Texas DOT audit checklist for new and small carriers

Which audit you will face

Interstate carriers with a new USDOT number enter FMCSA's New Entrant Safety Assurance Program. FMCSA monitors you for 18 months and conducts a safety audit within the first 12 months after you start operating. Under 49 CFR 385.307, the audit comes after you have run long enough to have records, generally at least three months.

Texas intrastate carriers deal with the Texas Department of Public Safety. The DPS Motor Carrier Bureau handles new entrant evaluations and compliance reviews. A Texas House bill analysis from 2025 describes the current process: DPS rates carriers satisfactory, conditional, or unsatisfactory.

An unsatisfactory carrier gets 60 days to fix its safety controls. If it does not, DPS sends an order to cease intrastate operations to TxDMV.

Automatic failures in a new entrant audit

FMCSA lists 16 violations that fail an audit on their own. Most only need one occurrence. Here are the ones that catch small carriers most often:

• No drug and alcohol testing program, or no random testing
• Using a driver who refused a test or failed one without completing follow-up
• Knowingly using a driver without a valid CDL, or a driver who is medically unqualified
• Operating without the required insurance coverage
• Not requiring drivers to keep hours-of-service records, when 51% or more of records reviewed show the problem
• Running a vehicle that was placed out of service before it was repaired
• Running a vehicle without a periodic (annual) inspection, when 51% or more of records reviewed show the problem

The records checklist

Auditors pull a sample of drivers and vehicles and check each file. Keep these organized by driver and by unit.

Owner-operators and the Clearinghouse

If you are a one-truck carrier and you are also the driver, you are your own employer for drug testing. Under 49 CFR 382.705, an owner-operator who employs himself must designate a consortium or third-party administrator (C/TPA) to report to the Clearinghouse. That designation moves the reporting duty to the C/TPA.

Join a consortium so you are in a random testing pool. Running solo with no random program is an automatic failure.

Keep the consortium agreement, your random selection notices, and every test result in one folder. The auditor will want to see that your name went into a real random pool, not just that you signed up.

What happens if you fail

FMCSA sends a notice that lists what went wrong. Most carriers get 60 days to submit a corrective action plan.

Hazmat carriers and passenger carriers get 45 days. FMCSA can extend either deadline for carriers making a good-faith effort.

Miss the deadline and FMCSA revokes your registration and issues an out-of-service order. You cannot run interstate after that date. A revoked carrier can reapply no sooner than 30 days later, and the 18-month monitoring period starts over.

An out-of-service order also creates insurance problems. Your agent will need to know, and underwriters will ask about audit results at renewal.

Gaps auditors find most often

Most small carriers do not fail because they run unsafe trucks. They fail because the paperwork is missing. Here is where files tend to come up short:

• DQ files missing the annual MVR or the annual review note
• A medical certificate that expired while the driver kept running
• No pre-employment Clearinghouse query on file for a new hire
• Random testing records that show no one was ever selected
• ELD data with unassigned driving time nobody explained
• DVIRs that list a defect with no record that it was fixed
• No annual inspection report for a trailer that only runs now and then

How to prepare, step by step

Next steps. Work through these in order before the auditor calls.

• 1. Build a DQ file for every driver, including yourself.
• 2. Enroll in a drug and alcohol consortium and confirm your Clearinghouse queries are on file.
• 3. Export ELD records for the last six months and fix unassigned drive time.
• 4. Set up a maintenance folder per unit with the annual inspection, DVIRs, and repair receipts.
• 5. Print your insurance declarations and confirm the filing shows active with FMCSA or TxDMV.
• 6. Update your MCS-150 if your mileage, unit count, or address changed.

Texas-specific checks

Intrastate carriers should confirm the TxDMV certificate is current in TxMCCS and that the insurance cab card is in every truck. TxDMV requires the Form E filing to stay active the whole time you operate. If your insurer files a cancellation, your intrastate authority is at risk even if your paperwork is otherwise clean.

Fleets running between the Permian Basin and Houston should pay close attention to hours of service. Long oilfield days and waiting time at well sites can push drivers past their limits. Those records are where auditors find patterns.

Household goods movers face extra checks. TxDMV requires Form H and Form I cargo filings for household goods carriers, and auditors will look for those along with your liability filing.