UPGRADING YOUR SAFETY RATING

If you have a conditional or unsatisfactory safety rating, it’s time to start thinking about safety upgrade requests. Having a poor rating is a serious situation that is costing you thousands of dollars in increased insurance rates and lost revenue, you should take action immediately. At Progressive Reporting, we have helped many happy clients get their safety rating upgraded, saving them thousands of dollars.

There are three different safety ratings that can be issued in a safety audit.

Satisfactory Safety Rating 

Motor carrier has functioning and adequate safety management controls that meet the safety fitness standard prescribed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR).

Conditional Safety Rating

Motor carrier does not have adequate safety management controls in place to ensure compliance with the safety fitness standard set by the FMCSR.

Unsatisfactory Safety Rating

Motor carrier does not have adequate safety management controls in place to ensure compliance with safety fitness standard which has resulted in occurrences listed in the FMCSR. This rating means you will be prohibited to operate a CMV.

When looking at getting a safety upgrade request, we will help by determining what actions the carrier needs to take as a result of a DOT Safety Audit/compliance review. As part of the upgrade request, a federal or state inspecting agent will look at –

• Drivers’ hours of service
• Maintenance and inspection
• Driver qualification
• Commercial drivers’ license requirements
• Financial responsibility
• Hazardous materials
• Other safety and transportation records

The compliance review will be conducted in response to a request to change a safety rating, to investigate potential violations of safety regulations by motor carriers, or to investigate complaints or violations of safety.

Remember, your DOT Safety Rating is like your credit score. Many businesses review and make purchase decisions based on your safety rating. You may lose business as a result of a poor safety rating. It will also damage your businesses reputation. Companies may think you are associated with bad business practices.

So what can you do? Start by filling out the DOT Compliance Review package we have online. This do-it-yourself package includes detailed files and forms that will help you capture all information required in a DOT Safety Audit. This package also offers a guide on preparing for the audit.

You will also need to submit a Safety Management Improvement Plan. This should include a description of what the violations involved, why they occurred, how you are taking corrective action on the issue and how that action will accomplish a long-term compliance.

This is a process that needs detail and time, both of which you may not have be able to provide. Progressive Reporting is here to take the work off your hands. After we gather your information, we will build a customized safety upgrade request packet that we will help you submit to the FMCSA. The packets are complicated and require a lot of detail, but we will make the process as simple as possible. Our success rate for helping carriers get their rating upgrade is over 75%.

For more information safety upgrade requests, DOT Safety Audits or Drugs and Alcohol Consortium, visit our blog frequently or give us a call at (866) 736-6507.