Documentation, Risk Mitigation, and IRT Scoring

Improving safety practices without improving documentation is like getting your degree, but not keeping your transcript. You can say you did all you could. You may have met your goals. But at the end of the day, you’ve literally got nothing to show. That’s the position of many trucking companies every day by training drivers with an unreliable documentation system. In the eyes of the law: If it’s not written down, signed, and dated — or if you can’t find it — it didn’t happen. The new IRT scoring system is only going to up the ante. But you can prepare. Here’s how we’re already solving this problem for thousands of clients.

The Risk You Take

Lawsuits

Increases in distracted driving behavior, along with continued high truck-related fatalities (one fatality is too many), add up to one main thing: driver behavior still needs to change. Lawyers know that.

Lawsuits against truckers and trucking companies will always attempt to demonstrate that drivers are:

• Acting recklessly or negligently
• Insufficiently trained
• Violating a law or regulation
• Not maintaining or loading vehicles properly

These are all related to safety training and documentation. Lawyers try to find the chink in the armor. All too often, they find more chinks than armor. Fines and fees for damages, injuries, and fatalities can range from tens of thousands to millions. Too much litigation can shut you down.

Audits

It’s similar whether you’re facing a DOT or OSHA audit. Poor results will always put you on your back foot. They impact your industry reputation, your insurance costs, and your ability to recover from financial setbacks. You have to have dependable, thorough documentation on hand, and it has to show an impressive record of driver training and remediation.

If you don’t, you’re taking a big risk. You’re risking the lives and safety of the motoring public and your drivers, as well as the existence of your business.

If It’s Broke, Fix It

If your current documentation and accountability system sounds like the following, you have BIG signs it’s time to let it go.

• Feels or looks outdated
• Is paper-based
• Is hard to access
• Requires drivers to sign and turn it in
• Requires multiple steps to file
• Leaves you praying you don’t get sued or audited

Seamless Training and Documentation

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions is an industry leader in online digital learning management systems because we reliably improve safety and mitigate legal and insurance risks. We do this through interlocked training and documentation.

First and foremost, we help you improve safety with proven, user-friendly, online training tools that empower you, and 100% of drivers with:

• Ongoing safety awareness
• Enhanced corrective action

When all your communications are digital and centralized, messaging and training gets to 100% of your drivers — consistently and as frequently as needed. This improves safety results. This also means that all of your drivers are accountable. That’s the first step to mitigating risk.

But here’s the key: as we train 100% of your drivers, we’re documenting 100% of their responses. After completion of each training assignment and passing the test, the results are time-stamped and recorded in real-time and held on a secure, third-party server.

You can upload and manage HR documents, too.

This means, with us, all your documentation is:

• Up-to-date
• 100% accurate
• Comprehensive
• Secure
• Accessible when you need it.

You have proof, at all times, of where you are in your safety plan, and of which drivers are following the plan. For drivers who aren’t, you can remediate quickly and prove it.

The Difference the Upcoming CSA IRT Scoring Will Make

Another benefit to updating your documentation system is to prepare you for the new CSA IRT scoring system.

The new system will actively work to prevent accidents. Along with inspections and violation data, IRT scoring will also look for patterns of behavior, such as:

• Vehicle maintenance
• Corrective action
• Ongoing safety training

In other words, IRT will score on your culture of safety as well as your driving records. You’ve got to prove you’re tending the forest, not just putting out fires!

With our system, you can show at any time an ongoing record of training and corrective action, as well as your safety plan going forward.

In 10+ years, we’ve developed a training and documentation solution that builds a defense for your company, not by solving problems here and there, but by using effective safety training and documentation to lay the foundation of business.

Take IRT Scoring Seriously, See Results

A company that takes documentation seriously is a company that takes safety training seriously. If you’re already doing the work of increasing safety awareness and cultivating improved behavior, documentation is just confirming and protecting what you’ve done.

With our system, documentation is key to risk mitigation in more ways than one. We have clients who:

never went to trial because they had all their documentation in order
changed a bad rating in a DOT audit to “satisfactory.” They were able to show the training they’d done and what they had in place going forward.
explained their safety plan at every deposition, “[a]nd there’s not another question asked.” “It takes training and punitive damages out of the equation.”
are “excited” during CSA and OSHA audit, because they are confident about impressing auditors with training records.

These are just a few examples. Documentation is key to risk mitigation in the courtroom, in the eyes of insurance companies, and in the eyes of drivers who are looking for you to have their back.

Don’t shut down your business, and don’t send drivers to other companies! Build your audit portfolio quickly, manage accountability, and mitigate legal risks with ease using our secure, real-time online documentation system.

Learn more on our website or request a free demo!