Overview
If you’re a truck driver or a trucking business owner, you know that inspections and audits suck, but they are an inevitable part of our operations. These inspections and audits are conducted by various authorities, such as the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), state agencies, and are just done to ensure that you are complying with all standards and regulations required by authorities. These audits and inspections are what “police” our industry in a sense, however we know they can be very stressful, time-consuming, and even costly if you are not adequately prepared. This is why we are here today; we want to inform you guys on how to handle these audits and inspections to minimize the hassle and cost for your trucking operation.
How To Prepare For Inspections and Audits
- Know the rules and regulations: Being familiar with the federal, state, and local rules and regulations that apply to your operations is key. By keeping up with any changes or updates in the rules and regulations, you’ll be a step ahead of any possible penalties that may try and come your way.
- Train your drivers and staff: Providing proper and regular training for your drivers and staff on the rules and regulations specific to their role is instrumental. If you periodically educate them and test their knowledge on the information necessary you’ll be in a much better position.
- Keep accurate and complete records: If you haven’t already taken a read through our blog post on ELDs, I highly recommend you do. By accurately keeping track of HOS records, maintenance reports, driver qualifications, and more, while staying in compliance with federal and state mandates, you can save yourself a lot of time. With organized and accurate records, inspections and audits are conducted much faster and less of a hassle.
- Implement a safety management system: By taking the further step to implement safety management systems to ensure compliance and safety, you are guaranteed to fly through inspections and audits. Monitoring and measuring your safety performance and taking corrective actions immediately are going to be a game changer.
How to Handle Inspections and Audits
- Be respectful and courteous: Treat your inspector or auditor with respect, be kind, and follow their instructions accordingly. They do not want to be wasting your time any more than they have to so it’s important to make their life easy and just follow what they say to avoid arguing or complaining.
- Be prepared and organized: As we covered earlier, have all the required documents and records ready and organized. This will make the inspection or audit quick and hassle free, and make sure to assist the inspector with questions or issues he may have.
- Be honest and transparent: Going back to our first point, if you try and lie or deceive the inspector, this will have a greatly negative impact on the result of your inspection or audit. Just make sure to disclose any problems you may have or are currently working on as well. Transparency is key.
- Be proactive and cooperative: Simply cooperate with the inspector or auditor throughout the entire process and things should go extremely smoothly. If the inspector or auditor does present an issue or violation, assure him that you will take immediate action to correct it.
By following the tips and advice in this blog post, you will be prepared to handle inspections audits with confidence and ease. If you have any questions or comments about inspections, audits, or anything related to your trucking safety, please feel free to contact us.