How A Compliance Tracking System Works

The digital age has forced trucking into the 21st century. It’s no longer just an advantage, but an absolute necessity to use technology in professional driving. To recruit today’s drivers, you need a detailed, well-planned digital marketing strategy. You need an accessible online application process to land drivers before the competition does. Now, even the DOT has adapted to the times, calling for electronic logs and amending old laws to account for electronic record-keeping.

With the DOT’s new stance in mind, it’s time to use an electronic system to track and store your driver records. You probably have done it your way for a while now and it’s worked out fine. It’s gotten you to where you are today, so why move from solid paper files and spreadsheets to something that costs money? We know you like the look and feel of that paper.

Compliance Tracking Saves You Time and Money

In plain terms, compliance tracking systems make your job more efficient. Compliance is probably just one of many jobs your manager has to do on an everyday basis. That person (or people) probably does a pretty good job, but it’s at the expense of other responsibilities. There is also the reality that not everyone is as organized as they would like to be, which can lead to some misplacement and extra time looking for a specific piece of paper. Depending on the size of your organization, that will add up over time.

A compliance tracking system presents an attractive alternative. It can eliminate the pain points of compliance while freeing up time for other parts of the job. That additional time can be spent doing much more productive things for the company. Spending a little cash on a compliance tracking system will not only save you time, it can save you more money than you spend on it.

4 Ways Compliance Tracking Pays For Itself And More

1. Customizable Records

A major concern for transportation companies regarding switching over to an online system is the loss of their flexibility. They’re afraid that they will not be able to continue organizing records in the exact way they have in paper files. That isn’t the case. You can create records of any name, any type, in any number of folders, and have whichever drivers you wish have them required, or not required. This can all be handled with a few clicks and you only have to do it once. Plus, finding a driver or a record becomes much faster when it’s just type and click instead of hunting through file after file.

2. Set It And Forget It

A real luxury of the compliance tracking system is the maintenance of expiration dates. Managers have become good at meticulous date tracking with spreadsheets over the years, but no one is perfect, nor are spreadsheets fun or easy to read. Compliance tracking removes all this and tracks dates for you. Just type in the expiration date when you upload a record, and the system will alert you when the record is due to expire soon.

3. Only Be Bothered When You Want To Be

Safety personnel are busy folks and don’t constantly want to be reminded of someone’s medical card expiring in six months. You can decide exactly when and how you want to be alerted for record expirations or missing records. It could be daily, once a week or once a year; you decide. Tracking systems also have a dashboard system that will only show you which precise drivers and records need your attention, so you don’t have to sift through everyone’s paperwork to figure out when something is due soon.

4. Easily Integrate Compliance Tracking Into Your Process

Upon hiring or contracting a driver, you’ve gathered more than half of what you need for a compliant Driver Qualification File. The application, release forms, pre-hire MVR, background screen, Certificate of Violations, Med Card, and CDL. A new compliance tracking system like the A-Suite also works into a full process of driver recruitment, hiring and record maintenance. A multi-feature system like this one can be used for everything, from the moment you find the driver to their training and driver qualification file. That kind of efficiency is hard to come by in a spreadsheet.

Repurpose Your Time from Compliance to Something Useful

The old school way of maintaining and storing files is going the way of the fax machine. There are newer, more efficient ways to get the job done that remove the time and effort normally needed to address safety requirements. A compliance tracking system could be a boon to your everyday operations with its streamlined and easy to understand abilities. It’s difficult to find ways to save time and money in trucking, but this is definitely one of them. If you want the driver problem to be a distant memory, get in on a compliance tracking system while it’s new, and not when you’re the last to hop in line. You’ll have more time to spend recruiting and hiring your next high-quality drivers while your competitors sort through filing cabinets looking for paperwork.