Commercial motor vehicle drivers, and their employers, must always be prepared for safety inspections. To reduce potential violations, it is essential that your drivers and those who manage your fleet have a firm understanding of the most common violations so they can best avoid them. Being prepared for the unexpected is a huge aspect of this industry so investing in education and training across each department of your trucking company ensures that all players are on the same page, and you have taken precautionary steps towards being able to better handle any surprises that pop up.
Simplify Compliance
Once you have been taught and studied the main components of compliance you now must figure out a way to ensure that you are always operating under these strict guidelines. Having said that, regarding fleet management you have the added challenge of not being able to be in multiple places at one time. Enter technology. You can prevent service violations with the implementation of an ELD compliance solution. Automating your business in this fashion ensures that you can better maintain compliance through connecting your operations. Electing to remove, in part, the human error possibility from your business operations is an effective strategy for both modernizing and simplifying the most important part of your business, remaining in compliance and without ongoing violations.
Licensing and Hours
There are strict guidelines in place regarding the type of licensing endorsements your drivers must have as well as the volume of hours they are permitted to work and in what sequence. Specifically, with over the road trucking, the hours limitations are a common violation. Going digital and adding software to assist with compliance means that you can use real-time tracking to monitor the hours logged from driver to driver and assign routes and shifts accordingly.
The fines associated with having the wrong class license can be astronomical and can result in permanent consequences to the driver as an individual and the company. Staying on top of expiration dates as well as doing your due diligence during the recruiting process can help you to avoid a violation in this category. There are multiple types of classifications and your specific business dictates which class your drivers must have. Being knowledgeable about this means that you can weed out candidates early on who do not hold the correct classification. It is not uncommon for this to be monitored and checked at roadside checkpoints, another reason that it is essential to be aware of expiration dates for each driver you have behind the wheel.
Educate the Team
Provide your drivers with the same education on compliance as you would their managers to spread out accountability. While some drivers may have a brief knowledge of the violations, they may not prioritize that knowledge as a part of their day-to-day routine, but they need to. Educating your staff on the penalties associated with each violation and what that means for them personally is another useful training technique. People are more likely to put the rules into practice when they have a clear understanding of how breaking them will affect them personally.
