For carriers with 1 to 20 trucks
FMCSA audits every new carrier within 12 months of getting operating authority. The failures are almost always the same: missing driver files, no drug and alcohol program, no maintenance records. None of it is hard. All of it has to be on paper.
18 checks. About 4 minutes. No signup to see your score.
New Entrant Audit Readiness
Form NCHQ-18
Self assessment - 18 checks
Readiness score
41/100
Six areas. Every one is paperwork. Here is what each one means in plain English.
Your MCS-150 is current, your authority is active, and your insurance filings are on record.
One complete DQ file per driver, with the application, MVR, medical certificate, and prior employer checks.
Enrollment in a testing program, Clearinghouse queries, and supervisor training on reasonable suspicion.
Logs or an ELD for every driver, supporting documents kept, and violations reviewed and signed off.
Annual inspections, a maintenance file per unit, and driver vehicle inspection reports retained.
A register of every reportable accident, kept for the required retention period.
He ran one truck under his own authority for eight months. He assumed a single-truck carrier did not need a drug and alcohol testing program. It does. The investigator asked for proof of consortium enrollment and Clearinghouse queries on day one. He had neither.
What it cost him: an automatic failure and a corrective action deadline with his authority on the line.
Her drivers were experienced and careful. Their files were not. Missing annual MVR reviews, one expired medical certificate, no record of the road test or equivalent. None of it affected how her trucks drove. All of it counted.
What it cost her: a failed audit, sixty days of paperwork, and an insurance renewal that came back higher.
He maintained his trucks on schedule and fixed everything the drivers reported. He just kept no records. No maintenance files, no DVIRs, no annual inspection forms the investigator could verify. Work he actually did counted for nothing.
What it cost him: violations for records, not for safety, plus weeks of reconstructing a paper trail.