This blog post was updated on March 16, 2021.
Compliance is a time-consuming, burdensome process. It adds no clear value to your company other than to avoid getting scolded by the DOT. Worse yet, it takes up so much of your time. What if we told you there is a better way?
Let's break it down:
So why should you bother investing in DOT compliance software? In short, because it will save you time, money, and headaches. But let’s cover some of the specifics.
The answer is actually quite simply: humans make mistakes. Your compliance team, while perfectly capable, remains human.
"Humans always have and always will make errors. Manual processes will always break down."
Your driver in charge of road tests grabs Pre-Hire MVR results from a DQ Folder and leaves it in the cab - that Pre-Hire MVR was filed away properly but humans ruined it again. A date is fat fingered into a spreadsheet because a phone call came in at the same time. It’s bound to happen.
As we teach in our A-Fleet: Professional Safe Driver Course, accidents are unplanned events. Nobody wakes up and says, “I think I’ll lose an entire DQ file today.” Accidents happen in every aspect of life. That’s why we have insurance for everything: our cars, our homes, and ourselves. It’s better to pay a little bit to be covered in case of an accident or slip up.
DOT compliance software brings the same value. It’s insurance against the possible wrath of a DOT auditor caused by a simple human error.
"Compliance software is an extra level of defense that arms your compliance team to safeguard against inadvertent errors that result in unwanted fines."
You should not be paying people to push paper. There are thousands of other activities that would better benefit the company by reducing risk. You should ask yourself: can our record maintenance system be automated? Better organized? More readily accessible? More user friendly? Human-proof? Of course it can.
Spend less time managing papers and figuring out which is the next to-do. Let the system figure it out for you and automate the majority of mundane tasks.
Weird situations come up all the time that require your compliance team to pull old records or double check something. Chances are your safety manager is a busy person with plenty of other actions to do each day. Compliance software saves time and effort because everything is a few keystrokes and clicks away. No poring over spreadsheets or digging through filing cabinets for a half hour to find one MVR or permit. Don’t be surprised if you hear loud clapping or dancing from your compliance managers after investing in DOT Compliance software.
The best DOT Compliance software systems have an alert system in place to let you know when a document is expiring or missing. Not only will you never have to remember an expiration date again, but even if you run that document and forget about it, the system will always remind you that something still needs to be done about that document. It covers your safety team for the one document out of a thousand that falls through the cracks. Enjoy the peace of mind that your compliance record is not dependent on one person’s mental organizational process.
With DOT compliance software, nothing will ever go missing. Bob can’t pull an MVR out the cabinet and forget to put it back. Michelle’s copy of her CDL can’t accidentally end up in Marcus’ folder. A fire, flood or act of God won’t destroy everything. Once a record is scanned and put in the system, it’s there. Until the automatic deletion system deletes it in three years (or whatever time frame you set it to). It can’t be misplaced or accidentally shredded.
No matter what happens, those records will always be there where you put them.
An added bonus for having compliance software is if you can seamlessly integrate it into your hiring process. That’s why A-Suite has a Recruiting module that will already have the application, release forms, pre-hire MVR, PSP, background check, road test and drug screen results automatically in the right electronic folder for you.
What would you do with saving 30 minutes per new hire since you no longer have to organize their paperwork? Just another way that compliance software can save you some time and money. The only bad news is you’ll have to sell your stock in the International Paper Company.
By now, we hope, you may have realized that it’s not a question of if DOT compliance software is worth it. You’ll save time and money while becoming infinitely more efficient. The question is if it will pay for itself in week 2 or week 3 of implementation.
What could you do with all that extra cash in your budget?