What Triggers an Expedited New-Entrant Audit

385.308 is a fast path, not the regular audit

The ordinary new-entrant audit waits until there are records, generally at least three months, under 385.307. 49 CFR 385.308 is the section that does not wait on that habit. It says a new entrant that commits any of the listed actions, identified through roadside inspections or by any other means, may be subjected to an expedited safety audit or a compliance review, or may be required to submit a written response demonstrating corrective action.

If the new entrant has not had a safety audit or compliance review, FMCSA will schedule the safety audit as soon as practicable. If it has already had one, FMCSA sends a notice to submit evidence of corrective action within 30 days of the service date of the notice. FMCSA may also schedule a compliance review at any time if it determines the violation warrants a thorough review. Those are the three tools. None of them is a dollar figure, and this page will not invent one.

The shape of a normal audit visit is the new-entrant safety audit. Use that page for the visit. Use this page for why the visit can move up.

The actions the section actually names

Quote the list rather than a paraphrase that drops the lines owners miss.

1. Using a driver who does not possess a valid commercial driver's license to operate a CMV as defined in 383.5. An invalid license includes one that is falsified, revoked, expired, or missing a required endorsement.
2. Operating a vehicle placed out of service for violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations or compatible state laws without taking the necessary corrective action.
3. Being involved, through action or omission, in a hazardous-materials reportable incident under 171.15 or 171.16 involving a highway-route-controlled quantity of certain Class 7 radioactive materials, any quantity of Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 explosives, or any quantity of certain poison-inhalation-hazard materials in Zone A or B.
4. Being involved in two or more reportable hazardous-materials incidents involving hazardous materials other than those listed above.
5. Using a driver who tests positive for controlled substances or alcohol or who refuses to submit to a required controlled-substances or alcohol test.
6. Operating a CMV without the levels of financial responsibility required under Part 387.
7. Having a driver or vehicle out-of-service rate of 50 percent or more based upon at least three inspections occurring within a consecutive 90-day period.

That is the whole of 385.308(a). A bad week that does not fit a line is still a problem for SMS and for the ordinary audit. It is not, by itself, this expedited list. A line that does fit does not need a stack of other problems before FMCSA may use the section.

A high out-of-service rate on a small sample

Paragraph (a)(7) is specific. The rate is 50 percent or more. The sample is at least three inspections. The window is a consecutive 90 days. The rate can be a driver out-of-service rate or a vehicle out-of-service rate. Two inspections, even if both put the truck out of service, are not three. Three inspections spread across a year are not a consecutive 90 days. Three inspections in 90 days with one out-of-service result are not 50 percent.

Do not round a small sample into a story that flatters you. Do not ignore a sample that already meets the sentence because the company is new and the numbers feel unfair. The section is written for new entrants, which means the small sample is the point. Three inspections are enough if the rate is at least half.

A clean inspection resets nothing by itself. Look at the 90-day window that includes the bad days. If a fourth inspection is clean and the three-inspection slices inside the 90 days still show 50 percent, read the sentence again before you declare the trigger gone.

Hazmat incidents that escalate

One reportable incident of the kinds in (a)(3) is enough for that paragraph: the highway-route-controlled radioactive quantity, the listed explosives, or the listed poison-inhalation materials. Other hazardous materials use (a)(4), which requires two or more reportable incidents. A single diesel spill that is not in (a)(3) is not automatically this trigger. Two reportable incidents that are not in (a)(3) are. The reports are 171.15 and 171.16. This page is not a hazardous-materials manual. It is the count.

Being involved through action or omission is the section's phrase. A carrier does not step out of the paragraph by saying the driver, not the company, was involved. The new entrant is the regulated person.

What written response means if they ask for one

A written response demonstrating corrective action is evidence of a fix. It identifies the action in 385.308(a), states what changed, and attaches the record that shows the change: the driver removed from service, the insurance filing now in effect, the repair that closed the out-of-service condition, the random program enrollment that was missing. An apology email with no document is not the evidence the section asks for.

The 30 days run from the service date of the notice, not from the day you opened the mail if service was earlier, and not from the inspection. 385.308(d) says failure to respond within 30 days of the notice to an agency demand for that written response results in revocation of the new entrant's registration. Put the date on a calendar the day the notice is served. Draft the response from the records, not from memory the night before day 30.

If the notice is an expedited audit instead of a paper response, the audit is the response. Have the files ready sooner than the ordinary three-month habit assumed. As soon as practicable is the scheduling phrase in 385.308(b)(1).

This does not replace the 16 automatic-fail items

An expedited audit is still a safety audit. The sixteen regulations in 385.321 still auto-fail it on the terms that table states. A single failure to implement the random program under 382.305 still auto-fails whenever the audit happens, expedited or not. A written response that explains why you have no random program does not convert item 5 into a pass. The fix is the program, in place, before or at the audit, not a narrative about being new.

Do not read 385.308 as a fine schedule and do not read it as a substitute for the automatic-fail table. Read it as the reason the auditor can arrive early, and as the reason a 30-day writing, if demanded, has to contain proof.

Qualified drivers, required insurance, and a truck that is not operated out of service are the overlaps between this list and the automatic-fail table. Meeting them is how you stay off both pages. Missing them is how one roadside week becomes an early audit and a failed one.

Keep a copy of what you sent and the date it was served on you. A response you cannot find is not a response you can prove, and the revocation sentence does not wait for you to search an inbox.

Frequently Asked Questions