Trucking Safety and DOT Compliance Support for San Antonio Carriers

The San Antonio freight figures on this page come from the Alamo Area MPO's draft Regional Freight Study (October 2025). Figures may change in the adopted version.

Who this page is for

The Texas Company Census lists 7,168 active carriers with a physical address in the city of San Antonio, 1,633 of them interstate (suburbs excluded). Most run under Texas intrastate rules at least part of the time. This page is for:

• Regional carriers running I-35 toward Austin and Dallas and I-10 toward Houston and West Texas.
• Local construction, aggregate and delivery fleets operating entirely within Texas.
• Owner-operators and small fleets of 2 to 10 trucks without a dedicated safety person.
• New authorities preparing for their new entrant safety audit.

Texas and federal rules: the short version

For trucks over 26,000 pounds on trips entirely within Texas, Texas intrastate rules apply, including TxDMV registration; interstate trips follow the federal hours limits and the 30-minute break. The difference matters most for parking-driven HOS planning, because the limit a driver is running against depends on the trip. Our Texas compliance guide covers the rules and sources.

I-35, I-10 and the truck parking problem

The Alamo Area MPO's draft Regional Freight Study identifies IH-35 and IH-10 as significant freight corridors and estimates about 151,000 daily truck trips originating in or destined for the region, using TxDOT's Texas Truck Analysis Tool. The study's October 2025 presentation reports an average of more than 100 trucks per weekday parking illegally in TxDOT right-of-way along I-10 and I-35 in the region, and 21 truck parking facilities in TxDOT's San Antonio district near or over capacity.

Why this belongs on a compliance page: when parking is full, drivers are pushed toward running past their limits to find a spot, or stopping on a ramp or shoulder. Neither is a defense at a roadside inspection or in a crash investigation. Dispatch that plans the rest stop before the truck leaves, and log reviews that flag drivers who habitually finish at the edge of their limits, are how San Antonio fleets keep this from becoming an HOS violation pattern. Our guides to the 11-hour driving limit and preventing HOS violations early go deeper.

Hazmat routes and truck parking in San Antonio

• Downtown hazmat ban. San Antonio City Code (Chapter 19, Article XVI) bans placarded hazmat loads at all times, through and local, on IH-35 and IH-10 (upper and lower levels) through the central business district and on IH-37 from the IH-35/IH-37/US-281 interchange to Durango Street, including the frontage roads.
• Through hazmat on Loop 410. Through hazmat traffic may use only Loop 410 and the highways running outward from it to the Bexar County line. Local deliveries must use the highest-classification roads available, and the carrier must be able to show that it did; stops for food, fuel, rest, safe haven or repair are a defense.
• Truck parking. Truck-tractors and semitrailers may not park where "no truck parking" signs are posted, and large commercial vehicles may not park in residential districts except while loading, unloading or making emergency repairs. The City lists a $500 fine.

With truck parking already tight (next section), the $500 parking rule and the hazmat routing rules are the San Antonio items most likely to end up on a driver's record.

Compliance problems San Antonio fleets run into

• Hours run to the edge. Drivers finishing every day at the limit because the planned stop was full.
• Intrastate habits on interstate loads. Using Texas 12/15-hour limits on a trip that crosses a state line, where the federal hours limits and the 30-minute break apply.
• Construction and aggregate fleets. Heavy-duty brakes and tires wear fast and lead Texas inspection findings.
• Driver files built once and never updated. Annual reviews and MVRs missed; see our annual MVR review guide.

What San Antonio carriers get

There is no San Antonio office to visit, and the work does not need one: you share read-only ELD access and documents through a secure folder, and we review, fix and report on a set schedule. We look at where drivers finish their days and how close they run to their limits, not just whether a violation appears.

• HOS and ELD log auditing with patterns flagged before they become violations.
• Driver qualification files with expirations, annual reviews and MVRs tracked.
• DOT audit preparation and new entrant audit support.
• CSA score work focused on maintenance and HOS BASICs.
• For small fleets without a safety manager, our fractional safety department.

Client results reported on our Results page, with each client's context: SBS Trucking Services' Vehicle Maintenance BASIC moved from 93% to 65% in six months; Sandhu Trucking Services' HOS BASIC moved from 85% to 71% over five months; and Tamana Truck Lines' monthly HOS violations were reduced to near zero for extended periods. These are client-reported results, not guarantees.

About Fleet Regulators

Outsourced safety department, Austin, Texas

Fleet Regulators was founded by Rhythm Gandhi (The Safety Gal) and supports motor carriers remotely in all 50 states with DOT audit preparation, HOS log auditing, driver qualification files, and CSA score work. More about Rhythm and the team.