Tag Archive for: trucking industry

How Reporting Reduces Insurance Costs and Litigation Risk for Transportation Firms

How Reporting Reduces Insurance Costs and Litigation Risk for Transportation Firms

Nuclear verdicts are on the rise, now more than ever. With these verdicts totaling $10 million or more each, this presents a real threat to your business.  In fact, the rise of nuclear verdicts has resulted in many trucking companies going out of business, and many insurance carriers are exiting the trucking industry completely. With insurance costs and litigation risk for transportation firms soaring around every turn, it is more imperative than ever to enforce safety policies and procedures, and have clear documentation.

And while the national inflation rate is about 2 percent, insurance rates are actually increasing by 50 – 100 percent year over year for trucking companies, due to nuclear verdicts. 

What is litigation risk?

Any roadside incident presents the opportunity for litigation. With the appetite for litigation at an all-time high, it is important to train drivers on how to avoid these incidents by using your safety protocols—the more robust your safety program, the smaller the risk for litigation.

Nuclear Verdicts and Their Impact

In October 2019, Country Wide RV Transport (CWRV) was one of the latest trucking companies that fell victim to a nuclear verdict. The second-largest RV and motor-home transportation provider in the country, they employed nearly 600 drivers and contractors, all of whom were informed right before the holidays that they would no longer have jobs. The driver who caused the accident was an independent contractor, but the company was still held liable for damages to the tune of $26.6 million.

In the largest nuclear verdict of 2019, and, in fact, in history, a jury awarded a $280 million verdict in only 45 minutes of deliberation. Was the accident tragic? Absolutely. Was it the truck driver’s fault? Absolutely. Was the verdict inordinately high? Absolutely.

Fatalities are decreasing, yet nuclear verdicts are increasing. 

Each year for the last decade has seen significant increases in litigation resulting in nuclear verdicts, with an extreme uptick in the last two years. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have discovered a gold mine in cases against trucking companies, and you better believe they are hard at work mining every dollar, or in this case, every million that they can possibly get. So while your company is hovering at a 5% profit margin, you’re funding plaintiffs’ lawyers’ fancy vacations. 

You can’t afford it.

Insurance costs are rising rapidly, even for squeaky-clean trucking companies. Insurance providers understand the litigation risks associated with the industry and lose a great deal on nuclear verdicts. Many insurance providers don’t even cover trucking companies anymore due to litigation risk.

What can you do about it? 

With nuclear verdicts and insurance costs on the rise, you can’t afford to take any chances. This is not going away and, in fact, is only getting worse. 

The best leg you can stand on in court is your culture and history of safety, with airtight documentation. Juries, judges, lawyers, and insurance companies become very interested in your culture of safety and history of documentation when a settlement is on the line. 

Learn more about building and maintaining a culture of safety

To get the most out of your safety program and prevent excessive insurance costs and litigation risk, you need a program that is easily accessible to drivers and offers real-time, cloud-based documentation.

Not sure where to start?

Check out our whitepaper on controlling insurance costs, which will help you understand:

  • • What part of your risk exposure you can control
  • • What you can actively do to mitigate your risk exposure
  • • How your company can proactively work to establish a culture of safety that can help reduce accidents, improve defensibility in court, and give access to the best possible insurance rates

Download the Controlling Insurance Costs whitepaper now!

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What Triggers a DOT Compliance Audit?

What Triggers a DOT Compliance Audit?

What Triggers a DOT Compliance Audit?

When it comes to a DOT compliance audit, it’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when”. An audit is triggered after an accident or poor review during a roadside stop. These audits can also be triggered by bad CSA scores for a company.

On top of these issues that can trigger an audit, the DOT does do random audits at times, so you will find yourself going through a compliance audit if you work in the trucking industry. When the auditor comes, you need to be ready with proper documentation.

Remember, if it’s not documented, dated, and readily available, it didn’t happen.

How does the DOT oversee trucking firms?

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is a federal regulatory agency that oversees all transportation in the United States. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is a division of the DOT tasked with regulating the commercial vehicle industry.

