Leading safety management system that brings current industry news that your company to use to stay updated & informed in todays fast pace world.
You may have heard of the spotted lanternfly epidemic in the eastern U.S. You may have also heard that it’s affecting trucking fleets. The invasive species is hitting hard, and trucking companies that ship through affected areas have been put on alert with new regulations and a required permit. Those who cannot show a permit upon inspection can be fined up to $20,300 per violation.
A distinction you often hear about in trucking is between accidents and incidents. The distinction is important because prevention and resolution are managed differently for each, and it’s important to learn how to keep associated costs under control. We’re here to help with these 3 tips for improving incident management.
From emissions standards and road rules to smart driving technology, keep your trucking fleet up to date on the most current DOT compliance standards. As the trucking industry rapidly changes, Infinit-I Workforce Solutions exists to help you not miss a beat.
What are your biggest risks in the trucking business? Apart from road conditions, hazardous freight, and unpredictable passenger vehicles, your biggest risks are financial. How do you make wise choices, mitigate costs, and stay on the black side of your ledger? Discover how the key to risk mitigation is frequent training and documentation.
It’s just three days away. Are you ready? We’ll do a quick review of what this blitz involves, and share some keys to improving your results.
If you’re in the trucking business, you definitely want to stay out of the courtroom. But with millions of tons of truck on the road every day, that’s hard to guarantee. Driver training, maintenance, and good management help you mitigate that risk as much as possible. But what are you to do when one of your drivers fails to live up to regulations, and the worst occurs? This is where the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions steps in to protect you and help mitigate legal trucking liability.
When preparing for a DOT audit, you don’t have to be nervous or wonder whether you’re ready. There are a lot of moving parts to documentation in a trucking business. Driver training and certification, safety measures and remediations can be some of the hardest to track, especially when you’ve got drivers on the road and often across the country.
Changes are coming to the CSA program. Are you ready for them? Here’s what you need to know to meet the challenge and stay sharp, and how Infinit-I Workforce Solutions can help you face the changes.
FMCSA’s safety measurement system will still use roadside inspections and violations data to produce its metrics. They want to identify carriers that score higher than their peers in patterns of non-compliance with regulations. This is the safety measurement system approach that’s been in place for several years now. It compares carriers with one another to produce the scores (peer-based), and uses violations from roadside inspections to gather its data.
What they gather and why is not changing, but their approach to interpreting the data is. Instead of focusing on predicting how many accidents might correspond with your level of compliance, what they want to know is are you actively attempting to prevent accidents overall?
Here’s the difference. Let’s say your drivers are showing up at roadside inspections with minor lights violations. Previously, the CSA would focus on what that might mean in terms of accidents directly related to these violations–which might not amount to much. Now, they are also looking at the bigger picture. If they see minor lights violations, they’re not calculating the risk of accidents only directly related to those lights, but also accidents related to neglecting maintenance in general. That’s a bigger deal.
In other words, while the previous focus was on predicting the effects of individual violations, the new focus is on what these violations say about your company’s wholesale commitment to safety, your company culture.
Going back to our example, a minor lights violation is no longer just a minor lights violation. It raises a red flag to the FMCSA that your company might have a habit of neglecting maintenance in general.
Watch our free webinar, HOW TO PREPARE FOR MAJOR CSA CHANGES IN 2019, for more.
One thing you don’t want to hear this year is that you have met the CSA threshold and now there’s an alert on your company. You’ve got attention from the federal government, higher liability premiums, and even loss of business with shippers if they think you’re too much of a risk.
You can avoid this. And the solution may be more streamlined than you think.
Let’s break that down. It’s important to remember that when the CSA determines your score they’re ticking a lot of individual boxes, but they’re basically looking at two main categories:
Violations have to do with the driving record of an individual driver, such as a speeding ticket or backing into a parked vehicle. But, as the FMCSA now recognizes, those individual records are also a reflection of your company culture as a whole.
Instead of thinking of your CSA inspection as a drag, think of it more like a check-up at the doctor’s office. The more things you have in line with the CSA, the more likely it is that your company is operating in a way conducive to healthy success. Why?
The heart of a trucking company is based on the very big-picture questions that will now also determine your CSA score:
And last but not least, is a question that sums it all up:
The golden phrase for your CSA score is “Safety First,” not “Meet the Technical Requirements, and Safety When it’s Convenient.” And this is a good thing. Accidents involving semis are some of the most brutal on American highways. Trucking companies are gatekeepers for the safety of individuals, families, and billions of dollars of commerce on the road.
With the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions system, you can make safety and top-quality drivers your number one priority, while still protecting your budget. We make this happen through efficient, frequent, and flexible training, all with an automated documentation system. Select from over 850 training videos to send to drivers, including customized media and that training can be done on the spot, anywhere, anytime, through a tablet or smartphone. This saves you:
But even though cost-savings is crucial, the point is, what always needs to guide your company culture is a concern for having the safest fleets on the road. Here’s how Infinit-I Workforce Solutions accomplishes that:
The Infinit-I Workforce Solutions system makes it possible to immediately remediate on every driving issue, every time. Whether it’s maintenance, speeding, road rage, or improperly charged fire extinguishers, addressing problems immediately and repeatedly shows you did your due diligence, and actually changes driver behavior.
