Ask any ground transportation operator whether safety is a priority and the answer is instant: yes. It’s on the website, in the RFP response, in the sales call. That answer used to be enough. It isn’t anymore. Duty of care is judged on what you can show, and buyers have started asking you to show it before they book.
In August we wrote about duty of care from the buyer’s side: what travel programs should actually ask a ground transportation supplier. This post is the other half. It’s for the operator receiving those questions.
It builds on a piece by Brittney Holden of Transportation Advisors, our compliance partner, titled “Duty of Care: If You Say It, Can You Show It?” Her argument is simple and uncomfortable: a commitment to safety only counts if you can explain your process, produce the records, and show that the two match.
Why “We’re Safe” No Longer Closes the Deal
Corporate travel programs, TMCs, and airlines are now measured on how they selected their suppliers. When something goes wrong, their selection process is part of the record. So their questionnaires are getting more specific:
- Who reviews your driver records, and how often?
- When was each driver last checked against the FMCSA Clearinghouse?
- Can you show the maintenance history for a specific vehicle on a specific date?
- What insurance is in force today, at what limits?
- Can you send all of this tomorrow?
An operator who can answer those with documents wins the account. An operator who answers with “we take safety very seriously” gets moved to the backup list.
Paperwork Isn’t Proof
This is the point in Holden’s article that most operators will recognize. A complete-looking file can still hide a broken process:
- A driver record can be in the file without anyone having reviewed it.
- A policy can be in the handbook without drivers knowing how to apply it.
- A maintenance issue can be logged without any record of how it was resolved.
Her test is a short chain of follow-up questions: Who reviewed it? Did anything need action? Who owned that action? Was it closed? If you can’t answer all four for a given record, the record proves less than you think.
On paper, an operator with good practices and weak documentation looks the same as an operator with no practices at all. That’s the gap duty of care exposes.
The Gaps That Show Up as You Grow
Holden makes a point that matters for every operator scaling up: a process that works with five drivers may not hold at twenty. As the business grows, responsibilities shift without being formally reassigned, and one dispatcher ends up as the only person who knows how license renewals get tracked.
None of that is negligence. It’s what happens when drivers call out, vehicles need attention, and dispatch has to keep moving. A file review gets pushed to tomorrow, and then tomorrow becomes a habit.
The fix is ownership, not more paperwork. For every recurring compliance task, you should be able to name:
- The owner — one person accountable for completing it
- The tracker — where its status lives, visible to someone besides the owner
- The escalation path — what happens when something is found, and who hears about it
Then ask the test Holden ends on: would your drivers and dispatchers describe these procedures the same way management does?
Know What Your Credential Actually Says
Ratings, memberships, and certifications help you get past the first screen. But sophisticated buyers will ask what a credential actually covers:
- What was evaluated?
- Against which standard?
- Who did the review?
- How were deficiencies handled?
If you can’t answer those about your own credentials, the credential won’t carry much weight. And a credential only stays true as long as you maintain it. Drivers join and leave, vehicles are added, insurance renews. A one-time audit is a snapshot, not a status.
Where GNet Connect Fits: The GNet Compliance Audit & Certification Program
This is why we partnered with Transportation Advisors on the GNet Compliance Audit & Certification Program. Transportation Advisors runs the audit independently. GNet Connect displays the result where buyers and affiliates already look for you: your operator profile.
How it works:
- Apply through Transportation Advisors at theadvisors.org/certification
- Get audited — an independent review modeled on an FMCSA investigation, covering authority, insurance, driver qualification, drug and alcohol program, and vehicle records, plus additional safety practices
- Close the gaps — the full report stays private to you; you fix what it finds
- Get certified — operators who pass receive a one-year certificate and a badge on their GNet Connect profile: gold for interstate, blue for intrastate
The badge shows a positives-only summary of what was verified. There is no public fail mark. If your insurance lapses or your FMCSA rating drops to unsatisfactory, the badge comes off. It has to be renewed every year.
The program is open to any fleet size. At launch it covers US operators; for international members, buyers sending work into the US can already use it as a trust signal.
GNet doesn’t audit you, and the badge doesn’t guarantee a contract. What it does is turn “we take safety seriously” into something a buyer can check in thirty seconds, before they send the questionnaire.
Questions About Duty of Care for Ground Transportation Operators
What does duty of care mean for a ground transportation operator?
It’s the obligation to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm to passengers, employees, and the public. In practice it’s judged on driver qualification, drug and alcohol testing, vehicle maintenance, and whether you can document all three.
Is having complete files enough to show duty of care?
No. A record that exists but was never reviewed, or an issue logged but never resolved, proves very little. What counts is evidence that someone reviewed it, acted on it, and closed it.
Why do compliance gaps appear as an operator grows?
Processes built for a small team don’t automatically scale. Responsibilities move without being reassigned, and knowledge ends up with one person. A periodic review catches this before an audit, investigation, or incident does.
What is the GNet Compliance Audit & Certification Program?
An independent compliance audit by Transportation Advisors, modeled on an FMCSA investigation. Operators who pass receive a one-year certificate and a gold (interstate) or blue (intrastate) badge on their GNet Connect profile.
What happens if a certified operator’s insurance lapses?
The badge is removed. Certification depends on records staying current, not on passing once.
Ready to grow your ground transportation business?
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