We lost a truck a few years ago when a 100-mile-per-hour wind gust pushed our truck against the guard rail at a major freeway interchange. The truck – along with the 10,000 lb. skid on the trailer behind it – rolled three times.

The driver survived and the skid never came off the trailer. If it had come off – or the trailer had separated from the truck – people could have been killed.

What could have happened is every company’s worst nightmare. Why didn’t it happen to us?

Probably some good luck and because we do everything we can to dot our “i’s” and cross our “t’s” about fleet safety. With the vehicles we put on the pavement every day, we are always at risk. Overall, I’m not a fan of regulations and costly compliance. But in the case of vehicle safety, having the regs push us and enforcement by troopers helps keep our vehicles and people safe. Without this push to comply with Department of Transportation (DOT) regs, the truck that rolled off the freeway and a few other mishaps along the way could have been catastrophic.

And while we do the work daily with vehicle inspections and DOT logs and more to be compliant with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act (FMCSA), that didn’t protect us from a $4,000 fine not so long ago when DOT audited our files.

If your company comes up for an audit, a state trooper is the one that conducts it – because the federal government has put jurisdiction for FMSCA compliance in the hands of local law enforcement. In our case, when the trooper came in for the audit, he found we were generally in compliance. But the one big thing we didn’t know resulted in the fine.

Where we went wrong was in how our CDL drivers were routinely drug and alcohol tested. We had hiring policies, a driver policy plus drug and alcohol testing in place. But we did not know that anyone who has a CDL must be randomly drug and alcohol tested by an outside, third party. This one regulation we didn’t know about bought us the fine.

The audit process that led up to the fine wasn’t all bad. We weren’t thrilled about the fine, but the trooper gave me his email and I’ve gotten my $4,000 back in value from all the calls and emails that he’s answered. Overall, I feel our industry under-utilizes the State Troopers. They really do offer great value because their job is to make our roads safer.

The other way to look at this is to do the minimum, take your chances and pay the fines whenever you’re caught. But all the fines will never add up to the value of one human life – your driver’s or someone else’s. In our company, we’d rather do the work to minimize the risk.

This account was given by an ALCC member company.

Read more in this issue of Colorado Green NOW:
Spontaneous rescue
H-2B provisions included in approved omnibus spending bill
Here's a preview of spring
The Great Divide film to screen at ProGreen