The FMCSA develops and enforces regulations meant to keep the roadways and truck drivers safe. All trucking companies and drivers must follow all FMCSA regulations or face penalties such as fees or having their trucks taken off the road.

What Do You Need During a DOT Audit?

When an auditor comes, it’s important to have all the necessary documentation ready, including driver logs, medical records, and safety training records. This documentation could mean the difference between a simple audit and getting your trucks parked.

One of the most important things an auditor looks for is your company’s safety record. They want to see how you’re implementing driver safety training programs, and more importantly how well they are working.

They will also look at your company policies. They want to make sure all company personnel have read and are following these policies. It’s important to make sure all your documentation can prove consistent efforts towards maintaining a culture of safety.

complaince audit protection
The Consequences of a Bad Audit

If your DOT compliance audit doesn’t show sufficient training and safety documentation, you could end up with a Conditional status, meaning the auditor provides an action plan and a deadline for you to implement it.

Conditional status can put a target on your company. Your trucks will get stopped more often and will be subjected to more frequent roadside inspections. You’ll also find it difficult to find clients and drivers willing to work with your company if you have a conditional status.

Without the right tools in place, you could end up costing your company time and money.

Protecting Your Company During an Audit

The best way to make sure you have all your documentation ready for an audit is to implement an online DOT safety training program like Infinti-I Workforce Solutions. The Infinit-I system is easy for drivers to use and makes maintaining and accessing records easy for you.

The cloud-based solution allows drivers to complete ongoing short, interactive courses, and maintains all records of participation and testing scores with date and timestamps. This means when DOT comes calling for an audit, you have all the documentation you need to keep your trucks on the road and in good standing.

Infint-I can help you solve your biggest safety training issues, all while saving your company money. For more information about how, download our risk management whitepaper.

Prepare Against Your Next DOT Audit

Your company could be subject to a DOT compliance audit at any time, but especially after incidents on the road. A culture of safety goes a long way towards passing these audits, and that’s where Infinit-I Workforce Solutions is on your side.

Before you take your chances with your next audit, check out how Infinit-I can help you create a program to meet your safety and compliance needs. To see it for yourself, request a demo today.

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The Real Cost of Trucks Going Out of Service

The Real Cost of Trucks Going Out of Service

How much is the real cost of trucks going out of service due to preventable maintenance? It seems like such an easy thing—check the engine, check the tires, and good to go. But incomplete pre- or post-checks can have a major impact on a trucking company. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Pre- and post-stop checks can seem tedious at times, but they can make the difference between your business making money and paying out the nose for on-the-road maintenance and delivery delays. 

When an airplane pilot prepares to fly a plane, they always perform pre- and post-flight checks to ensure that the plane is in working order and safe for all. Truck drivers need to take a similar responsibility and take it every bit as seriously. When a tire blows out on the road, it could mean accident and injury, and most definitely means towing, off-site maintenance, and delays. And the cost of that truck to go out of service exponentially multiplies if it results in litigation or impacts client relationships.

Accidents or on-the-road incidents due to the lack of proper maintenance will most likely result in a DOT audit.

The cost for trucks going out of service not only includes financial costs, but time, effort, and reputational costs. If a DOT audit results in a “Conditional” status, that means you must allocate resources to create, implement, and manage an improvement plan. Many shipping and freight clients will not work with trucking companies who have a Conditional status, and without those relationships, you don’t have a business.


How can maintenance logs reduce my insurance premiums?

Every year insurance companies look at incidents and any other proof on the record to justify charging a higher premium. A maintenance log goes a long way toward ensuring and documenting a culture of safety at your trucking company, keeping premiums as low as possible.

Maintenance logs are business-savers.

When the DOT or the lawyer comes calling after an incident, the first thing they look at is maintenance logs. Did the truck have proper documentation? Does your company require and enforce documentation as part of your culture of safety?

If the answer is no, the cost of a truck going out of service for preventable maintenance is high. Higher than you and your business want to pay.  

