New Entrant Safety Audit Checklist

If your business is based in the United States or Canada and you registered with FMCSA to begin interstate operations, you are in the New Entrant Safety Assurance Program. Carriers based in Mexico fall under other rules.

You are a new entrant for 18 months from when you meet the requirements to start operating. The audit normally falls inside that window, and passing it does not end the 18 months early: FMCSA keeps watching your roadside safety record the whole time.

1. From day one. Required insurance must be in force, operating authority must be active if you haul for hire, and your drug and alcohol testing program must be in place if your drivers need a CDL.
2. In the first 90 days. FMCSA’s New Entrant Contact Center calls to confirm your registration details. Answer it: not responding can lead to revocation.
3. Month 3 or later. Once you have enough records to review (generally after at least 3 months of operating), you are contacted by phone, email or mail with your audit type and an appointment.
4. Usually by month 12. The audit is done within your first 12 months of operating, and sooner if you carry passengers (the rules say 120 days for passenger carriers). It can also come early after serious problems, such as using a driver without a valid CDL, operating without required insurance, or a driver or vehicle out-of-service rate of 50% or more over at least 3 inspections in 90 days.
5. Within 45 days of the audit. FMCSA sends your written pass or fail notice.
6. At 18 months. If you have had your audit and no corrective action is pending, the new entrant designation is removed and your registration becomes permanent.

A certified FMCSA or state auditor reviews your safety management systems and a sample of your records, including driver qualification, hours of service, vehicle maintenance, accidents, and drug and alcohol testing. The audit is free, it does not give you a safety rating, and FMCSA does not require you to hire a service provider for it.

FMCSA tells you which kind of audit you get. For an off-site audit, you send the requested documents through FMCSA’s New Entrant Web System (NEWS), or by mail or fax. An on-site audit is held at your place of business, an agreed location, or a group session, and it is required if:

• You carry passengers, move household goods, or haul hazardous materials in amounts that require placards.
• You received an expedited action, or FMCSA has detected a recordable accident.
• One of your BASIC percentiles in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) is above threshold.
• You were placed out of service before for not sending off-site audit documents, or two or more times for not contacting or responding to FMCSA.

If none of these apply, you can usually expect an off-site audit.

The audit reviews records from the time you have been operating, so build these files as you go.

Driver qualification files

One file per driver, including you if you drive.

• Employment application.
• Motor vehicle record (MVR) from each state that licensed the driver in the past 3 years, pulled within 30 days of hire.
• Road test certificate, or an accepted equivalent.
• Proof of medical certification, renewed at least every 24 months: the medical examiner’s certificate or, for CDL drivers, the CDLIS MVR showing medical status, plus any medical variance.
• For non-CDL drivers, a note that you verified the examiner is on the National Registry.
• Annual MVR review, with a note of who reviewed it and when.

Keep: the file while the driver works for you, plus 3 years. Annual MVRs, review notes and medical certificates can come out after 3 years. The old annual certificate of violations is no longer required.

Driver investigation history file

• Each driver’s safety history from DOT-regulated employers in the past 3 years, or your documented good-faith attempts to get it, completed within 30 days of hire.

Keep: in a secure place, separate from the driver qualification file and open only to the people making hiring decisions, while the driver works for you, plus 3 years.

Drug and alcohol testing program

Required if your drivers need a CDL.

• Educational materials on the testing rules and your policy, given to every driver.
• A verified negative pre-employment drug test for each driver before any safety-sensitive work.
• A random testing program with a list of the drivers in it. The rule sets yearly minimums of 50% of driver positions for drugs and 10% for alcohol, which FMCSA can adjust.
• Owner-operators: a consortium membership (you cannot run your own program) and a C/TPA designated in the Clearinghouse.
• Clearinghouse queries: a full query before each driver’s first safety-sensitive work, then at least one query a year per driver (a limited query with consent counts). Keep consents 3 years from the last query.

Keep test records: 5 years for alcohol results of 0.02 or higher, verified positive drug results, refusals, substance abuse professional (SAP) evaluations and referrals, program records and annual summaries; 2 years for collection records; 1 year for negative and canceled drug results and alcohol results below 0.02.

Hours of service

• Logs from an electronic logging device (ELD). Paper logs are allowed only for drivers who need logs on 8 days or fewer in any 30-day period, certain driveaway-towaway operations, and vehicles made before model year 2000.
• Supporting documents, such as bills of lading, dispatch or trip records, expense receipts and payroll or settlement records. Drivers turn theirs in within 13 days.
• For short-haul drivers who don’t keep logs: time records showing on-duty hours and times in and out.

Keep: at least 6 months.

Vehicle inspection and maintenance

• A maintenance file for each vehicle you control for 30 days or more: its details, what is due, and the work done.
• An annual inspection in the past 12 months for every unit, each trailer included, with proof carried on the vehicle.
• Driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) when a defect is found or reported, with safety defects repaired and certified before the vehicle runs again (not required if you operate only one vehicle).
• Roadside inspection reports, certified within 15 days to show the violations were corrected.

