How Fleetworthy Helped Golden Waffles Master Compliance and Create a New Line of Business

The Challenge

When Rob Arbeiter joined Golden Waffles as Head of Warehouse, Manufacturing, and Fleet Operations, he uncovered a troubling legacy issue: company vehicles were titled in the names of individual salespeople. This decentralized titling strategy was initially used to comply with state-specific emissions and inspection requirements, but it created an avalanche of problems:

Lack of Control: Fleet operations had no centralized view of their 135+ vehicles at the time.

Non-compliant Registration Practices: Vehicle titles were scattered across states and not listed under the company’s ownership, creating a complex compliance risk.

Administrative Chaos: Rob was inundated with 15–20 emails per day regarding expired vehicle registrations.

The Solution

Rob turned to Fleetworthy, recognizing the quality of its IRP (International Registration Plan) services and regulatory expertise. The partnership delivered transformative results:

Key Services Provided

• IRP Setup and Transition: Fleetworthy’s team migrated nearly all of Golden Waffles’ vehicles to a centralized IRP account in Indiana, a state ideally suited for their needs.
• Vehicle Titling & Registration Management: Rob estimated “99% of vehicle titles were transferred” from sales reps to Golden Waffles, eliminating fragmented records.
• Compliance Oversight: The system was configured for regular updates, reducing lapsed registrations and compliance delays almost entirely.

The Results

Compliance Reestablished and Operational Focus Restored

Leveraging Fleetworthy’s safety and compliance services helped Golden Waffles experience clean DOT inspections with no registration violations. Additionally, they drastically reduced the number of administrative emails and compliance fire drills related to fleet registration, which had long plagued the organization.

Rob and his team were subsequently freed up to pursue strategic initiatives rather than devoting all their time to manually resolving compliance issues on a case-by-case basis. Headcount previously tied to reactive fleet tasks has been repurposed to food safety and warehouse compliance roles.

Creation of Golden Waffles Xpress

With compliance locked down, Golden Waffles launched Golden Waffles Xpress, its own private freight operation.

With the strategic and administrative bandwidth Fleetworthy helped create, Rob and his team got their fleet DOT number successfully transitioned to “for hire” status. Driver Qualification (DQ) File compliance jumped to 80%, with an internal target of 92%.

Today, five trucks are now running under the new fleet, and Rob has expectations of growing to 15 or more by the end of the summer.

Quantifiable Business Impact

By leveraging their private fleet capabilities, the company has been able to reduce their annual freight spend. In total, through this new fleet operation, Golden Waffles expects to add $1.1–$1.5 million to EBITDA by 2026, an increase of approximately 3%.

“Fleetworthy’s team helped us clean up years of fragmented vehicle data. What used to take weeks—especially when someone left the company—now happens in days. We finally have control and confidence in our compliance.”

 — Rob Arbeiter, Head of Warehouse, Manufacturing, and Fleet Operations, Golden Waffles

Truly “Beyond Compliant”

Fleetworthy didn’t just solve a compliance issue—it enabled a transformation. By establishing a foundation of safety and operational control, Golden Waffles could confidently launch a private fleet that not only cuts costs but creates long-term revenue growth.