And we know that if the maintenance logs don’t tell a favorable story, the insurance company will absolutely increase your premiums.

How can my trucking company avoid the effects of preventable maintenance issues?

Truck drivers are responsible for their own logs, but those logs play a big part in keeping your business on the road. To keep operations lean and profitable, your trucking company must avoid the downstream costs of your trucks going out of service for preventable maintenance.

This means equipping drivers with training and easy documentation tools. 

Infiniti-I Workforce Solutions is an easy training program that keeps your employees and owner/operators up to date with your policies and best practices for maintenance and documentation. Maintaining your trucks and being aware of potential maintenance issues can save your company hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.

Don’t let money fly out the door.

The cost for a truck to be out of service is too hefty a price to pay, from maintenance to delivery delays to insurance premiums that might be affected.  All told, this could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars out the door instead of in for your trucking company.

Key Takeaways:

  • • The cost for trucks to be out of service is too high to risk
  • • Preventable maintenance issues can cost your company in legal settlements, client relationships, and insurance premiums
  • • Infiniti-I Workforce Solutions trains your drivers to keep detailed and timely maintenance logs
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Three Tips to Better Manage Accident Risk for Your Transportation Firm

A close-up of a driver holding a steering wheel | manage accident risk

In May 2019, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published its 2017 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts. And let’s just say: sometimes facts are scarier than fiction. So, how can you manage accident risk for your transportation firm?

According to FMCSA, there was a 9-percent increase in fatal accidents involving trucks or buses between 2016 and 2017, and there was a 4-percent increase in crashes resulting in injury. Total, that’s over 120,000 crashes involving trucks or buses in one year. And with over 1,500 clients with 300,000 drivers collectively, we aim to help you manage your firm’s accident risk and protect your human resources. 

After the Accident

Those 120,000 crashes resulted in even more people and families whose lives were affected, and many resulted in lawsuits. Additionally, valuable time was lost, and delivery schedules were delayed, costing shipping, receiving, and trucking companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. And ultimately, many trucking companies were assigned a DOT Compliance Review.

What is a DOT Compliance Review?

Similar to a safety audit, a DOT Compliance Review is an onsite examination by the FMCSA.  Major accidents, poor CSA scores, complaints, and violations can trigger a DOT Compliance Review. 

DOT Compliance Reviews will examine records closely, so it is imperative to have reliable, date-stamped, cloud-based storage for all your driver training records.

Before the Accident

What if those accidents could have been avoided? How many lives could we save, and how many hours could we get back if we could prevent accidents instead of solving “after?” As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

What would it take to prevent accidents? We’ve compiled a list of our top three tips for managing your transportation company’s accident risks.

  1. Maintain and deploy your company’s policies and procedures on a regular basis. The best policies and procedures don’t mean anything if not used effectively. In a DOT Compliance Review, your policies and procedures will be requested, and you open your company up to serious compliance risk if they aren’t followed. How do you effectively deploy policies and procedures to your workforce? There’s an app for that.
  2. Hire and retain the best drivers. The trucking industry has a high turnover rate, and transportation companies need to stay competitive in today’s market to retain great drivers. Recognition, engagement and ongoing, user-friendly training help keep your drivers on the road and delivering their best results.
  3. Use Infiniti-I Workforce Solutions’ online safety training. Most of your drivers have base-level safety knowledge. Still, Infinity-I Workforce Solutions goes above and beyond with great safety training modules that are quick, easily digestible, and mobile-friendly, to ensure that every driver in your fleet has high-quality training they can easily access and use.

In today’s high-risk, high-turnover environment, you must provide safety training. We can help customize your training plans to avoid the dreaded DOT Compliance Review and other associated risks of the road. Contact one of our experts today, and together we can build the plan that’s right for your business needs.

