Great West Casualty Company Blog

Motor carriers put a lot of faith in drivers. They are entrusted with very expensive equipment, valuable cargo, and customer trust. With all of this at stake, motor carriers cannot take driver hiring decisions lightly. Trusting word-of-mouth referrals or the accuracy of an applicant’s resume is not enough to gauge a driver’s qualifications. The best way to accurately determine an applicant’s abilities is to physically observe him or her in and around the truck with a road test. Road test observations, combined with the results of pre-employment investigations, better position motor carriers to make a well-informed hiring/leasing decision.

Every motor carrier has a company culture that reflects the organization’s values. This culture can be positive and beneficial to the organization’s success or negative and cause it to stagnate or even fail. In either case, positive or negative, a company’s culture is contagious. People tend to adopt the values of those around them, especially at work, and infect others with the good or bad. That is why positive values are so important to motor carriers.

Every motor carrier operates in a challenging environment that exposes it to the risk of a catastrophic loss. Serious injuries, loss of life, and high-dollar claims are just one crash away. Yet, even with this awareness, many motor carriers are ill-prepared for what follows that dreaded phone call informing them that one of their drivers has been involved in a critical crash.

Those working in the transportation industry might rank regulatory compliance as their least favorite thing to do, right up there with getting a crown at the dentist, but like it or not, motor carriers must comply with the regulatory requirements to which they are subject. Failure to do so can result in penalties ranging from monetary fines, out-of-service orders, alerts on the company’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) profile, and, in severe cases, an order to cease operations.

Change is a constant in the trucking industry. From hours-of-service changes, the ELD mandate, and other proposed regulatory changes, this state of flux requires motor carriers to either rise to the challenge and improve or risk being left behind.