Director of Carrier Compliance

PLS Logistics Services; Nashville (TN); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

PLS Logistics Services is pursuing a modern, defensible carrier vetting and compliance function to replace a Highway-only process. The effort encompasses a layered tech stack, scalable processes, and a dedicated team to prevent fraud, unsafe carriers, and negligent-selection liability.

In Year One, the focus is auditing the current program, delivering a remediation plan, and designing a layered vetting stack with tool selection and 2–3 hires to ensure continuous monitoring and risk reduction

Qualifications

• Experience building and leading a carrier compliance program.
• Ability to design remediation roadmaps and multi-year plans.
• Capability to implement layered vetting and monitoring systems.

Responsibilities

• Audit current carrier compliance program and deliver remediation roadmap within 90 days.
• Assess end-to-end highway-only process and deliver a gap analysis with a 12-month plan.
• Design and deploy a layered carrier vetting stack within 6 months.
• Evaluate tools with defensible criteria tied to safety rating, insurance, and risk scoring.
• Hire and stand up a 2–3 person carrier compliance team within 6–9 months.
• Achieve 100% continuous monitoring of active carriers within 6 months.
• Develop a negligent-selection defense protocol with Legal and Risk Management within 6 months.
• Create auditable carrier-selection trails for each tender in response to regulatory changes.

Skills

Honesty/Integrity

Analysis Skills

Attention to Detail

Organization and Planning

Proactivity

Change Leadership

Manages/Develops People

Persuasion

Job description

Build and lead a modern, defensible carrier vetting and compliance function — replacing PLS's current Highway-only process with a layered program, technology stack, and team that protect the company from fraud, unsafe carriers, and negligent-selection liability, and that can operate at scale without daily involvement from the President.

OUTCOMES (YEAR ONE)

• Complete a full audit of the current carrier compliance program and deliver a remediation roadmap within 90 days.

Assess today's Highway-only process end-to-end — onboarding, insurance verification, authority/safety-rating monitoring, and fraud/double-brokering detection — and present a gap analysis with a prioritized 12-month plan to the President.

• Design and deploy a layered carrier vetting stack within 6 months.

Evaluate and select complementary tools (e.g., RMIS, Carrier411, DAT, Bluewire, or similar) to supplement Highway, with documented, defensible selection criteria tied to FMCSA safety rating, insurance verification, authority status, and fraud-risk scoring for every load tendered.

• Hire, onboard, and stand up a carrier compliance team of 2–3 within 6–9 months.

Recruit specialists/analysts and document SOPs so vetting, onboarding, and ongoing monitoring run as a repeatable department function rather than an ad hoc process.

• Achieve 100% continuous monitoring coverage of active carriers within 6 months.

Every active carrier has current authority, insurance, and safety-rating status verified on an ongoing basis, with automated alerts on lapses or rating changes — eliminating manual, point-in-time checks.

• Reduce fraud and double-brokering incidents by [X]% within 12 months (baseline to be set in month 1–2).

Establish a measurable baseline during the initial audit, then drive incident rates down through tightened vetting criteria and monitoring — without materially increasing carrier onboarding cycle time.

• Build a joint negligent-selection defense protocol with Legal and Risk Management within 6 months.

In direct response to the Supreme Court's May 2026 ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II (which removed the FAAAA preemption shield brokers previously relied on for negligent-hiring claims), establish a documented, auditable carrier-selection trail for every tender — partnering with the Director of Risk Management and outside/internal counsel so PLS can affirmatively demonstrate ordinary care in carrier selection.

COMPETENCIES

• Honesty/Integrity — Does not cut corners; earns trust by walking the talk; speaks plainly even when the truth is inconvenient to sales or operations.
• Analysis Skills — Structures and processes carrier, claims, and fraud data to reach sound, well-reasoned vetting decisions.
• Attention to Detail — Does not let important details slip through; catches the authority lapse or insurance gap others miss.
• Organization and Planning — Plans, organizes, and schedules a multi-workstream build-out (audit → tech → team → monitoring) in a productive, sequenced manner.
• Proactivity — Acts without being told; identifies emerging fraud patterns and regulatory risk before they become incidents.
• Change Leadership — Catalyzes new approaches, programs, and systems; challenges the status quo of a Highway-only process.
• Manages/Develops People — Provides team members with feedback, coaching, and development to build a durable 2–3 person department from scratch.
• Persuasion — Builds a case and convinces branch sales and operations leaders to adopt tighter vetting standards even when it adds friction.

Bracketed [X]% targets are placeholders pending baseline data (fraud/incident rates, current total cost of risk) — to be finalized with the President in the first 30–60 days.