Key Takeaways for managing accident risk:

  • • Accidents are more frequent than ever before, and trucking companies must mitigate their accident risk to keep their companies profitable and keep drivers safe.
  • • Hiring and retaining the best drivers make a huge difference to a company’s risk profile.
  • • High-quality training and updates on policies and procedures are a must in today’s high-risk environment. Infiniti-I Workforce Solutions can work with you to customize your driver training tools—keeping safety standards high and costs low. 
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Three Ideas for Improving CSA Scores

three semi trucks driving toward the camera | poor CSA scores

Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) shouldn’t just be a priority for your business, but a core value as well. So we’ve compiled our top three ideas for maintaining and improving CSA scores, to help your business develop a culture of safety and keep your drivers on the road.

Keeping your drivers on the road is a top priority, and it’s the only way your transportation company stays in the black. But with 5 million other drivers on the road every day, it’s crucial that drivers maintain a proven track record of safety. That’s why the DOT keeps and maintains CSA records—to ensure that all drivers are safe on American roadways. 

How are CSA scores calculated?

CSA scores measure safety violations, inspections, violations, and crashes for every driver and transportation company.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of DOT, records behavioral data to calculate CSA scores.

Drivers and carriers alike are held responsible for keeping CSA scores low. Noncompliance can result in warning letters and even investigations from the DOT. 

Tips for Improving CSA Scores:

  1. Keep trucks properly maintained. If a company’s documentation reflects consistent maintenance problems on its trucks, that company’s CSA scores will reflect it. Make sure 100% of your fleet gets regular maintenance, tire changes, and always keeps fire extinguishers on board. Those are just a few maintenance must-haves to keep CSA scores low.
  2. Hire and keep the best drivers. CSA scores are publicly available and should be part of your screening process for new hires. And once you hire great drivers, it’s always a challenge to keep them on board. Our online tools can keep them engaged and appreciated while they’re on the road. 
  3. Invest in training. High quality, easily accessible training is the key to promoting your company’s culture of safety, which goes a long way toward improving CSA scores. Download our whitepaper for tips on training your entire fleet to maintain safety while on the road. 

Compliance Doesn’t Have to be a Four-Letter Word.

With our easy-to-use online training tools, drivers can stay up to date on the latest compliance issues, make sure they have the tools to succeed and keep your business profitable and in good standing with the DOT. We make it easy for drivers and companies alike to stay in compliance and mitigate safety-related costs such as litigation and rising insurance premiums.

Key Takeaways for Improving CSA Scores:

  • Keep trucks properly maintained
  • Hire and retain the best drivers 
  • Train and equip your drivers with CSA best practices using our online training tool

Use our handy guide for improving and maintaining your CSA score

View our clients CSA score improvements

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How Truckers Can Help Combat Human Trafficking

The Truckers Against Trafficking Logo overlaying several trucks driving on a highway toward the camera | help combat human trafficking this January during Human Trafficking Awareness month

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. We are partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking to use our unique positioning to combat human trafficking. Most human trafficking happens via major transportation routes and hubs, and truck drivers can be a first line of defense.

What is Human Trafficking?

The definition of human trafficking is “the action or practice of illegally transporting people from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labor or sexual exploitation.”

And human traffickers rely on the transportation industry to operate.

How to Spot the Signs of Human Trafficking

Truckers Against Trafficking offers great training resources for your drivers, and also shares success stories of drivers who have successfully identified and stopped human trafficking as it was happening. 

Be on the lookout for victims that exhibit some or all of these signs:

  • • Appearing destitute/no personal possessions
  • • Showing signs of physical injury or abuse
  • • Avoiding eye contact or social interaction, avoiding law enforcement
  • • Having tattoos/”branding” on the back of the neck or lower back
  • • Interacting with others seems scripted
  • • Appearing to have poor physical or dental health

How Can Trucking Companies Help?

Transportation companies are in a unique position to combat human trafficking. By training every driver to spot the signs, and equipping them with the tools to alert authorities, we can make a huge difference in the fight against human trafficking.

Trafficking almost always happens along major roadways, shipping, and transportation hubs, and roadside rest stops. 

As we deploy our drivers to these areas, they are our cavalry, charging out as the front line of defense against trafficking.

