Carrier has a 80.3 % rating on DOT maintenance inspections

Yeah I've got several trucks leased to a company with poor scores. It can be a benefit. How many companies offer 400 bucks for a good stop unless they really need to improve their scores. Even so I've never been stopped in over 3 years with them (knock on wood).

 

You need to look at the detailed report and figure out for yourself if they have a safety problem or a run of nitpicky inspections. Or, as Hurst mentions, one real bad apple that blew up the score and is now gone, leaving behind a smoking ruin. That 80.3% doesn't mean squat without context. Additionally, you don't mention if that number exceeds the intervention threshold for that metric. That would put a flag on their safety report and potentially some brokers or shippers that won't load them till it comes down.

Download the detailed version, read it carefully, and ask them questions if you see something that is a concern. Also remember the multiplier starts at 3x points, then to 2x at 6 months, then 1x for a year before points fall off after two years on a carrier report. A grand-slam inspection that is 5 months old may be right on the verge of lowering, making that score look a lot better next month.

 

Where that safety rating will hurt is when you're trying to post a truck and fish for random moneymaker loads. Lots of brokers won't use you. The big boys CHR, TQL will. People you have an established history with will likely continue using you. Again, those bad scores can hurt if you like to go fishing, not as bad if you have regular established runs...They will make people, wrongly, assume you are shoddy cheap carrier. It's a flawed system that favors mega carriers. The trial lawyers and insurance industry forced it on trucking and of course new systems and regulations are always set up to protect large players, stifle little guys.

 

Just food for thought, but a high maintenance score can be a indication of money issues. Considering it is a O/O company, are the O/O's making enough to put money back into their equipment?

 

That is the false pretense the large industry supporters of the CSA system would like you to buy into. You'd have to take a close look at the inspections with violations, what sort of violations they got, how many are stacked on each one, frequency, is the same unit getting them or are they different, where did they get the negative inspections, and so on. Everyone likes to point a finger at that big number in the basics summary and assume all sorts of malfeasance. Rarely does anyone look beyond that to really understand what's driving it.

That's the real problem with CSA. Ignorant people will make critical business decisions based on a numeric score that means nothing on it's own.

 

Sniff? That feeling you felt wasn't his nose........

 

agree with red. some of the problems i've seen with the scores who'm i've worked for. were same driver over and over.

there's also one well known and respected o/o company. that some on this board work for. that i just happened to look at. where drivers were csa'd for suspended driver licenses or expired med cards. i dodn't know about the rest of you all. but i was kind of surprised to see that one. considering what's posted on the front page when your looking for a load.

 

He said company has a few O/O leased to him....

 

Another good source to get more detailed information on this subject is NASTC. They are really trying to help smaller trucking companies and single operators succeed in this over regulated environment. These SCA scores are purposely designed to harass and get rid of the smaller companies. The bigger the company, the less effect these scores have on them because of the spreading out of the scores on the larger number of drivers. Bad scores do not drop off automatically - even if you get rid of the bad apples(s) that were causing the problem for the company. That should be reversed - but it's another way to fine and impose hardship on the smaller companies.

I wouldn't worry about one score being at 80.3%.
As a broker, too, I know that the bad number is over 95.
If you only have one at that number, it's not so bad.
You start seeing 2 or 3 in the 90's, then hit the road.
They won't get good freight from most brokers or customers that know the rules (lawsuits are what is really the focus is from these scores - it benefits the ambulance chasing lawyers).