A failed audit is not the end of the company. It is the start of a timed process with exact clocks — and the carriers who survive it are the ones who spend the window on the fix instead of on fear. Here is the whole road, from the rule text.
Rules checked October 2026 · 49 CFR 385.319–385.329
FMCSA sends the written audit result within 45 days of the audit (§385.319(b)). On a failure, the notice names the corrective actions your company must take. That list is your assignment sheet: every item on it must be answered.
You must submit evidence of corrective action — the corrective action plan, or CAP — within 60 days of the failure notice. Passenger carriers and placarded-hazmat carriers get 45 days (§385.319(c)).
The CAP's contents are not listed in the regulation. They come from FMCSA's own CAP Submission Guidance. For each violation, state: what you did; why it happened (the root cause); the actions taken and planned to stop it happening again; a schedule for anything unfinished; and the supporting documents. Then sign it — a certification statement from an owner or officer closes the plan.
One number gets printed wrong across the internet: FMCSA's guidance urges submitting the CAP within 15 days so the agency can review it and decide before revocation takes effect. That is a review-timing warning, not the legal deadline. The deadline is 60 days (45 for the passenger/hazmat class). Shorten your own target to 15 days if you can — but know which number is the law.
Running behind despite a genuine effort? An extension exists: up to 60 more days on the 60-day clock, up to 10 more on the 45-day clock, for good-faith effort (§385.323). Ask before the clock runs out, not after.
If FMCSA accepts your corrective action inside the window, you are notified that your registration stands, and the business continues (§385.325(a)). You remain in the new entrant program until the 18 months run out — with a file that is now, usually, in better shape than before the audit.
Miss the window, or send a CAP FMCSA cannot accept, and your registration is revoked and your operation placed out of service, effective day 61 — day 46 for the 45-day class (§385.325(b)). Operating on or after that date is prohibited (§385.325(c)) and carries civil penalties. A for-hire carrier also loses its operating authority in the failure.
If the failure rests on an error — your records, misread or mismatched — you may ask the Field Administrator for an administrative review. The request window is 90 days; to be sure of a decision before the out-of-service date, file within 15 days of the failure notice. FMCSA decides within 45 days (30 for the 45-day class). Bring proof, not grievance.
After a revocation, re-application opens no sooner than 30 days later: a fresh application with an updated MCS-150 and documented evidence that every deficiency is corrected. And the part that hurts most: the 18-month new-entrant monitoring clock restarts from zero. A failed new entrant does not lose a month; he starts his probationary year and a half over.
Refusing the audit. Written notice, 10 days to agree in writing — or revocation and out of service on day 11 (§385.337). Treating the letter as junk mail is a business decision, and a final one.
Expedited action. Seven findings — an unlicensed driver, an out-of-service vehicle run, a hazmat incident, a positive or refused test used anyway, no insurance, a 50% out-of-service rate, and their kin — let FMCSA demand a written corrective response within 30 days, audit or no audit (§385.308). Silence inside those 30 days is itself revocation.
The failure pack in the Audit & DQ Kit (§10) is this page turned into a workbench: the clock table, the CAP walkthrough in FMCSA's five parts, a fully worked example CAP, the review window, and the restart map. And if your audit has not happened yet, the free readiness checker shows you the lines that would fail you — while they are still cheap to fix.
Federal sources: 49 CFR 385.308, 385.319, 385.323, 385.325, 385.327, 385.329, 385.337; FMCSA CAP Submission Guidance · Rules checked October 2026