Staying proactive and audit-ready with DOT compliance
Are paper driver qualification files holding your business back? When it comes to audit readiness, the first step is often digitizing DQFs, ensuring that your drivers and safety team are staying DOT compliant. One of our Foley Compliance Experts, Devin Fouhy, shares what a proactive safety team looks like, and how DQFs can affect potential fines, insurance costs, and Clearinghouse issues.
Watch the video below and then share it with your team!
Transcript
Hey everyone, my name is Devin Fouhy and I am part of the team here at Foley Carrier Services, and today we’ll be talking about Driver Qualification Files and why they should be digital.
At Foley we get a really unique perspective, especially when it comes to compliance as we speak with thousands of transportation companies over the course of each year. And every year it is to no surprise that hundreds of these organizations reach out just too late. They are either in the process of being audited, they need help implementing a corrective action plan, or worst case, they are being put out of service and they need a compliance partner like us so they can keep their business running.
Digital driver qualification files are not new, we all saw this coming when they rolled out the Clearinghouse a few years back. And this was a shock to many companies, but it was the first attempt, and actually an opportunity, for organizations to start digitizing a very cumbersome and paper-based compliance process. It made it easier for carriers to manage their active drivers, and look at new drivers as they come in. It also creates a safer environment on the road for everyone and I think that’s what the DOT was aiming to do here.
When we talk to business owners and business leaders, they are often unaware of how much effort and work it takes to manage a paper-based driver qualification file. Something as simple as updating expiration dates on driver’s licenses, or ensuring med cards haven’t expired.
Another thing now that we’re running into is annual queries for the Clearinghouse. And all of this reactive, as opposed to proactive, work really prevents the safety team from doing their job effectively, and occupies 10, or maybe even 30 percent, of their day-to-day, and multiple people may have to check across multiple systems to figure out, “Are we in compliance?” and “Did we miss anything?”
And we should be focusing on the most important things, and when we speak with business leaders, it’s really hiring great drivers and hiring them fast. They see the future of the transportation industry evolving and they are hoping to be proactive, as opposed to reactive when it comes to their business strategy. So, why should your compliance strategy be any different?
Come talk to Foley and figure out how driver qualification files, and digitizing them, can potentially lower insurance costs, decrease time-to-hire, remove mundane and clerical tasks from your safety team, and most of all, avoid those audits, so you can decrease the chance of getting fined. Last but not least, let’s make your team proactive, and no longer reactive.
Reach out to Foley. See if we can help.
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