Keep: maintenance records 1 year, and 6 months after the vehicle leaves your control; annual inspection reports 14 months; DVIRs 3 months; roadside reports 12 months.

Insurance and operating authority

• Proof of insurance at your principal place of business: the MCS-90 endorsement or MCS-82 surety bond (MCS-90B or MCS-82B if you carry passengers for hire).
• Coverage with no gaps: at least $750,000 for for-hire interstate carriers of nonhazardous freight in vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,001 pounds or more, and more for hazardous materials. For-hire passenger carriers need at least $1.5 million for vehicles seating 15 or fewer (driver included) and $5 million for 16 or more.
• Active operating authority if you haul for hire, used within its scope.

Accident register

• A register of recordable accidents: date, city and state, driver’s name, number of injuries and deaths, and any hazmat release, plus copies of accident reports required by states or insurers.

Keep: 3 years after each accident. Recordable means a commercial motor vehicle on a public road was involved and someone died, someone injured was treated immediately away from the scene, or a vehicle was towed away with disabling damage.

Other records

• A drivers list (name, date of birth, date of hire, license number and state) and a vehicle list (unit number, VIN, plate number and state).
• Miles driven in the past 12 months (or since you started), your start date, and gross revenue for the last fiscal year.
• Hazmat shipping papers, if you haul hazardous materials.

Records kept at another office or work location must reach your principal place of business within 48 hours of a request, not counting weekends and federal holidays.

Breaking any one of these 16 rules fails the audit, however good the rest of your records are.

Drug and alcohol

• No drug and alcohol testing program.
• No random testing program.
• Using a driver who refused a required test.
• Using a driver known to have an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or higher.
• Using a driver known to have tested positive for drugs.

Drivers

• Knowingly using a driver without a valid CDL.
• Knowingly letting a driver operate with a state-disqualified CDL or learner’s permit, or after losing the right to drive a commercial vehicle in a state.
• Knowingly letting a driver drive while disqualified under the CDL rules.
• Knowingly using a driver disqualified under the driver qualification rules.
• Knowingly using a driver who is not physically qualified.

Insurance

• Operating without the required minimum insurance.
• Operating a passenger vehicle without the required minimum insurance.

Logs and vehicles

• Not requiring drivers to keep logs (records of duty status).
• Running a vehicle declared out of service before it is repaired.
• Driving a vehicle before fixing out-of-service defects a driver listed on a DVIR.
• Using a vehicle that has not had its periodic (annual) inspection.

Logs and annual inspections fail you automatically only when 51% or more of the records checked are in violation. For the other 14, one instance is enough.

Violations of other rules (the regulations call them acute or critical) are scored in five areas, and a high recordable accident rate counts as a sixth. Falling short in three or more of the six also fails the audit (Appendix A to Part 385 (opens in a new tab)).

FMCSA’s notice lists the violations and says your registration will be revoked and your operations placed out of service unless you take the corrective actions it specifies.

1. Fix each violation and send FMCSA a corrective action plan. FMCSA’s guidance asks for it within 15 days of the notice, so there is time to review it before any revocation.
2. FMCSA may extend the deadline in some cases. Without accepted corrective action, your registration is revoked and you are placed out of service on day 61 (day 46 on the 45-day deadline), or the day after any extension ends. Operating after that brings civil penalties.
3. After a revocation, you can reapply no sooner than 30 days later and start a new 18-month period. If your operating authority was revoked too, you must also apply for it again.

If you think FMCSA made an error, you can ask for an administrative review. You can request one within 90 days, but only a request made within 15 days of the notice is sure to get a decision before the out-of-service date.

• No file on yourself. Owner-operators who drive need their own driver qualification file and, if a CDL is required, a place in a random testing pool.
• An expired medical certificate. Certification lasts 24 months at most. Track every driver’s date, yours included.
• A lapse in insurance. Driving while coverage has lapsed, for example after a missed payment, is an automatic failure.
• Missing FMCSA’s calls. Old contact details mean missed calls and letters, and not responding can cost you your registration.
• Falling for look-alike callers. Scammers pose as FMCSA to get new carriers’ details or money. The audit itself is free, no service provider is required, and FMCSA does not use telemarketers or robocalls or ask for a card number over the phone.

• New Entrant home page (opens in a new tab): FMCSA’s starting point for new carriers, with links to its training and its scam warnings.
• Safety Audits (opens in a new tab): FMCSA’s audit page, with three short videos.
• Safety Audit Resource Guide (opens in a new tab) (PDF): the documents an auditor may request.
• New Entrant Help Center (opens in a new tab): answers to common questions.
• New Entrant Online Training (opens in a new tab): FMCSA’s free, self-paced course.
• Corrective Action Plan guidance (opens in a new tab) (PDF): what FMCSA wants in a plan.
• Motor Carrier Safety Planner (opens in a new tab): FMCSA’s guide to the rules.