Driver Education on Combatting Human Trafficking

Some states require human trafficking training for renewing CDL licenses as well as new licenses, while others would require it only for first-time CDL licenses.

As part of our recognition of Human Trafficking Awareness month, we have partnered with Truckers Against Trafficking to offer a webinar to discuss human trafficking and how those in the transportation industry can learn to spot the signs, take action and save lives.

Infinit-I Workforce Solutions is partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) to use our exclusive platform to combat this issue and raise consciousness. Click here to learn how you can help, and talk to one of our experts today about adding human trafficking driver education to your training program. 

Three Key Takeaways:

  1. Human trafficking is prevalent at transportation hubs
  2. The human trafficking industry relies on the transportation industry to function
  3. You can be on the frontline in combat of this issue by training and equipping your drivers to spot the signs and take action

If you suspect human trafficking, call the 24/7 National Trafficking Hotline:1-888-373-7888 or text “HELP’ to 233733.

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Why Enhanced Safety Culture Is Your #1 Money Saver

enhanced safety culture

You’re probably working on the budget about now. Looking at 2020 with tight margins, what do you do? Where do you cut? Do you negotiate better prices on tires? Fuel? Do you start eliminating positions or cutting back hours? The solution is not saving in dribs and drabs. You need to break through the pattern of diminishing industry returns. A decisive, comprehensive commitment to enhanced safety culture does this. Save money while reducing accidents and incidents and saving lives.

Ignoring Safety = Revenue Loss

Most owners and managers don’t tend to think of safety as something that saves them money. If “Keep the customer happy, cut corners, and pray” is how you’re doing business, it’s time to change. In a highly safety-conscious era, you’re paying too high a cost.

Putting “savings” before safety means:

Accidents and incidents get worse and more frequent. The average truck accident with significant damage easily costs $200-300K. If this doesn’t hit the threshold for insurance to kick in, you’re paying out of pocket. You’re paying damages and repairs in the best scenarios, lawsuits, and high human costs otherwise.

Insurance goes up. CSA scores are part of determining your insurance premiums. If your rate only goes up 10% this year, you’re lucky. Industry-wide, they’re going up 20-40%. And insurance companies are getting pickier about who they insure. Some major companies, like AIG, no longer insure trucking companies at all. And if you become uninsurable, you’re out of business.

Reputation declines. With a poor safety record, you won’t be able to attract the best employees or the best clients. You can even lose clients and drivers who don’t want to ship with an unsafe carrier or a carrier who can’t protect them. 

Inspections, fines, and fees increase. When a company has a poor safety record, they get targeted for more inspections. Your chances of paying fines and fees go up. Drivers are put out of service more often. This pattern drains money and discourages drivers from wanting to work for you.

Expensive technology doesn’t pay. If you’re not harnessing your expensive safety technology to change behaviors, you’re only wasting money. All the technology in the world can’t guarantee you fuel efficiency, better braking, proper lane changes, and hands-free communications if your drivers aren’t doing their job.

Enhanced Safety Culture = Survival

Here’s the fact: improved safety preserves business. The FMCSA is preaching the safety culture gospel for a reason. All your safety issues are linked to business viability. Not only does safety protect the motoring public, but it also makes it possible for trucking to have a future. 

Safety culture is no longer your “goal” — it’s your straight-up, base-level survival; non-negotiable:

  • • You’ve got to have the resources to respond to increased vigilance of regulators and insurance companies. 
  • • You have to start building awareness and changing behaviors in drivers to avoid fines, fees, and lawsuits. 
  • • You’ve got to stay positively connected with drivers in order to reduce turnover. 
  • • To protect yourself in court, you’ve got to document your efforts and do it effectively. 

These are the building blocks of an enhanced safety culture and major savings. 

Cost Savings Breakdown

You can’t afford not to improve safety. But your ROI depends on how you go about it. 

