Grow Your DOT Physical Exam Practice

You’ve passed the NRCME exam and are now registered as a Medical Examiner (ME) in the National Registry. You went through the process of becoming a ME to diversify and expand your practice. But how do you grow it?

With over 20 years of experience performing, promoting, and teaching the DOT physical exam, I have developed several insights and suggestions that might be helpful in building your DOT medical practice. Let’s first discuss what’s important to truck drivers.

The two most important things that will “drive” truckers to your clinic are Cost and Convenience, in that order. 

  • Cost: Find out who your competitors are and what they are charging and charge a competitive price and actively advertise that price.

  • Convenience: Do you have easy and ample parking nearby? Do you make it easy to schedule an appointment? Do you offer walk-in or same-day appointments?

Ways to Grow Your DOT Practice

1. Get Your Business Listing on Google

One of the easiest ways to market is through the internet and specifically Google. If you don’t already have a Google My Business listing, get one immediately! It’s free.

This will allow your business to appear in local listings for drivers who are wanting to get a DOT Physical.

  • To get your listing, you need to have a personal Google account and be logged in to this account

  • Click on the 9-dots in a square icon in the top right corner of the page (red circle 1) which will create a dropdown menu with many of the apps Google provides

  • Find and click on the blue “My Business” icon that looks like a store (red circle 2). This will guide you through the process of creating a listing, or claiming your business listing that has already been created by Google or another person

  • Going to the “Info” page from the left-hand column menu (red circle 3) will allow you to enter information about your business. I strongly recommend entering “Medical Examiner” as the primary category (red circle 4), followed by “Physical Examination Center”, then any other categories you want Google to recognize (Nurse Practitioner, Chiropractor, Urgent Care, Medical clinic, etc.)

  • In the “Service areas” category (red circle 5), enter all the cities/towns within a certain radius from your office

  • Make sure that you’ve added your website address (red circle 6) and all other information within the categories provided

  • In the photos section from the left-hand menu (red circle 7), adding photos of yourself and your office will drastically improve your ranking

Google will require that you verify your business by either sending you an activation code via postcard or by calling the business number you provided

2. Become a Member of TeamCME

Marketing and building an online presence can be intimidating and time-consuming for healthcare professionals. Our members receive new inbound patient calls and appointments for DOT-related services without any additional effort thanks to our digital marketing platform.


Here are some of the ways we accomplish this:

  • We add your location to Google’s Business Listing so truck drivers can find you when searching for a DOT Physical

  • We create a Google-friendly, DOT-specific webpage for your office that’s been optimized to get truckers to schedule an appointment

  • We add your location to our TeamCME map which drivers view over 20,000 times each month. Drivers can easily contact you from our map to get an appointment

Ready to Grow Your DOT Practice?

To receive more insights and suggestions on how to grow your DOT practice, continue to Part 2.

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