On July 27, 2026, Fleetflo CEO Dan Calano and VP of Commercial Operations Greg Pakiela joined Tom Robertson, VP of Business Development at PrePass, for a live webinar on the hidden cost of equipment credentialing. The session covered how credentialing risk quietly creates cost, delays, compliance exposure, and operational friction for fleets — and how better credentialing visibility translates into smoother, more compliant movement on the road. You can watch the full webinar recording here.
What We Covered
Credentialing Is A Silent Financial And Operational Bleed
Credentialing touches every power unit in a fleet — the documents, permits, decals, registrations, records, and account structures that allow equipment to move legally and efficiently. Most carriers pay the fees and muscle through the friction, only to keep facing the same silent challenges: financial leakage of up to $500 per power unit per year, operational risk like impoundment and delayed sales, and friction from managing the same equipment data across multiple systems.
Five Cost And Risk Centers Fleets Often Miss
The panel walked through the five places credentialing most often goes wrong:
- Registration risk — IRP exposure, slow registrations, account complexity, and overpayments.
- Tax surprises — sales, use, fuel, and exemption issues affecting payments and audits.
- Audit exposure — state-specific requirements and documentation gaps, like NY HUT.
- Ownership friction — title access, sale events, refinance delays, transfers, and impounded loads.
- Unreliable data — mismatched units or missing equipment data that trigger violations and pull-ins.
Acute Risk vs. The Long-Term Bleed
Some credentialing costs show up as one-time hits; others bleed quietly every year.
Acute risk, per event:
- Overweight ticket: $300–$3,000
- Sales, use, excise, and property tax exposure: $7,000–$12,000 per purchase
- Credential or DOT citation: $100–$1,000
- No title at impoundment: $2,000–$8,000, plus 2–5 days of downtime
Long-term bleed, per unit per year:
- Missed fuel-tax refunds: up to $300
- Registration overpayment: up to $400
- Wasted registration credits: up to $250
- Operational friction from paper-pushing and fire drills — a real cost to driver experience
Case Study: Cutting Toll Violations 94% With Earlier Plate Enrollment
One major U.S. retailer reduced toll violation spend by 94% year over year simply by closing the timing gap between when a truck goes into service and when its plate is fully enrolled with tolling agencies. Cleaner, earlier, more connected equipment data meant fewer trucks moving before they were properly recognized at the toll — and far less manual work disputing violations after the fact.
One Record Of Truth: Nightly Reconciliation Between Fleetflo And PrePass
Fleetflo holds the current registration and titling data for every unit in a fleet — new unit adds, plate replacements, retired plates, and active vs. out-of-service equipment. That record is pushed to PrePass automatically every night, so every active tractor and trailer plate stays enrolled without manual list-swapping between teams. A transponder “no-read” at a toll is inevitable; what happens next depends entirely on whether the plate was enrolled — the difference between the lowest available rate and a cash rate plus violation fees billed to the last registered carrier.
A Roadmap To Make Credentialing A Financial Advantage
The panel closed with a four-step roadmap for turning credentialing from a reactive back-office task into a strategic advantage:
- Strategize — What’s the most operationally and financially efficient account strategy?
- Operationalize — How do you set up an accountable, quality-controlled workflow?
- Enable technology — Implement software that connects departments and reaches the driver.
- Monitor & enhance — Benchmark total credentialing cost and review outcomes periodically.
Key Questions Every Fleet Should Ask
- Where are you registering equipment (tractors vs. trailers) vs. where could you register it?
- How quickly is new equipment road-ready after delivery?
- Does your fuel card data match your master equipment list?
- Are you paying sales tax on equipment, and are exemptions handled correctly?
- Are all IRP-enrolled units compliant — and are any locally registered units eligible for IRP?
- If a random truck were impounded today, how quickly could you produce a valid title?
- Which fuel tax refunds are you actually claiming?
- What are you paying in unenrolled-plate violations?
- How do you distribute credentials to drivers?
About The Presenters
Tom Robertson — VP of Business Development, PrePass
Dan Calano — CEO, Fleetflo
Greg Pakiela — VP, Commercial Operations, Fleetflo
About PrePass
PrePass Safety Alliance is the leading weigh station bypass platform in North America, helping qualified motor carriers bypass weigh stations and ports of entry at highway speeds. Through PrePass Plus and its INFORM fleet data tools, PrePass also provides nationwide toll payment management and fleet data services — connecting credentialing and compliance data to real road performance.
About Fleetflo
Fleetflo (formerly HCH Transportation Advisors) is a fleet compliance and regulatory services company that manages IRP apportioned registration, IFTA fuel tax filing, UCR registration, Form 2290, equipment titling, fuel tax recovery, and driver per diem programs for large North American carriers. We serve 40%+ of the Transport Topics Top 100 carriers, with 350,000+ commercial power units under management and $100M+ in documented annual hard savings delivered.
Contact Fleetflo to learn how we can put these strategies to work for your fleet.
