In order to have a business operating, every owner has to have a selection of paperwork, or at least records. Some are for tax purposes, some for accounting purposes, some for regulatory purposes and others just for personal knowledge and information. These can include everything about yoru business, from income and expense reports, invoice and inventory, accounts receivable, payroll, and records on all of your equipment and all of the certifications and licenses that your workers have (as necessary) to meet certain compliance objectives.
[Image courtesy of Anthony Easton from Flickr, via a Creative Commons license]U.S. Department of Transportation has regulations for driver’s time on the road and mileage which is tracked, but truck maintenance records are on more of an honor system. And some companies aren’t very honorable in their recordkeeping – and that has led to company shut-downs.
Some of you might scoff at this, but I’m telling you – I know many of my readers are conscientious types and wouldn’t dream of not keeping track of everything regarding safety, but you would be surprised what happens when certain regulations are not aggressively enforced or are only n effect on an “honor system.” Such a thing virtually exists in the U.S. Department of Transportation and its regulations about maintenance records. Every trucking company has regulations about keeping track of driver’s logs to track their mileage and time on the road every week, and they also have regulations about keeping accurate and complete records of maintenance on all trucks in a fleet. DOT inspectors don’t always make the rounds on a routine basis – they seem to make random audits and will only truly inspect your records if there is an accident or some other safety issue involving your trucks.
And, shocker of shockers, there are companies who actually do not keep track if they don’t have a gun pointed to their head. And one such company in North Carolina was actually shut down by the DOT in 2012 when the agency discovered that the company had very deliberately not kept records of its trucks’ maintenance – not even keeping track of when warranties expired or even when maintenance should be done.
Jeff Chilcott wrote a brief article about DOT regulations for truck maintenance and gives some key advice to make sure that records are kept accurately and completely, even from teh very first day that a truck comes into your fleet. Sure, it might mean more paperwork, but that could always be delegated to a fleet manager to make sure to track all the trucks and they all get the necessary inspections and service – because who wants to have a profitable company close its doors just because of a compliance issue? To have a lack to paperwork sidetrack an American dream would be a real tragedy.