Training costs – Save up to 70%

Safety awareness training is most effective when it’s frequent, consistent, and keeps best practices top of mind. If you’re trying to train by pulling drivers off the road for several hours 4x a year, it’s like expecting your kid to clean his room every Friday because you asked him to once. Repetition and consistency build memory and response. That’s where online training provides exceptional ROI. Our cloud-based safety training solutions can save you up to 70% on training. 

Violations and Accidents – Save a minimum of $80,000/yr

Industry statistics show that training your drivers yields a 70:1 ROI by reducing violations up to 50% and accidents up to 40%. For an average company of 100 drivers (who align with national statistics for accidents), our system can save you a minimum of $80,000 a year in preventable accident costs and reduce the severity of accidents when they occur. 

Insurance – Slow, stop or reverse rising premiums

Insurance companies know that if you have a web-based training platform that allows you an increased frequency of safety messaging and training, you’re setting yourself up for better CSA outcomes. Underwriters see this as a positive checkmark when calculating your premiums, and it pays! Insurance partners and associations trust us to reduce their risk of lost revenue, which often translates into best possible insurance premium rates. 

Safety technology – Get the most for your money

You can invest a lot in safety technology. When there’s an event, an online platform lets you turn it into a learning opportunity. Stop bad behavior, improve CSA, and avoid costly fines, fees, and lawsuits. You can train and remediate based on the data and footage you’ve captured. You can upload custom content, and have the driver who made the mistake teach other drivers, explaining what they did wrong. Train and re-train on the events that occur. 

Commitment to Safety Is the Solution

One of our clients is the 2nd largest contractor for FedEx. After using our system, they’ve upped their game: if drivers don’t do their safety training, the dispatcher doesn’t give them work. That’s how serious they are about safety and about seeing outcomes. They know it saves lives, saves money, and saves equipment. In one year, they saved $100,000 on insurance. They’re committed to enhanced safety culture, and it’s paying off.

Download our free whitepaper to learn more about safety scores and savings and how to get better business outcomes with Infinit-I Workforce Solutions.

Decrease yearly accident costs

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Benefits of Low-Impact Training

A truck drives down a road | low-impact training

Have you heard of low-impact driver training? If not, it’s time. It’s revolutionizing driver safety results. Here’s how.

The Failure of High-Impact Training 

Imagine you’re trying to lose weight. You hire a personal trainer. She says she can only see you on a workday. Then she brings you in on the first day, but instead of 1-on-1, you’re in the class with 60 other people, all at different fitness levels. 

Your personal trainer walks in and says: 

“Okay, guys. Today we’re going to hit every aspect of core and cardio because you’re all out of shape. Also, most of you need muscle-building. And a few of you have injuries we’ll need to consider. And Frank, your balance is way off. So today we’re going to work on all of it. For everyone. For eight hours.”

Then she tells you she’s pretty busy, so you’re going to do all the exercises everyone needs for the next three months.

And you’d better be fit in the meantime! If not, she’s going to call you and give you a piece of her mind, because fitness is really important!

And help yourself to coffee and free doughnuts in the back.

Top Training Problems You Need to Tackle

That’s a picture of high-impact training. It’s providing as much information as possible into learning sessions spaced far apart. This is how many trucking companies are still training their drivers!

But that’s not how memory and learning work. Driver training based on experience and adult learning uses a low-key strategy to make the bigger impact by training in frequent small bites over time.

In-person training sessions alone, no matter how well you do them, is an unreliable method for success:

  • • You’re not getting training to many of your drivers.
  • • You’re pulling drivers off the road, losing their money and yours.
  • • You’re teaching according to methods that contradict experience and research.
  • • There’s pressure to train every driver on all issues (whether applicable to that driver or not) to cover your bases.
  • • You’re often not able to be efficient with driver time (and they know it).
  • • You’re spending money and time on meetings that may not be effective.
  • • You’re spending money and time on remote remediations that may not be effective.
  • • You have to harass drivers with reminders, pressure, and threats between training events.
  • • You’re not seeing dramatically better results. And you may feel like time is running out.

