Unsatisfactory Rating: the 46-Day and 61-Day Clocks

Proposed rating versus final rating

385.13 speaks of the FMCSA notice of a proposed Unsatisfactory rating. The prohibition dates are counted from that notice. They are not counted from the roadside inspection that began the story, and they are not counted from the day the reviewer sat in your office. Find the notice date and write it down. Day counts that start from the wrong piece of paper will dispatch a truck on the morning the section says to stop.

The section also says that if a proposed Unsatisfactory rating becomes final, FMCSA will issue an order placing the carrier's operations out of service, in interstate commerce and in operations affecting interstate commerce. A proposed rating is already on a clock. A final rating is the order. Do not wait for the word final before you count. The 46th and 61st days are tied to the notice of the proposed rating.

SAFER shows the current rating. The notice in your hand shows the date. Use both. If they disagree, resolve it with the contact on the notice before you roll past the day the paper names.

Passenger and hazmat: the 46th day

385.13(a)(1): motor carriers transporting hazardous materials in quantities requiring placarding, and motor carriers transporting passengers in a CMV, are prohibited from operating a CMV in motor carrier operations in commerce beginning on the 46th day after the date of the notice. The 46th day, not the 45th night you hoped was close enough. Beginning on that day means that morning is not a legal operating morning.

Placarded quantities are the hazmat test in this paragraph. A carrier that sometimes moves placarded loads is in this shorter clock for that operation. Do not use the 61-day rule because most of your freight is dry van. Passenger transportation in a CMV is the other shorter clock, including the passenger operations the paragraph names. If you are both, you do not get the longer date.

Other carriers: the 61st day

385.13(a)(2): all other motor carriers rated as a result of reviews are prohibited beginning on the 61st day after the notice. The same paragraph says that if FMCSA determines the motor carrier is making a good-faith effort to improve its safety fitness, FMCSA may allow the motor carrier to operate for up to 60 additional days. That extra time is a determination FMCSA makes. It is not a right you create by saying you are trying.

Up to 60 additional days is not a new 60-day clock you start yourself. It is additional time FMCSA may allow. If you do not have that determination in writing, the prohibition date remains the 61st day. Plan the fleet as if day 61 is the stop unless a written FMCSA decision says otherwise.

What has to be filed if you want a change

A request for an upgrade or an administrative review is a real procedure when the rules provide it. It does not invent extra days unless the regulation or the order says the clock is stayed. Do not promise yourself a stay because the request was mailed. Do not promise a customer the trucks will run past day 61 because a lawyer filed something. Read the order. If it does not stay the prohibition, the prohibition stands.

What you file should be the evidence the review asked for: the controls that were missing, the records that now exist, the drivers removed from service. A binder of promises is not a corrected factor. This page will not walk a DataQs form. If a specific inspection line is wrong and that line is feeding the review, the path for the line is how to dispute a DOT violation. Fixing a wrong line and meeting a rating clock are both allowed. They are not the same form.

Operating on day 46 or day 61

On the morning of that day, the operation is prohibited. Loads already tendered do not grandfather the truck. A driver already at a shipper does not get to finish because the appointment was yesterday. Tell dispatch the date in plain numbers. Pull the trucks before that morning, not during the first scale of that morning.

Federal agencies must not use a carrier with an Unsatisfactory rating for passengers or placarded hazmat, and must not use that carrier for other CMV transportation either, which is 385.13(b) and (c). Private freight has the same operating prohibition in paragraph (a). The government-contract lines are additional. They are not the only ban.

If the proposed rating becomes final, the out-of-service order and the revocation of operating authority follow the rest of 385.13. Operating after that is a separate violation. This page does not assign a dollar penalty. The section points at the penalty provisions. It does not need a made-up number to be a stop-operating rule.

Conditional is not this clock

If the letter says Conditional, you are not in 385.13's prohibition. Conditional carriers may operate, and they have a different set of commercial blocks. Send that letter to what a Conditional rating blocks. Using the 46-day panic on a Conditional letter parks trucks the law has not parked. Using the Conditional comfort on an Unsatisfactory letter rolls trucks the law will prohibit.

The overview of the three rating words is FMCSA safety ratings. Stay on this page only for the two dates and the rule that a request is not automatically a stay.

If FMCSA later writes that it is allowing additional days under the good-faith sentence, replace the label with the date that letter names. Until that letter exists, do not pencil in the extra 60.

Who in the company counts the days

One person should own the notice. That person reads the carriage type, picks 46 or 61, and sends the date to dispatch, safety, and whoever talks to brokers. A date that lives only in a safety inbox is how a night dispatcher covers a load on the prohibited morning. Put the date on the same board as the truck assignments.

Tell each driver, in writing, the last legal day and that a tender is not permission. Drivers will be offered loads by people who have not read 385.13. The instruction has to come from the carrier before the broker calls. Keep the instruction. If a truck rolls anyway, the record of the instruction is not a defense for the company, but the absence of an instruction is how the violation gets described as a surprise.

Brokers should be told the date as well if they have freight on you past it. A broker's rate confirmation does not outrank the prohibition. Refusing the post-deadline load is the compliance act. Hauling it to protect the relationship is the violation.

If you are a passenger carrier or you move placarded quantities, do not let a dry-van dispatcher apply the 61-day habit from a previous job. The shorter date is the one that matches this operation. Write the carriage type next to the date so the wrong template cannot be reused.

When the prohibition begins, the operating authority consequences in 385.13(e) are FMCSA's to issue after the proposed rating becomes final. Do not invent a private reinstatement. The way back is a rating FMCSA changes, not a load you ran in defiance of the date.

Frequently Asked Questions