The DOTReady Story

“The app is a digital file cabinet,” Bryan said. “It simplifies the process for the hiring and managing of drivers and other personnel as well as the maintenance and required reporting of the trucks.”

Over twenty years ago, Bryan was operating a small business and had a fleet of trucks she used in the daily operation. She found herself not compliant many times because regulations were not only changing but difficult to navigate and included a great deal of legal jargon that the average person would not understand.                                                                       

“Those issues sent me on a mission to learn all I could about regulations and understand how to interpret those forms and stay up-to-date on the changes, ” Bryan said. “I started helping friends, who were also in the same situation with fines, and in 2012 I created DOT Readiness because of all the frustrations I had encountered with software availability.”

“Originally I set out to find software that could solve all the necessary issues, complete reports and manage trucks and drivers, and I couldn't find one that didn't make more problems. So I made an app and in 2019 it was launched.”

Today her business is called DOTReady as she combined her DOT Readiness Group into the new company umbrella of Proverbs Technology, doing business as DOTReady.                                         

The software Bryan developed takes many roles and converts them into one. Users can recruit, manage, and hire drivers or any employees and do background and drug checks and continually manage those records. The app also allows for the management of vehicles - tracks incident reports, equipment maintenance, and mileage and incident reports all in the same interface.

“It is impossible to know all the rules because they are often changing and adding new mandates that business owners must adhere to or be subjected to fines.”

Bryan said she tried using different software that was suppose to solve any trucking variance problems; however, she found many of the available apps were creating more problems. Her clients were using other softwares and still getting fined and that drove her to want to create an app that would do it all - help with drivers and help with the trucks.

Not all of her software users are trucking companies according to Bryan. The DOT regulates more than the trucking industry making it nearly impossible for the small fleet owner to stay within regulations when the trucks may be a small part of the business. Service, construction, landscaping and any business with trucks is regulated by the DOT.

“The full driver qualifications listed by the DOT is 50 pages,” Bryan said. “I took all that and put in a simple, easy-to-use digital format.”

“Our company can make anyone paperless and the information can be accessed any place, any time. It makes for easy reporting on both drivers and trucks and it will certainly make accident investigations much easier.”

“SMS profiles which are scores used in audits can be easily downloaded so the company can monitor the risk of an audit.”

Bryan notes that anyone can purchase the software only and use it to monitor and evaluate their trucking fleets utilizing their own personnel.

“They can also use our services with the app and sometimes we are literally less expensive than having an hourly employee plus they have my team behind them,” she said. “We are also prepared to teach them how to fully use the software because I want all companies to transition to their own employees whenever possible. Our goal is to provide our clients with whatever is cost efficient.”

Today, Bryan and her team have clients all over the country. She accounts for her business success as a team effort and her involvement with several entrepreneur sessions. She finished the LaunchTN Pitch Competition at 36|86, an entrepreneurship event that brings together innovative and creative people for two days of networking and programming. She said she also sought out assistance from local organizations The Biz Foundry, Upper Cumberland’s entrepreneur center helping upstarts and innovators, and TN Tech’s Center for Rural Innovation, a group dedicated to helping build communities through economic development.

“I owe a lot to The Biz Foundry and Center for Rural Innovation at Tennessee Tech University for their help,” Bryan said. “They allowed me to hire an intern because at that time, I was seriously strapped for cash.”

She said the organizations also helped find assistance with software development and marketing. Her advice to others wanting to start a business is to use the free services offered by both of these groups.

The Biz Foundry is located at 114 North Cedar Avenue in Cookeville. They are a non-profit working to connect entrepreneurs or those wanting to start a business with experts who can share their experiences and knowledge and connections. For more information, call (931) 210-5105, email info@thebizfoundry.org or visit their website at www.thebizfoundry.org.

The Center for Rural Innovation’s mission is “to create companies and build economic development by providing technical assistance to main street businesses and entrepreneurs within the tourism, technology, innovation, retail, and agriculture sectors" within the Upper Cumberland region. They are located on the TN Tech campus and may be contacted at www.tntech.edu/tcri.