How Online Training Helped Ram Services with a DOT Audit
Since 2004, Ram Services has successfully operated a fleet of right at 15 trucks out of the Dallas, Texas area.
When they lost one of their drivers to a single-vehicle fatality accident, they knew a DOT audit was coming. What they didn’t know was how severe that accident, coupled with one other recordable accident in a 12 month period, was going to substantially impact their bottom line.
With the exception of the two recordable accidents, Ram Services’ audit was one any company would be proud to brag about. In fact, if they had been just a tad bit larger, those two accidents would not have hurt the audit either.
As a low mileage carrier, however, the two recordable accidents on the FMCSA formula pushed the company’s Crash Basic too high, and Ram Services’ rating was downgraded from satisfactory to conditional. When this happened, the company immediately began losing the ability to service their customers – all of whom required the satisfactory rating in order to utilize Ram Services as a freight provider.
The company knew they had to do something – and fast. So they began the process of appealing the ruling.
When the DOT field officer called two months earlier than expected to discuss the ruling, he asked the company to provide four things:
1. Training Records
2. Last Safety Meeting Agenda
3. Sign-In Sheet
4. The Accident Countermeasures Plan
While many companies would have had to spend a great deal of time pulling all of this information together, and other companies may not have had all of the requested pieces of documentation, Ram Services was able to quickly assemble everything.
As users of the Infinit-I Workforce System, their training records were all in one place.
“Since we use Infinit-I, I was able to send him a 54 page Excel document with every training module my guys have done and passed for the last two years. My client services representative and I had planned training for this year in December, so I was even able to easily provide him our Accident Countermeasures Plan, too,” said Angela Klattenhoff, owner of Ram Services.
During her call with the field representative, Klattenhoff was also able to explain their company had showed steady improvement in all Basics since the inception of CSA 2010.
Less than one week after the call, Ram Services was back doing business with all of their former clients thanks to good news from the field administrator.
“After reviewing your request, the safety management plan, and the evidence submitted, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is granting your request. Effective immediately, Ram Services’ safety rating is hereby upgraded to ‘satisfactory,’” Field Administrator Terry D. Wolf wrote.
The Klattenhoff’s business was saved, and all of their drivers were back on the road.
“I wanted to share our story with others because it is a real life example of how the fact that I could produce documented training, past and future, made a huge difference in our ability to get our ratings changed,” Klattenhoff said.
