Is my Carrier a "Safe" carrier?
No matter what you transport, you should be concerned with how “safe” your carrier is. Carriers with poor safety ratings can be specifically targeted by DOT and MOT officers for inspections. The inspectors instantly have access to a carriers inspection history, noncompliance fines and accidents on-line over their computer network. They use this information to aid who to target and what specifically to check for.
Did you know that you can access the same safety data as the DOT and MOT inspectors? Simply go to www.safersys.org and you can look up all of this data for FREE!
At DSN we regularly monitor all of our carrier’s DOT safety ratings through a direct link with the DOT website. If a carrier’s status changes we are notified immediately and can investigate further.
When we investigate a carrier’s DOT rating, here is what we look at: Vehicle out of Service Ratio, Driver out of Service Ratio and Hazmat out of Service Ratio. You will see that there is a value published both for the carrier and for the national average. Here’s what to look for:
Vehicle out of Service:
A high vehicle out of service ratio (above 15%) tells you that the carrier has a poor maintenance program in place. This is generally the sign of a low priced or financially struggling carrier cutting back on maintenance. The consequences of using such a carrier could be higher accidents, breakdowns and getting pulled over for inspections more often. All this leads to delays in getting your products to your customers. Keep an eye on this!
Driver out of Service
A driver out of service ratio above the National Average usually means driver violations on logbooks, license or paperwork. Generally, a high driver out of service means poorly trained, inexperienced drivers, or worse, drivers who are illegally driving beyond their hours of service limit. If you are using a carrier with a high Driver out of Service rate, you could experience more delays, higher accident rates and problems at the border.
HAZMAT out of Service
A HAZMAT out of service ratio above the National Average usually means poorly trained drivers. They may not have the proper paperwork, placarding or securement for their shipments. If you’re using a carrier with a high HAZMAT out of service ratio you could experience delays due to increased inspections, border delays, or worse, a higher probability for an accident or chemical incident.
Regularly monitoring your carrier’s safety rating is important, not only from a safety perspective, but from a service perspective as well. Check up on your carriers! If this all seems like too much work for you, you can always call DSN where you can be assured we’ve already done our homework on the carriers we use.