Arnold Safety Blog

Did I mention you have to shut down a positive driver immediately? It seems like I just said that, but I recently ran into another instance where this has happened. When one of your drivers flunks a random test, you must immediately find him after being notified by the MRO of the failure. [...]

I haven’t posted anything in awhile. Why? Well, let’s just say, if you’re not backing up your computer files, you should be. One day you’re going to push the “ON” button on your trusty laptop, and it’s just going to sit there. I was 80% ready for that awful day, next [...]

If you are a carrier or shipper of placardable amounts of hazardous materials, you need, among numerous other requirements, a security plan. This is a written document where you outline how risky you believe your HazMat operation is, and the measures you have in place to prevent terrorists from stealing or sabotaging your HazMat. [...]

The FMCSA (aka the DOT) has issued a final rulemaking, which makes official a number of provisions which were contained in the last authorizing law dated 8-10-05, called the “Safe Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users”. (SAFETEA-LU).
(I kid you not, that’s what its called. Your Congress at work.)
What [...]

When DOT conducts its audits, it will generally assign a safety rating to that motor carrier. There are three ratings: Satisfactory, Conditional, and Unsatisfactory.
It is very important that you be assigned the highest rating of Satisfactory, for reasons I will detail in some later post. In determining the ratings, DOT considers not [...]

What is the best way to survive a DOT audit?  The short answer is, “don’t get audited”.  This is done by staying off DOT’s radar screen.  DOT primarily conducts its audits from its Safestat list.  The Safestat list is a hit list of what DOT considers to be the most hazardous motor carriers.  DOT keeps [...]