Companies that partner with us get a customized set of interlocking tools to affect safety improvements at every level of your business, from getting the right training videos to drivers, to strategy building, to documentation. And we’re constantly offering free webinars and Engage seminars to keep you informed about new regulations and cutting-edge developments in trucking safety management.
Keep safety first and promote a culture of safety, and not only will you protect your CSA scores, but you’ll also develop a reputation for excellence. Try a free demo of Infinit-I Workforce Solutions
An excellent driving record and better driver training for all your drivers means enhanced business, maintaining good relationships with clients, and managing costs. It affects road safety, CSA performance, litigation, and interactions with law enforcement. It’s a pretty simple formula, but one that can make or break your trucking business.
With more trucking jobs than drivers, you’ve got to stand out. What’s your strategy? You can’t always offer the most money, the best hours, and benefits that beat the rest. So what makes you stand out?
You may not be convinced! The fact is, truck drivers are not attuned to a sell. They are way more interested in a great gig and a company that understands their needs than they are in a slick website, your signage, or your search engine savvy.
Maybe you’re eager to experiment. Maybe you’re thinking: Logo on letterhead is as far as I go, pal! I’m about substantial business, not frills.
If you don’t think branding and marketing really matter that much, or you think they might but aren’t sure how to read on. It’s way more practical than you might think. And it integrates with what you’ve already got going…
Get creative and up the ante on how you reach out to people who apply for jobs with your company.
From emails to PDFs to supplementary materials (and more on those below!), when these materials are all branded with the company logo, match corporate colors, and look like a direct extension of the company itself, truckers are getting a full-on, seamless response from you, right away.
Truckers aren’t sitting there analyzing your tactics—your brand is working on the level of the subconscious. It’s like “dressing your best” for an interview. And in this job market, the pressure is on. It’s up to you to make the first best impression.
Imagine applying for twenty trucking jobs online. From most of them, you’ll get an immediate response thanking you for your interest and asking for next steps. But what if, from one company, you also got a custom video module, testing your knowledge of the job you’re applying for? What if you also received a custom-made “Day in the Life of” video or documents showing exactly what you can expect from day-to-day in this job?
What are you thinking?
This business isn’t messing around.
They’re professional. They follow-up.
They don’t want just anyone. They’re trying to get the right person.
And then, you might either continue the interview process or not, depending on whether you can tell you’re suited for this job at this point.
But wait — I don’t want to turn people away from an interview! I’m short enough on drivers as it is.
Yes. But the fact is, you do not want to hire the wrong drivers for the job, ever. What you think you’re saving yourself in understaffing, you will easily lose in negotiating the problems that come with an unsuitable employee, including quitting, firing, and more frequent re-hires. That’s time and thousands of dollars that could be better spent.
Where do drivers first interact with your brand?
There’s a psychological principle that says when you need something, your eyes are only tuned in to those things that are going to help you get what you need. When drivers encounter your brand on Indeed.com, they’re looking for salaries, hours, job descriptions, locations—the absolute basics.
Now, if your company’s a total mess and your brand can’t provide a cohesive, basic impression that you know what you’re doing, that may turn prospective truckers down. But that’s going to be the rare case.
Even though it’s not the first stage in the game, you know how quickly recruiting goes. Onboarding is still a very early stage in a trucker’s relationship with you. A mistake here can cost you. But a branded onboarding process can really help you find and keep the right people. Orientation starts within just a few days (or less!) of that first application, and you’re still making your first impressions. Drivers want to know they’ve made the right choice.
In onboarding and training, you respect your new drivers by not wasting their time. And don’t waste yours! A truck parked is lost revenue and a client waiting on freight. You want to get new employees onboarded as soon as possible, but:
Are you just jumping through the hoops? Or are you taking time to see that they have as high quality an experience you can offer?
Marketing is working for you during onboarding and training if:
Branded materials unify a driver’s first experiences with you. They professionalize them. And, if the content is good and worthwhile, they reinforce a good feeling about your company. Don’t just get it done. Seek to impress!
Finally, when drivers are clear on who you are, they’re clear on what kind of job(s) you’re offering. Branding weaves hiring and training into your marketing strategy and less room for guessing what kind of company and job this is. It looks great. It shows your safety training is sophisticated. It shows you care about meeting drivers where they are, making sure the success of your business relies on their confidence in working for you.
Infinit-I training modules change the way trucking does business. We move the majority of your safety training and onboarding online, and all our videos and resources that go to employees will match your logo and corporate colors for a seamless connection between training and branding. Take initiative. Stand out. Try a free demo!
