Safety Ratings
Posted on June 12, 2009
Filed Under GENERAL, GETTING AUDITED
One of the things DOT does is it rates all motor carriers at the conclusion of all its audits. It gives out 3 different ratings. Satisfactory, is the best rating, which means you are mostly in compliance. Conditional, means there are some major rules you are violating. Also, a Conditional rating means you almost certainly were fined as a result of the audit. Finally, there is Unsatisfactory. This means you’re so screwed up, they only give you 60 days…. less if you handle hazardous materials, to clean up your act, or they put you out of business. If you’ve never been audited, you have NO rating.
Ideally, you want to have a Satisfactory rating, or no rating. You can operate indefinitely with a Conditional rating, but it’s hard, especially if you are a for-hire motor carrier. Shippers, brokers, and insurance companies can and do view these ratings on the Internet. It varies by shipper, as to whether or not they’ll load a Conditional carrier. Some don’t care. Others want CYA documentation from you about how you really are a safe carrier. Then others won’t load a Conditional carrier, no ifs ands or buts. I had heard CH Robinson is one of those, for example, but I’m not 100% sure if that’s true.
Furthermore, your insurance carrier may jack up your rates, strictly based on the Conditional rating. I once asked a larger customer of mine, who had just gotten out of the Conditional status how much extra he was paying in insurance due to the Conditional. He guessed he was paying $200 – 300 more per truck. Your mileage may vary.
The thing many motor carriers don’t understand is that once you have the Conditional rating, it’s not easy to get the Satisfactory rating. First you have to comply with the rules. Second, you have to get the DOT to upgrade your rating. This can be very hard. It used to be you could call your local DOT office, and they would send out an agent to conduct a reaudit. They would satisfy themselves you’re on the straight and narrow, your rating gets upgraded to Satsifactory, and everybody is happy.
DOT doesn’t do this anymore. They have decided they don’t want to waste resources on motor carriers who probably are in compliance. If you get a Conditional, that’s your problem, they reason. Your crisis is not their crisis, so they very rarely conduct re-audits. You can sit with a Conditional rating for a year or two before they do a re-audit.
They do provide you an avenue in order to regain the Satisfactory rating. You must petition their office, providing reams of documentation about how you have corrected the violations, and will sin no more. This is not an easy process. First, when dealing with government workers, you must remember their primary focus is CYA. In other words, if they upgrade you to Satisfactory based on a few pieces of paper, they want to make 100% you’ve earned it. If they upgrade you on Monday, and Tuesday, you slide into a family of six, they know that on Wednesday the media will be asking questions. No DOT official wants to be on the news.
Therefore, they go over these petitions with a fine-toothed comb. They nit. They pick. God forbid if you need guidance. Getting a DOT guy on the phone is usually difficult, sometimes impossible, and if you do get to the right person on the phone, getting any legitimate help is a crapshoot. Many of the DOT guys are just not that interested in helping the motor carriers. Some are, but like I said, it’s six of one, half dozen of another whether you get the helpful guy on the phone. You are just as likely to get somebody who not only will not help you, they’ll be downright rude in doing it. After all, it’s not their Conditional rating, it’s yours, so kiss off motor carriers.
Oh well, rude DOT officials just creates more demand and work for me. They answer the phone 25% of the time. I answer it 70% of the time, and the other 30%, I return messages almost always that same day. Anyway, the best way get out of a Conditional status is to avoid getting placed there in the first place.
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