DOT Compliance Services 2026: Full-Service FMCSA Compliance for Trucking Companies
What DOT Compliance Is and What a Full-Service Program Includes DOT compliance is the umbrella of federal and state requirements that motor carriers must meet to operate legally and safely in the United States. In practice, it means aligning your company with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), maintaining qualified drivers and safe equipment, filing […]
Read More
Temporary Fuel Permit
What Is a Temporary Fuel Permit? A temporary fuel permit (often called an IFTA temporary fuel permit, 72-hour fuel permit, or simply fuel trip permit) authorizes a qualified motor vehicle to purchase and consume motor fuel while traveling through a state or province when the carrier does not hold a valid IFTA license and decals […]
Read More
Texas Oversize Permits
As a compliance partner with more than 20 years serving carriers, we know that oversize or overweight (OS or OW) permitting in Texas is equal parts regulation, planning, and paperwork discipline. What counts as oversize/overweight in Texas Texas follows federal baselines with state-specific nuances. In general, vehicles operating without an oversize or overweight permit must […]
Read More
Oversize Load Permit
When you need an oversize or overweight permit In practical terms, you need an oversize or overweight permit any time your vehicle or combination exceeds legal size or weight limits for the jurisdictions you travel through. At the federal level, the commonly referenced thresholds are 80,000 lb gross vehicle weight, 20,000 lb on a single […]
Read More
Truck Permits
Managing truck permits correctly is a critical part of running a safe, compliant, and profitable trucking operation. Regulations change frequently at the city, county, state, and federal levels, and the consequences of an oversight can be costly: delays, fines, or even being taken off the road. At Simplex Group, we have refined our methods over […]
Read More
CDL Pre-Trip Inspection Texas
What Texas DPS Evaluates and How You Are Scored Texas requires every CDL applicant to demonstrate a systematic Vehicle Inspection Test. The examiner expects you to show that the vehicle is safe to operate by naming, pointing to/touching, and clearly explaining what you are inspecting and what defects you are checking for. If you do […]
Read More
Semi Truck Insurance
Whether you own or drive an 18-wheeler, the right insurance program is the backbone of a sustainable trucking operation. In our practice, we have spent more than two decades advising owner-operators and fleets on commercial truck insurance while also supporting core transportation tasks; DOT compliance, permitting, factoring, and freight planning. That end-to-end view lets us […]
Read More
New Entrant Safety Audit Checklist
What the DOT New Entrant Safety Audit is and how it works The New Entrant Safety Audit is a one-time review conducted by FMCSA (or a state partner) to verify that your company has fundamental safety management controls in place. It typically occurs within the first 12 months of beginning interstate operations and sits within […]
Read More
DOT Random Drug Testing Time Limits
The essentials: how long does a driver have after random notification? When a CDL driver is notified, the expectation is immediacy, the driver must proceed to the collection without delay. In practice, I coach teams to treat random notifications like a stop-work order for anything not needed to get to the collection site (secure the […]
Read More
Trucking Insurance in Houston
In this post we are going to see: How Much Does Commercial Truck Insurance Cost in Houston? Houston pricing swings based on radius, commodities, driver MVRs, equipment value, garaging ZIP, and loss runs. Local, intrastate box trucks hauling general freight with clean records tend to pay less; interstate semi-trucks pulling higher-risk loads (oilfield, hazmat, high-theft […]
Read More