The New Entrant Audit Verdict

Line 1 — No drug & alcohol testing program. Your company has a drug and alcohol testing program — a written policy, and a way the tests actually get done (a consortium or your own setup).

Line 2 — A driver used at 0.04 alcohol or higher. No driver has driven for you after you knew he had tested at 0.04 alcohol or higher — until he finished the return-to-duty process.

Line 3 — A driver used after refusing a test. No driver who refused a required drug or alcohol test has driven for you since the refusal.

Line 4 — A driver used after testing positive. No driver who tested positive has driven for you before completing the return-to-duty process.

Line 5 — No random testing program. Random drug and alcohol tests really happen at your company — names drawn at random, spread through the year, at the federal rates.

Line 6 — A driver with no valid CDL. Every driver holds a valid CDL of the right class, with the right endorsements, for the truck he drives — checked against the license itself, not assumed.

Line 7 — A disqualified CDL holder allowed to drive. No driver whose CDL is disqualified has been allowed to drive a truck that requires a CDL.

Line 8 — A driver driving while disqualified. No driver has driven while under a disqualification listed in the federal table of offenses — the §383.51 table (DUI, leaving a crash scene, a felony with the vehicle, and the rest).

Line 9 — Trucks running without insurance in effect. The required insurance is in effect on your trucks right now — not lapsed, not cancelled, not waiting on a payment.

Line 10 — Passenger vehicles without insurance in effect. If you carry passengers for hire, the required passenger insurance is in effect on those vehicles. (Freight-only carriers: choose “Does not apply to us”.)

Line 11 — A disqualified driver used. No driver has driven while disqualified for any reason — a court or state order, a violation, a lost medical qualification.

Line 12 — A physically unqualified driver used. Every driver is medically qualified, with the proof kept the current way: for CDL drivers, the medical status on the CDL driving record (the CDLIS MVR); for non-CDL drivers, the medical examiner's certificate in the file.

Line 13 — Duty records not being made. Your drivers make their duty records (logs or ELD records) for every day they work. The auditor samples the records — if half or more of the ones examined were never made, this line fails.

Line 14 — An out-of-service vehicle run before repair. No truck that a roadside inspector placed out of service has been driven again before its repairs were made.

Line 15 — Out-of-service defects not fixed. Every out-of-service defect a driver wrote up on a vehicle inspection report was fixed before the truck ran again — and the fix is certified on the report.

Line 16 — Vehicles with no annual inspection. Every truck and trailer has a current annual (periodic) inspection, with the proof on the vehicle or in its file. The auditor samples them — if half or more lack one, this line fails.

Driver qualification file — one per driver. For every driver, one file holding: the employment application, the first driving record (MVR), the road test certificate, the latest annual MVR, the note on the annual review of his record, and the medical proof.

Previous-employer history file — kept separate. The safety-history checks on each driver's last 3 years: his signed authorization, each previous employer's answer (or your notes showing you tried in good faith) — kept in a separate file with limited access, not inside the DQ file.

30 days of duty records + supporting documents. Thirty straight days of one driver's duty records, with the supporting documents behind them (bills of lading, dispatch records, fuel and toll receipts) — including at least one interstate trip.

Vehicle maintenance files + driver inspection reports. A maintenance file for every truck — its identity, its inspection and maintenance schedule, and its repair records — plus the driver vehicle inspection reports from the last 3 months.

Annual inspection proof for every unit. Proof of the last annual inspection for every truck and trailer — the inspection report, or the decal and its record.

Accident register — 3 years. A register of every recordable accident from the last 3 years: the date, the city and state, the driver's name, how many injuries, how many deaths, and whether hazardous materials spilled — plus the accident reports you have.

Insurance proof — the signed MCS-90. Your signed MCS-90 endorsement (for for-hire carriers) and proof the policy behind it is active, ready to send the day it is asked for.

Testing proof — consortium, pre-employment tests, Clearinghouse. Proof of consortium enrollment (or your own pool), each driver's pre-employment drug test result, and a record of the Clearinghouse queries — a full query before a driver first drives, then a query on every driver every year.