fleet management

Fleet management is a vital part of any commercial trucking business. These days, it goes far beyond knowing the location of your drivers or the initial CDL training. Therefore, as a fleet manager you’ll need to be up to date on the regulations for commercial vehicles. Most importantly, you’ll need to know risky driving behavior and how to save money on gas with the help of monitoring. There are tons of options for fleet management, including desktop software, phone apps, and cameras. These devices are designed to prevent driving accidents and properly assign faults if one occurs.

Here’s where we’ll detail fleet management news. We’ll cover new technologies, new techniques, and best practices for your commercial auto business. We’ll also go over hiring practices, how to retain great drivers, and how you can encourage great driving behaviors that will save you money on your insurance.

How to Avoid Nuclear Verdicts

Unfortunately, a serious truck accident might push your business dangerously close to bankruptcy. Incidents like these are frequently referred to as nuclear verdicts by insurance companies. This is when a jury grants the plaintiff in the case more than $10 million.

Alarmingly, due to the rise in deadly truck crashes, these instances have become more prevalent. Recent research indicates that the number of accidents rose by 43% between 2010 and 2019.

In this post, we’ll talk about how safety technology and monitoring methods can improve fleet safety as a whole. Let’s get started!

CDL Drug Test Requirements

It’s usual to be perplexed about the requirements for CDL drug tests. In short, the FMCSA has created criteria for persons who operate commercial motor vehicles to submit to drug and alcohol testing. This covers drivers of passenger vans, buses, and big trucks since they require a CDL. These rules specify who gets tested, when they’re tested, and under what conditions.

Understandably, this is where things start to become a little unclear as the requirements can be somewhat challenging to comprehend. Don’t worry, we’ll explain who must submit to CDL drug and alcohol testing as well as when it’s required in this article.

4 Tips for Reducing Cargo Thefts

It’s estimated that cargo theft results in losses of $15 to $30 billion annually in the United States. While those numbers may seem alarmingly high, they illustrate just how vulnerable cargo is during the shipping process.

Shipping losses can dramatically cut into your bottom line, making it essential that you do everything you can to ensure that your goods are transported safely to their destination.

Fuel Efficiency Best Practices for Fleets

Improving the fuel efficiency of a company’s fleet of vehicles can have many financial and environmental benefits, especially with fuel prices on the rise. Fuel can be one of the largest and most difficult expenses to predict and control. Therefore, it’s important for vehicle fleet managers to conserve fuel, maximize efficiency and reduce vehicle emissions by implementing fuel-efficient policies, technology, and maintenance strategies.

A Guide to Truck Insurance Filings

Commercial truck filings are an integral part of the truck insurance process. Filings are essentially proof that you’re complying with the federal and state requirements of operating a commercial vehicle. As you may know, having the minimum required liability coverage is required by law.

If you think about it, our truckers haul billions of dollars worth of goods every year. This puts a lot of trucking companies, shippers, and manufacturers at risk. Therefore, the government wants to verify that you’re operating with the necessary coverage to mitigate those risks.

This is where state and federal filings come into the picture. There are certain criteria you must meet before you’re required to show proof of insurance where you’re doing business. The whole thing can get pretty complicated considering many truckers transport goods all over the country.

In this article, we’ll discuss the instances where you’ll need to submit a federal and state filing. Let’s get started.

When’s the CVSA’s 2022 International Roadcheck?

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) International Roadcheck is scheduled for May 17-19, 2022. The International Roadcheck is an annual, three-day enforcement initiative that emphasizes the importance of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) and driver safety through a blitz of high-visibility roadside inspections across North America.

This enforcement program is the largest in the world. In fact, an average of 15 commercial vehicles are checked every minute during this 3-day event. Typically, these inspections are conducted at temporary sites, weigh and inspection stations, and on roving patrols.

What’s a DataQ Request?

As a motor carrier, it’s crucial you know how to manage inspection reports and violations. After all, the goal of every trucking business is to protect their CSA score. Therefore, if you wish to challenge a violation, you’ll want to submit a DataQ request.

In this article, we’ll explain the benefit of DataQ requests when it comes to inspections, accidents, and other driving violations. Also, we’ll share how to properly submit your request. Let’s begin.

The Top Driver Qualification Violations

As a motor carrier, you’re responsible for maintaining up-to-date files on all your drivers and implementing stringent procedures. Still, many trucking businesses find it challenging to manage the FMCSA requirements, leading to confusion, hefty fines, and penalties.

This problem is primarily due to clerical error, oversight, the driver withholding the information, or they aren’t aware of current FMCSA requirements. Unfortunately, failing to stay up-to-date on your driver qualification files (DQF) directly impacts your fleet’s safety rating.

Therefore, keeping complete DQFs can help you avoid common driver qualification violations. Here we’ll discuss the top four driver qualification violations and how to avoid them.

An image of a fleet of semi trucks covered by truck insurance.

5 Helpful Tips to Save on Operational Costs

Managing operational efficiency by cutting costs is one of the important parts of a fleet manager’s job. Though it’s not something new for the experienced trucker, factors like supply chain disruptions, lost workdays, and decreasing operational costs have made it a significant issue.