How to Find a Safe Trucking Company to Work For
If you’re curious about how clean a trucking companies driving record is, you’re in luck. The Federal Motor Carrier Association provides a program called Safety and Fitness Electronic System to help future or current employees keep tabs on how reliable a trucking company is. The FMCA collects safety records to give a grade in just how safe a company’s drivers are performing. The grading is done in four different areas: Accident, Driver, Vehicle, and Safety Management.
The DOT inspects every carrier to determine if any safety changes or improvements need to be made. Law enforcement officers spend time researching the reports to pin point which companies are having the most problems. The worse record a company has, the more often they will be monitored and pulled over on the highways.
This tool can be extremely helpful for new truck drivers trying to decide which company to work for. Comparing company ratings gives you a better idea of how well the company is doing. It’s not necessary to make a decision based only on a slightly higher score, but it should help you cut out the struggling companies getting lower than average scores.
How Does the Scoring System Work?
The percentage you will see reflects the percentage of carriers who are doing better than the carrier you are looking at. For example, a safety rating of 80% means that 80% of other monitored companies have better ratings than that company. It may seem confusing at first, but just remember a higher percentage means a lower score. Here are the Safety Rating ranges:
- 0-49-Satisfactory
- 50-74-Conditional
- 75-100-Unsatisfactory
These scores are crucial to companies because law enforcement officers are not the only ones who look at the scores. Shippers often choose one carrier over another because of a better safety rating. A more reliable fleet of drivers means a safer delivery. If the risk seems too high with a carrier, shippers will definitely look the other direction. This site is constantly updated, so use it often to check up on the four main categories I mentioned earlier and the rating for that month. Using every resource out there will help secure long-term success as a professional truck driver.