Changing driver behavior, like losing weight, isn’t about stressful “cram” sessions. It’s about changes over time, changing habits, and providing support. The only thing that’s going to do that is frequent, consistent repetition, in much smaller bites. 

Benefits of Low-Impact Training

This is why online training works especially well in the transportation industry. It supports drivers remotely, everyday, in a 3-Step Model for Change:

AWARENESS → RIGHT DECISION-MAKING → RIGHT OUTCOMES

  • • Instead of being inundated with information a few times a year, you’re making it easy and convenient for drivers to have continual AWARENESS of top-of-mind issues. 
  • • Instead of touching base every so often, or building negative experience with the company, drivers are equipped and supported every day to MAKE RIGHT DECISIONS. 
  • • Better safety decisions mean you see more of the RIGHT OUTCOMES. 

When online training is well-designed, supported by automated documentation, and based on a low-impact strategy of short, frequent training sessions, you’ll find the following success factors:

Convenience

Make training available anytime, anywhere, on any device. Don’t pull drivers off the road unnecessarily, when they should be delivering freight. During any waiting time, drivers can log in, watch a video, and complete safety reminders and messaging. 

This also allows drivers to be more efficient with their time. You certainly are being more efficient with their time! Drivers see and appreciate that.

Consistency

Deliver the same content to all employees, whether onsite or remote. People repeatedly need time getting connected to messaging before it starts to take hold. 

And create a more consistent relationship between the company and the drivers. They may not see anyone from the company for weeks or months. Instead of trying to tell them everything they need to know a few times a year, you’re connecting on a regular basis. 

Effectiveness

Use a micro-training strategy of short videos and messages to improve comprehension and retention of material. Effective = efficient. Impact turnover, too! Independent contractors are independent for a reason. You can’t demand that a person who’s not an employee show up somewhere for half a day. When you respect drivers’ time, you respect their paycheck. 

Programmability

What issues always need repeated coverage? What only needs an occasional review? Schedule routine training and best practice safety reminders to come at regular intervals.

Flexibility

Deliver specialized training topics to those employees who need them (i.e., hazmat, fuel efficiency, driver/dispatcher, etc.) Infinit-I Workforce Solutions offers a bilingual learning library of over 850 topics.

Timeliness

Push out training in response to incidents in real-time and automate corrective actions. React quickly! Snow coming next week? Send a reminder right away for those drivers facing inclement weather.

Customization

Personalize messages from the CEO, send birthday wishes, and share holiday greetings. This builds relationships and rapport among remote teams, which increases employee retention.

Low-impact training has a formidable record of effectiveness. And that reputation is only growing. Effective training saves you money in vital business areas, from training and re-hiring costs, to lawsuits and DOT inspections. With a 93% year-over-year client retention rate, we know that our model works in helping trucking companies like yours meet serious business goals.

Request your free demo of Infinit-I Workforce Solutions today and see for yourself.

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6 Things Your Safety Documentation Needs to Succeed

How Reporting Reduces Insurance Costs and Litigation Risk for Transportation Firms

Are you ready for your next deposition? How about your next audit? No trucking company wants there to be a next deposition or audit. But you’ve got to prepare. What does your safety documentation need to succeed? Can you ensure it’s working for you at the critical moment?

Wearing Your Armor

Your business relies on reliable documentation. No matter how tough the situation, if you can prove you’ve done the right thing, it’s like wearing armor into battle. Without it, you’re literally going on a wing and a prayer.

Too often safety documentation is a chink in the armor. During a deposition, typically that’s what you’ll be asked for first: safety training documentation. If it’s not signed, dated, and complete, or you can’t find it, your safety and compliance efforts are non-existent in the eyes of the law. Because when it comes to DOT, OSHA, and the courtroom:

If it’s not signed, dated, or you can’t find it, it didn’t happen.

Fines, fees, court settlements, and lawsuits can leave you doling out tens of thousands to millions of dollars per year. 

