Trucking services firm in Lancaster County plans to relocate, expand

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Compliance Navigation Specialists plans to relocate the bulk of its operations from its facility in Warwick Township to a new facility in Manheim Township by the end of 2020.

The company also plans to expand services at the new location to include a commercial driver training facility and third-party PennDOT commercial driver licensing center.

But it will be keeping the Warwick facility, which is at 38 Copperfield Circle, said John Irwin, CEO of the company.

“The company has been in that area for over 30 years, so we want to continue servicing the area,” said Irwin, who owns the company along with his wife, Melissa, her parents – Dean and Linda Weinhold – and Adam Galante.

The Warwick facility is 5,600 square feet of space. The new facility, at 151 Koser Road, will have nearly 16,000 square feet of space, said Irwi,. It is being built at a cost of $3 million, he added.

Compliance Navigation offers both commercial and non-commercial licensing, commercial auto insurance, and physicals and drug testing for commercial drivers.

At the end of April, medical testing will join the services offered for commercial drivers. “Everything we do goes hand-in-hand with safety compliance,” Irwin said.

Finding the right location was a two-year process. Currently the Koser Road location is a vacant farm with a home and outbuildings. The buildings will be razed and the new facility constructed. Melissa Irwin said they are hoping to salvage some of the wood and stone from the barn and incorporate it into the interior of the new facility.

“It will add character to the building, and pay tribute to what was there before,” she said.

She said the building has been dubbed “the hub.” John Irwin explained that the term not only refers to the fact that it will be a “one-stop shop for transportation needs,” but also is a take on the trucking term of a hub as a center of activity.

CNS currently has a staff of 20 and expects to add 12 or 15 more over the next two years.

The company formed in 2011, a year after the Irwins and Weinholds purchased Carolyn’s Notary Service, which was founded in 1986. After the purchase, they noticed growing demand for trucking-related licensing and compliance.

“We had a lot of transportation companies as clients — some who operated a single rig, and some who were a bit larger. They come to us with questions about licensing and regulations,” John Irwin said. “We’ve gradually expanded our services as our knowledge of the transportation industry and its needs grew.”

He said the top issue facing the transportation industry today is finding qualified drivers, and the company’s driver-training facility is one possible solution.

A second key issue is insurance costs, which are tied to safety and compliance.

“There are a lot of rules, and they’re always changing, For instance in 2020, new CDL drivers will be required to take more hours of classroom and behind-the-wheel training than they do now. Our clients rely on us to be on top of those changes and to help keep them informed,” he said.

Another service provided by Compliance Navigation Specialists is a mock safety and compliance audit.

Irwin said the company audits in the same way as DOT officers, following the same patterns and procedures, which cover driver qualification files, vehicle maintenance files and driver logs to cover hours-of-service compliance.

“We make sure clients are prepared for any DOT audit. We also work with clients who had an unfavorable audit — in that case, we’ll work with them to on corrective measures and provide the documentation to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration directly. This not only has a direct impact on insurance rates, but also on load rates from brokers and partners,” Irwin said.