A Focus On Compliance Issues

   Running a trucking company regardless of the number of employees must be compliant with all sorts of regulation to remain legal and viable. There are many issues that must be covered and conveyed to your staff and employees that a required by the state corporate division, O.D.O.T, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Division, O.S.H.A and the Department of Environmental Quality to name a few. It can be somewhat overwhelming to keep track of all these trucking compliance issues. I strongly suggest that you owners assign one individual to be the safety/compliance liaison. If you a very small trucking company with less than 10 employees than you as the owner or CEO may have to wear several hats. For instance my wife and co-owner of our Dump Trucking business was the secretary and treasurer who also dealt with payroll and compliance issues.

   If your company is incorporated there is the matter of keeping Corporate Minutes and holding an Annual Shareholders Meeting. To remain solvent as a corporation you must comply with the requirements from the State Corporate Division even if that only includes a wife and husband. The beautiful thing about this requirement is that the state doesn’t specify where the annual shareholders meeting must be conducted. Plan a weeklong trip to Hawaii or some other sought after destination to hold your company’s Annual Shareholders Meeting. As long as you can prove to the IRS that this meeting occurred during that time period and there was an agenda and corporate minutes were recorded than it’s very possible to write off most of your trips expenditures. (Check with your accountant on all tax ramifications) Corporate minutes don’t have to be a complicated thing at all. In our business we simply kept a 3-ring binder and labeled it Corporate Minutes. Any time there is a meeting or change in the companies procedures simply type up what has transpired and place a copy in the binder. For a full list of Oregon’s corporate requirements go here.

   Here is a list of a few key issues that your new compliance assignee may need to follow or implement:

• Truck Licensing: plate renewal including IFTA (International Fuel Tax Agreement) placing decals and reprinting licenses.
• Special Licensing i.e.: overweight and over size permits, running out of state, base plate changes (apportioned)
• Weight-Mile Tax Reporting
• Trusted Carrier Status- (obtaining transponders)
• Adding vehicles to the fleet
• Dealing with tickets and road use assessments
• Fleet Safety – Personnel Safety-Holding Safety Meetings
• Maintenance Programs
• Fleet Insurance Issues
• Scale Crossing Reports

As you can see the compliance person will hold a very important position within the trucking company with a lot of responsibility, finding the right individual is key in running a successful trucking business.