And that’s just indirect costs. Indirect costs of losing a court case or doing poorly in an audit include:

  • • Higher insurance rates
  • • Getting flagged for additional audits
  • • Reputation as a high-risk company 
  • • Losing employees and clients
  • • “Unsatisfactory” rating shutting you down 
  • • “Conditional” rating giving you lots of extra work to do

Documentation can make or break a business. When confronted by an auditor or an attorney, this won’t make much of an impression:

  • • “It’s complicated running a business these days…”
  • • “Our drivers are hard to get hold of.”
  • • “We’ve had a tough year.”
  • • “We trained our drivers, but we’re having trouble pulling together the paperwork.”
  • • “I can’t show you our safety plan, but I promise we’ll do better.”

Only successful safety documentation will reliably protect you in the eyes of the law.

Your External Hard Drive

Think of safety documentation like an external hard drive to your valuable work computer. If the computer crashes, you’ve got a backup. When the unlooked-for occurs on the road, you’ve got a plan. It proves, in black and white, “I did the work.”

Look on any website for people looking to sue trucking companies, and you’ll realize how frequently trucking companies take shortcuts to their own detriment and don’t plan ahead. It’s hard to hear, but at this point, you could almost call this tendency common knowledge. That’s why proof of safety training and remediation is a good investigator’s first line of questioning. 

When you cut corners with safety, you’re not giving yourself much of a chance in the case of accidents, audits, and suits. But if you are working to improve, doing due diligence, and backing up your work with a reliable system, you’re on your way.

6 Things Safety Documentation Needs to Succeed

So what makes a safety documentation system reliable? 

1 – Consistency

Don’t put up with costly chinks in the armor. Successful safety documentation closes the gaps with a consistent system of signing, dating, filing, and retrieval. The method you use needs to work, and it needs to stay the same. You need to be able to collect 100% of the documents you need from 100% of drivers. This can be hard to do unless you go paperless. 

2 – Accuracy

Are the correct documents time-stamped for the right people? Can you easily decipher what’s written? You need to be positive that what you’re seeing is accurate, no matter other variables.  None of these should EVER affect the accuracy of documentation: 

  • • Handwriting
  • • How tidy or messy your office is
  • • Driver, dispatcher, or office employee turnover
  • • Whether you’re understaffed
  • • Honesty of drivers, dispatchers, or employees
  • • Leadership change

3 – Details, details

What time of day did Driver X complete the remediation series? What training did you send out on March 23, 2019? What topics did you include in every training on distracted driving you required between January and June? Can you answer questions like that for every driver and every training? You will face these kinds of questions.

4 – Integrity

Documents can’t be easily edited, changed, or created. This is pure accountability. If a lawyer can show that it’s possible to add to records, change scores, etc. in your system, no matter how honest you may know people to be, it’s a chink in the armor. They’ve got to be stored securely, so not even you can modify them.

5 – Accessibility

You’ve got all your paperwork. To the best of your knowledge, it’s accurate and secure. Now, do you know where it is? The key is secure and accessible. Documentation won’t do you much good if you can’t find it, or can only find part of it! It also needs to be easy to sort through and easy to read. 

6 – Retrievability

Finally, can you get to it quickly? An online, cloud-based training and documentation system can provide security, accessibility, and retrievability. Push a few buttons, and you have what OSHA, DOT, or the lawyers need in their hand. 

At Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, we believe in making life simple and safe. That is why we’ve developed a paperless safety documentation system tied with your safety training program. 

Once a training session is complete, it is: 

  • • Automatically dated
  • • Timestamped to the minute and second
  • • Held on a secure, 3rd-party server
  • • Part of an accessible, easy-to-read database

Every training you send — recorded. Every completed training — recorded. You will also see every training missed or refused. 

Our safety documentation is admissible in court and has helped our clients reduce fines and fees, impress at depositions, change CSA scores, and avoid the courtroom altogether. We are building an industry reputation. Research, real-world experience, and a world-class Client Success Team support our system.

Download our free whitepaper to learn more about how we’re building training partnerships, more secure businesses, and a stronger culture of safety in trucking.

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