A few potentially dumb questions...

Ok, time to tell on myself at bit. When I first got my DOT, I was just a farmer that needed a truck, so I got a truck, got a trailer, and just started hauling farm stuff under the ag. exemption. Well, that turned into a bit of a profitable business, so I needed to go beyond the 150 mile exemption, so I got a DOT number and went to work.

Fast forward 9 months, and I get called in for my new entrant audit.

You can guess where this is going.

Driver qualification file? You mean, drivers license?

Maintenance program? It breaks, I fix it. I grease it, change the oil, that's my maintenance program.

Drug testing? What for? I need to test myself? That makes no sense.....

Let's just say that audit was a cheap learning experience, and we're many miles down the road since then.

Anyway, I tell that story because it sounds you work for a company, like me, that owns a truck, not a trucking company, and they may have had someone that had a clue about DOT regs in the past, but they probably don't have anyone that knows what they have to do, today.

Bottom line, if they did not drug test you, that's a problem for them not for you. The FMCSA knows nothing about drug testing at your company until they do an audit, and the odds of an audit if you don't get into a serious accident or have multiple failed inspections is minimal.

You may not "qualify" as experienced with a Mega, but many smaller companies will be willing to take a look at you. Let's ask @Chinatown if he has any suggestions for someone in your shoes.

 

You qualify as experienced driver and can prove you have experience by your income tax records and logs.
I don't have advice for owner-operators, because I've never been one. I usually say develop a business plan through OOIDA and then would learn how to set up a company, drug testing, audits, etc.
I know this is a simplistic answer, but that's better than me just guessing and speculating.

 

It may depend on your state. In TN, as long as you stay within the state, you don’t have to have a DOT number or Drug testing program. Both of those are federal programs, and if you are intrastate you aren’t required to abide by them.
I know of several local dump truck outfits that don’t have a USDOT number or drug testing program.

 

If your company is required to drug test and don’t, that’s not your problem. It could be a big problem for your employer though.

 

FMCSA is not really checking on you as the driver in this situation. This isn't about them knowing that you are a driver or anything else about you.

These regulations all regulate the company to handle all of these things. It is the company that FMCSA is monitoring not you. Your monitoring comes with the drug test and that your license is correct, points all that stuff.

But if your employer does not have a DOT number and is not a motor carrier that does not have any affiliation with the government, they're not going to get caught until something happens like an accident.

The government has no record of them being a business that employees drivers so they're not looking for them. If you are only driving 30 miles a day and it's very close and local it's possible they may never get caught unless something happens.

I will tell you though, you may get in trouble yourself as a driver because they're going to tell you you should have known that. They're going to tell you that you should have known that you're not allowed to drive for a company that doesn't drug test you and all of that.

I would get another job as soon as you can or I would sit down and explain it to them and if they don't change that, get out.

They have to either change that or you have to get out of there unless you're in a state like the other person was talking about that doesn't have those rules intrastate.

 

Maybe you can help me. I work for a company and we recently started using a 40ft gooseneck trailer, so we got DOT numbers, but we are private and not for hire. I am just trying to find out what will be included on the new entrant audit? I am trying to avoid the company from getting hit with heavy fines so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

@GSMS Shipping
Honestly it’s all regulatory stuff. Let them worry about. The new entrant audit does not come with fines, it is designed as a learning experience. The DOT officer will go over everything with them and tell them what they did both right and wrong.

if they’re missing anything he’ll give them a time frame to correct it. No tickets or fines will be issued, unless of course they don’t rectify any violations that were discovered.

look at it like this, the new entrant audit is your one and only freebee from the DOT.

 

Driver files, maintenance files, logs, drug testing, mostly.

Have an compliance assistance company help you prepare you for the audit, unless you are one of us that geeks out on details.....

 

Thank you for the information. I am only a driver now but I'm working toward being the transportation manager/director so I'm just trying to do what I can to help them. I know if your first interaction with DOT is bad they have a tendency to start looking for you so I just want to avoid that.

 

Yea I have been looking into this but if they will give us just give us warnings and time to fix things I will probably just wait on that. I have been keeping up with what I know we have to have but I also know we are a little different being "private".