
When I first started driving trucks (legally) back when I was 18, I never heard anything about compliance.
All I ever heard from other drivers. And to be 100% honest it wasn’t GREAT information that I was being taught.
I heard things like, “Always make sure your load has enough straps!”
My follow-up questions would be something like, How many straps is that? Do they have to be a specific size?
Or the other thing that I got told was, “Don’t be stupid when it comes to driving! Or Cops, you are a billboard for the company.”
I never heard anything about roadside inspections, and NEVER anything about why I always had to fill out these crazy forms every year.
When I got into a DOT position for a company I didn’t do a great job at explaining why these things needed to be done at first either.
But the more I learned about how liability works and how a TON translates back to the driver and the company I started teaching others about why it is so important to be in compliance.
One thing that I didn’t realize is that if as a driver if I was running over hours then I was putting not only myself at risk but also my family.
HOW you ask!!!
Well, when I am knowingly breaking the rules and I get into an accident, even if I’m not at fault I could be charged with more aggressive charges. In a few cases, the prosecutors upped the charges from a misdemeanor to something MAJOR like Homicide!!
That is intentional murder!
CRAZY RIGHT?!?!?!?
The other thing that I didn’t realize is that when I got pulled into a port of entry and inspected. My results were what made the difference whether we got audited or not.
Or even if our trucks were targeted for inspections.
That’s right. when you get violations during a roadside stop that can lead to your company getting more inspections.
Which then triggers an audit! And that audit can cost the company $$$$$.
In 2022 the government issued more than $25,698,341 in fines for onsite investigations alone!!!!
Let me say that again. During audits in the year of 2022 our lovely government issued more than $25.5 million in fines to companies for violations they found during audits!!
Can you say WOW??
I never knew that either.
When I used to get pulled into a port of entry the officer always told me, “This is just a fix it ticket, no fines today!” or, “I’m not going to give you any tickets today just need to get these fixed.”
That way they came off to the driver as a good guy.
What a Crock Of CRAP!!
Because each of those violations is what leads for more roadside inspections, and if you continue to get violations then it leads to an audit.
That’s not all that you need to know as a driver though.
You also need to know that you can get tickets for almost all of these violations.
I personally know one guy who got an overweight ticket for over $10,000.00. Yes you read that right. over $10 Thousand dollars.
This ticket was not in the company’s name. It had the drivers name on it!!!
Can you imagine getting a ticket for over 10K?
You might be thinking, “wow that guy must have been really overweight!”
NOPE. He was only a little more than 5,000lbs over on his drives. He just rubbed the cop the wrong way during the inspection.
Are you guys getting how important that it is as a driver you understand DOT?
As a leader for a company do you understand how important it is to educate your drivers about DOT?
CRAZY important.
Because get this, if you drivers understand why DOT is important then they can be your best advocates for the company.
And I have said this forever, people want to do it right. sometimes they just don’t know how to or what right is.
It is our job as leaders to help those we lead to understand and encourage them what right is.
At this point I would be doing you a HUGE disservice if I didn’t tell you about some the training that we offer to help drivers, leaders, and office staff to really understand DOT.
We offer quarterly training for companies and their drivers we can come to you, or we can make it happen via virtual meetings.
For those of you who love to do the training yourself, we offer train the trainer. And to top it off we have a membership specifically for that. Where you get a weekly group training with other professionals. And a group where you can ask questions and learn as you go.
If you don’t have time and your drivers all over the place, then we have a solution that is in our web-based software DOT Docs. Right now we are building new trainings all the time that you can assign to your drivers as needed. And they can complete them from anywhere in the world, as long as they have an internet connection.
How cool is that???
We also offer DOT certifications for those of you are ready to take your knowledge and resume to the next level!
When I say that here at Eclipse DOT we have you covered, we really mean it!
Our mission is to help you grow and scale your business effortlessly. And we do everything in our power to make it happen!
If you want to learn more about any of our services or how you can work with us to make your businesses even more amazing reach out today! info@eclipse-dot.com or check out our website. www.eclipsedot.com
We’ll chat soon.