nedly05; You already have the same paperwork from Foley that you'd get from JJ Keller. First of all those companies are printing companies and wish you go back over and over for more paperwork as you bring on more drivers. So, Here's what you do. Take all the Foley forms that have carbon-less pages on the back of the white front pages, tear them off and throw them away, then go copy all the white pages and put the orginal white pages in a master forms file. Now you never have to buy them again. When we supply a company with the forms we also include all the accident folder materials, substance abuse policy and paperwork, driver's substance paperwork, time-reporting paperwork, a maintenance plan specific to your company, and all maintenance paperwork, along with folders all labeled for every part of all these different sections you have to account for. There is so much more to be compliant than just getting a driver's qualification file and blank paperwork and maybe a drug testing setup. Let's go back to the beginning though. If you are a driver for a DOT company other than your own then that company you drive for is responsible for all your files and regulated paperwork. If your an Owner/Operator then you are responsible for all regulated files and paperwork. You are not exempt from being fully qualified with a DQ file including the three years for prior history on drug/alcohol and accidents from your previous employers three prior to the date of application for your company. You can do this within your own company if you were in business for more than three years prior to becoming a DOT regulated company. A secret only us safety auditors and review officers kinda know about. If your an owner/operator, leased on to another carrier, that carrier is responsible for all files and paperwork for compliance. If you still do your own maintenance as a leased on owner/operator, you need to have a maintenance plan along with a maintenance file for all trucks and trailers with a maintenance log. If your subject to a CDL license your subject to 49CFR Part 382 and must have a pre-employment drug test BEFORE starting to drive and be put into a consortium pool for random drug and alcohol testing before the next test cycle is drawn. A DOT safety audit is a free training session from a state or federal official and will go over all you need to setup your files I just went over above. This free safety audit will only be for Interstate Carriers. NOT Intrastate Carriers. Far as I know no budgets have been set aside for helping Intrastate Companies with training knowledge for regulations or files set-up, yet they can receive the same violation fines and tickets that any Interstate carriers can. This is why I just couldn't walk away from the industry when I retired from the MI State Police. Sad but that's the way it is out there.
