Did you know that a car accident happens every 13 minutes in the United States?

When it comes to driving on the road, ensuring everyone is safe is the top priority. This is why all vehicles on the road need to get some sort of inspection done annually. If you’re a commercial vehicle driver you’re probably family with the Department of Transportation (DOT) inspection you need to get completed every year.

This blog discusses what DOT Compliance means, what the DOT inspection looks for, and even a little bit of history behind DOT. We will also of course be discussing the reason why you're here…… can you do your DOT inspection?

What is the Department of Transportation Compliance?

Let’s go back to the start, the Department of Transportation opened officially in 1967.

To understand what DOT Compliance is, it’s important to know what DOT stands for. The Department of Transportation opened to help ensure that everyone on the road is safe. The organization requires that any commercial vehicle that is on the road needs to be DOT compliant.

Just in case you don't know what a commercial vehicle is, that is any vehicle that is under a business for business uses. You can think of Amazon vans, semi-trucks, school buses, etc and they all need to be DOT compliant.

This helps ensure the safety of the public as well as the employees who are driving.

What does the annual DOT inspection look for?

During the annual DOT inspection, it looks at many things.

They’re looking for anything related to the safety of anyone in or around the vehicle. Some commercial trucks carrying large loads, or hazardous materials ensure their vehicle is not at risk of harming others on the road.

When you are getting ready for your DOT inspection, it's important to understand what the inspector will be looking at:

Tires
Brakes
Suspensions
Emergency Exits (if necessary)

Commercial Vehicles that may need this would be any kind of Bus Examples would be:

School Buses
Transportation Bus

Steering
Engine

If everything on that list is running perfectly with no safety concerns, they’ll next look at the driver’s logs.

Commercial drivers are only allowed to drive a certain amount of hours before needing a break.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also known as FMCSA for short, make the regulations for how long drivers can be on a road without a break. If your vehicle is carrying passengers you’re only permitted to drive for 10 hours and then need to take an 8-hour break.

If the commercial vehicle is only carrying property they can drive for 11 hours and then need to take a 10-hour break. It’s important to note that breaks get done consecutively. These regulations help ensure the drivers are alert and not driving when exhausted.

But, the DOT’s driver log inspection goes beyond looking into driving breaks if you’re in the commercial trucking space. You see, FMCSA sets forth driver inspection requirements. The FMCSA is a subdivision of the DOT that focuses specifically on commercial trucking safety and compliance.

Chapter 5 of the FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Planner sets forth the requirement that every driver must inspect their vehicle to ensure that it’s in safe operating condition. The driver must log the results of their inspection.

Now you may be wondering, what happens if you fail your DOT inspection? If you fail due to serious problems, this could be your brakes or engine, you cannot drive your vehicle until it's fixed.

In some serious cases of noncompliance, the driver can lose their commercial drivers license and be fined or jailed.

If you fail due to little issues that are not a safety hazard, you can pay a fee to get it fixed by the inspector. If you do not want to get it fixed by your inspector you can go to an outside party to get the vehicle fixed. With the other option you will need it to be fixed in a certain window and depending on the issue will determine whether or not you can continue driving the vehicle.

Can you do your own DOT inspection?

Without any further ado can you do your own DOT inspection?

The answer is yes… kind of.

If you want to do your own annual DOT inspection you need to meet the qualifications and pass a training program. To pass the training you must be knowledgeable about all of the rules and regulations, you are also required to keep your inspection report for a set amount of time.

Most people prefer to have the inspection done by a third party due to it being easier than doing the DOT inspection themselves. As the rules and regulations are always changing it can be intimidating to keep track of.

Obviously, from a trucking compliance standpoint. Truckers HAVE to do their own DOT safety inspections per the FMCSA’s requirement.

These types of inspections are oftentimes done via pen and paper checklist.

Challenges of doing your own DOT inspection

The biggest challenge you will face when doing your annual DOT inspection is getting and staying qualified.

Since rules and regulations are constantly changing it is important to keep up with them if you are doing your own inspections.

If you do not and you pass your vehicle inspection without knowledge of the new rules, and later you get into an accident you will be liable.

Yes you, the person who did the DOT inspection, which can be very intimidating. This is a large reason drivers prefer a third party to complete the inspection to avoid any litigation.

On the trucking compliance side, the challenges surround how they’re completed. Pen and paper has its obvious drawbacks. The biggest drawback associated with it is that the majority of truckers sit in their cabins to complete their safety inspections.

That’s a big problem…especially since the safety inspection checklists ask that drivers to look around the OUTSIDE and under the hood of their trucks.

Failing to properly report on the safety of their trucks results in fines of upwards of $15,000 per violation.

Alternatives to paper DOT inspections

So now that you know the challenges that come with doing your own DOT inspection, why should you consider doing it yourself and/or through the traditional paper format?

From an organization perspective, it’s pretty risky. You simply cannot rely on your drivers to get out of their cars to run a thorough inspection. If it’s easier for them to sit in their cabin and run through their paper inspection, they’re going to do that every time.

However, the fines that come with paper routes open your organization up to an unnecessary amount of risk.

So…what’s the alternative?

369 Complete. This interactive and electronic DOT inspection technology uses dynamic and secure QR codes scattered throughout the truck. The technology requires the truckers to physically get out of their cars, scan the QR codes throughout their truck, and answer safety inspection questions via an electronic questionnaire. This saves your organization from the current risks associated with paper-based DOT inspections.

Conclusion

The annual DOT compliance may seem like an unnecessary inspection that needs completed. Whilst it may seem repetitive to complete these inspections yearly. It is vital to the safety of the drivers on the road for the vehicles on the road to be compliant with DOT.

Doing your DOT Inspection yourself can be very convenient and help avoid any unnecessary tickets.

However, doing the DOT inspection yourself can open you to lawsuits if you pass your vehicle inspection when it is not safe. Due to the ever-changing rules and regulations it can be quite difficult to keep up with them. This is why most commercial vehicle drivers prefer to have a third party inspect their vehicle.