.
What is a DOT safety rating?
There are only 4 DOT safety ratings issued by the FMCSA:
1) Satisfactory
2) Not Rated
3) Conditional
4) Unsatisfactory
Not Rated DOT Safety Rating:
All transportation carriers start out being Not Rated. This simply means that the motor carrier has not been subject to a “Comprehensive” on-site compliance review (DOT audit) by the FMCSA or one of it’s State DOT partners. Think of a DOT audit being like a major test from when you were in school. Being Not Rated just means that you haven’t taken the exam yet.
Satisfactory DOT Safety Rating:
A Satisfactory rating is assigned to a trucking company who goes through a comprehensive on-site DOT compliance review. Trucking companies that have effective safety and compliance programs will receive this safety rating. In this case, you passed the major test and you’ve received the FMCSA’s seal of approval.
Conditional DOT Safety Rating:
Receiving a Conditional safety rating is like passing a major test with a D. Yeah, you “passed the exam”, but there are clearly improvements that need to be made. The FMCSA will continue to allow you to operate, but things usually become much harder for you.
Unsatisfactory DOT Rating
If you are issued an Unsatisfactory Rating by the FMCSA, you failed your compliance review “test”. The FMCSA will give you 45 days or 60 days to demonstrate significant improvement or your DOT operating authority will be revoked.
What causes a Conditional DOT Rating?
If you fail more than 2 of the 6 parts of a DOT compliance review ( DOT audit ), your proposed safety rating will be Conditional.
Those 6 Safety Rating Factors are:
- Factor 1 General = Parts 387 and 390
- Factor 2 Driver = Parts 382, 383, and 391
- Factor 3 Operational = Parts 392 and 395
- Factor 4 Vehicle = Parts 393 and 396
- Factor 5 Hazardous Materials = Parts 397, 171, 177, and 180
- Factor 6 Accident Factor = Recordable Rate
Most trucking companies don’t haul Hazardous Materials, so that Safety Rating Factor is generally excluded.
So, you’ll really receive a Conditional DOT rating if you fail 2 of the 5 safety fitness categories.
No factor is really harder to fail than any other factor except maybe Factor 6.
If you have a recordable crash rate over 1.5 crashes per 1,000,000 miles travelled, then you automatically fail this category. This can be a hard factor to pass, especially for smaller trucking companies.
What is a good DOT safety rating?
Without a doubt, the only “good” safety rating to have is either a Satisfactory rating or to be Not Rated. In the eyes of anyone who matters (insurance companies, freight brokers, shippers and plaintiff attorneys), these two are the same.
What does Carrier Safety Rating None mean?
This is generally the same as being “Not Rated”..showing that you haven’t gone through a full compliance review yet. It could also mean that you’ve been through an offsite DOT audit and your fleet wasn’t reviewed thoroughly enough to change your SFD rating to a different level.
Can you appeal your proposed FMCSA safety rating?
Absolutely! If you feel like the auditor or FMCSA made an error in assigning your proposed safety rating, you can file an appeal.
This is different than a safety fitness upgrade request. Here, you’re saying that there were significant errors made that would cause you to not have received the proposed safety rating that you were assigned.
With a safety rating upgrade, you’re agreeing that the documented violations were accurate and requesting that the FMCSA change your safety rating based on the corrective actions that were made.
This is also called an “administrative review” and must be submitted within 90 days of the date of your proposed safety rating.
Pro Tip: Do this as fast as possible! The FMCSA recommends filing any administrative review reqest within 15 days of your proposed safety rating date. We suggest doing it absolutely as soon as possible to avoid delays in review.
Do you want to fix your Conditional DOT safety rating?
If you’re interested in a safety rating upgrade, we can help!
We’ve developed a 4 part process that helps ensure we’re sucessful in updating your DOT safety rating.
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