A compliance firm that started at the border

1988, Napierville, Quebec

Benoît Hamel founded Profirm in 1988 in Napierville, a farming town on the I-87 corridor a few miles north of the New York line. The first clients were Quebec carriers hauling produce and freight into New York and New England. They needed US registrations, fuel tax returns and permits handled correctly, in French, by someone who understood both countries' rules. Nobody in the US market was doing that, and nobody in Quebec knew the US side well enough.

The work grew with the rules. When the DOT drug and alcohol testing regulations came into force in the 1990s, Profirm built a consortium so that Quebec drivers crossing into the US could be tested under 49 CFR Part 40 without driving to a US clinic. When IFTA replaced the old patchwork of state fuel permits, we set up the quarterly filing service, and we kept ordering trip permits for the trucks that cross only now and then. When the Clearinghouse arrived in 2020, it became part of the consortium. Everything has been done in English and French from the first day.

US carriers found us through Canadian clients and through the border. A Texas fleet adding Montreal lanes, a Buffalo owner-operator confused by the Clearinghouse, a Florida carrier with one load into a state not on its cab card. Profirm USA is the answer to those calls: the same desk, the same prices, published in USD.

What we believe

• The legal minimum and not a test more. Random testing at 50 percent drug and 10 percent alcohol is the rule. Some providers run alcohol at 70 percent because they bill per test. We run the legal rate and bill only for tests that were required.
• The government fee on its own line. State permit fees and IFTA decal fees are billed at cost, apart from our fee, on every invoice.
• A person answers. Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm Eastern. English or French. Not a queue, not a chatbot, not a call center reading a script.
• No fear. We state a penalty once, with the citation, and move on. We do not send scare letters timed to your renewal date.

Who we are not

Profirm Inc. is a private company. We are not part of FMCSA, USDOT, the UCR plan, any state agency or any Canadian ministry. We operate as a consortium / third-party administrator under 49 CFR Part 40, and work with SAMHSA-certified laboratories and certified Medical Review Officers. FMCSA does not certify or endorse compliance firms, including this one.

The team

Profirm is a small firm on purpose. The people who handle your file are the people who answer when you write about it. Our compliance staff have between them decades of drug and alcohol program audits, IFTA audits, Clearinghouse cases and border problems. When you write, you reach someone who has seen your situation before.