Free tool
DOT Audit Prep Self-Score Quiz
Score your motor carrier’s FMCSA audit readiness across 20 questions in seven categories. Get a letter grade, a per-category breakdown, a gap list with the exact CFR citation an auditor would write up, and plain-English remediation steps for every gap.
Computed client-side. Your answers never leave your browser.
Quiz
Per-category breakdown
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Driver Qualifications
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
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Hours of Service & ELD
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
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Drug & Alcohol Testing
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
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Vehicle Maintenance
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
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Crashes & Inspections
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
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Operating Authority & Filings
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
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Financial Responsibility
0 yes · 0 no · 0 n/a
Want a second pair of eyes?
You’re scoring in the range where most carriers can self- remediate. If you’d still like Bindly Compliance to verify your filings and DQFs before your next audit, the team runs a la carte file reviews at a fixed rate.
No gaps surfaced.
Every question with an answer came back “yes.” Either you’re genuinely audit-ready or the questionnaire didn’t pick up something you know is missing. Either way, re-run the quiz before your next biennial MCS-150 or any scheduled FMCSA compliance review.
What a DOT audit actually involves
FMCSA runs two main types of motor-carrier reviews. The New Entrant Safety Audit is mandatory for every newly registered USDOT under 49 CFR 385 Subpart D and happens within the first 12 months of operation. The Compliance Review (CR) is a deeper investigation that any active carrier can be subject to — triggered by a crash, a complaint, BASIC scores above intervention thresholds, or random selection from the audit pool.
Both reviews score the carrier on the same regulatory regime — 49 CFR Parts 380 through 397 — and produce a safety rating of Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory. Conditional status restricts the carrier’s ability to do business: shippers, brokers, and insurance underwriters all pull SAFER snapshots and most won’t tender freight to a carrier with anything below Satisfactory. Unsatisfactory ratings can trigger an out-of-service order.
The investigator’s checklist mirrors the seven categories in this quiz. They sample driver qualification files; verify medical certificates, MVRs, and prior employer investigations; pull ELD records for the past six months to test HOS compliance; review the carrier’s drug-and-alcohol policy and Clearinghouse query log; sample DVIRs and annual inspection records; cross-check the accident register against state crash databases; confirm MCS-150 currency and UCR registration; and verify operating authority and BMC insurance filings.
Findings get graded by severity. An acute violation is an immediate disqualifier — dispatching a driver who failed a drug test, operating without active authority, leasing a CMV without a valid medical card. A critical violation is a pattern that shows systemic failure — no random testing pool, no MCS-150 update for more than 24 months, no DQFs maintained. General violations are housekeeping gaps: a missing road-test certificate, an accident register that omits one event, an annual inspection signature missing from a vehicle file.
FMCSA’s scoring formula weights acute and critical findings heavily, so a single acute can push a carrier from Satisfactory to Conditional even when most categories look clean. That’s why this quiz surfaces severity per finding instead of averaging everything — a 95% score with one critical gap is materially riskier than an 85% score with only general gaps.
The most common audit findings (and why they keep happening)
1. Annual MVR not pulled
49 CFR 391.25 requires a documented review of every driver’s driving record at least once every 12 months. Carriers default to pulling MVRs at hire and forget the annual cadence. The fix is a calendared bulk pull — every driver, every 12 months, on a fixed annual date — with the signed annual-review form filed in the DQF.
2. Missing pre-employment drug test
49 CFR 382.301: every driver must have a verified-negative pre-employment drug test on file BEFORE performing any safety-sensitive function. Carriers rush a driver into service before the MRO verifies the result and end up with an acute violation when the audit reaches that DQF. The fix is a hard intake rule: no driving until the MRO verification PDF is filed.
3. Clearinghouse annual query missed
49 CFR 382.701: a Clearinghouse limited query is required annually for every driver. The first year after the rule took effect (2020) carriers complied; by year three many had let the cadence slip. The fix is a scheduled annual bulk query (the Clearinghouse charges ~$1.25 each — cheap insurance against a critical finding).
4. DVIR not retained
49 CFR 396.11(c): driver vehicle inspection reports must be retained for at least 3 months. Carriers move to electronic DVIRs and lose the retention rule in the migration. Audits that fall in a paper-to-electronic transition window routinely cite the gap. The fix is a written retention procedure that names the system of record and the export cadence.
5. Accident register not maintained
49 CFR 390.15(b) requires an accident register covering the past 3 years — even from carriers with zero accidents (a documented “no accidents to report” register satisfies the rule). Carriers without any accidents skip the register entirely and get cited for the missing document. The fix is a one-page register kept current with a quarterly review.
6. MCS-150 not filed on the biennial
49 CFR 390.19 sets the MCS-150 biennial-update cadence by the USDOT’s last two digits. Missing the deadline triggers automatic FMCSA deactivation, which makes the operating authority inactive and shows up immediately on SAFER. The fix is a calendared filing — Bindly’s MCS-150 calculator at bindlycompliance.com/tools/mcs-150-due-date computes the exact next due date.
7. Insurance filings inactive
49 CFR 387 sets minimum financial- responsibility limits and requires the insurer to file BMC-91 (or BMC-91X) directly with FMCSA Licensing & Insurance. When the policy renews or the carrier switches insurers, the filings sometimes don’t roll over — operating authority shows inactive on L&I within 30 days. The fix is a quarterly L&I check on every active authority.
How to use this score
Answer the questions honestly. If you don’t know whether a record exists, that’s itself a finding — answer No and fix the unknown. If a question genuinely doesn’t apply (ELD-exempt short-haul, no hazmat), mark N/A so the percentage reflects only the rules you have to follow.
Triage by severity, not by category. The gap list groups by question order, but the severity tag is what matters. Fix the criticals first — those are the findings most likely to push your safety rating down. Acute violations next. General violations last.
Run the quiz again after each fix. Watching the percentage climb gives a concrete way to measure remediation progress. A quarterly cadence catches new gaps as drivers turn over and MVRs come due.
Don’t mistake a high score for an audit pass. This quiz approximates what an auditor would ask, but a real audit samples the underlying paperwork. A 100% score means you report compliance in every category, not that every individual file would pass inspection. For carriers facing a real audit window (new entrant, post-crash CR, BASIC threshold), have a safety consultant or Bindly Compliance verify the underlying records.
Print the result. The print button on the score card opens your browser’s print dialog so you can save the result as a PDF or hand it to your safety consultant. The print view hides marketing chrome and shows just the score, breakdown, and gap list.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a DOT audit?
- A DOT audit is the federal government's review of a motor carrier's compliance with FMCSA safety regulations (49 CFR Parts 380–397). The two most common are the New Entrant Safety Audit — required within 12 months of a new USDOT registration under 49 CFR 385 Subpart D — and the Compliance Review (CR), an in-depth investigation triggered by a complaint, a roadside crash, BASIC scores above intervention thresholds, or random selection. Both result in a safety rating (Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory) that affects the carrier's authority to operate and customer eligibility.
- What triggers a DOT audit?
- New-entrant audits are automatic — every USDOT issued after 2003 gets one within 12 months. Beyond that: a SafeStat / SMS BASIC score crossing FMCSA's intervention threshold; a fatal crash; a high-severity roadside violation; a complaint from a driver, shipper, customer, or competitor; an investigation by a state partner agency; or random selection from the audit pool. Carriers in higher-risk classes (hazmat, passenger, high-vehicle-count fleets) face higher selection probabilities.
- What does an auditor actually look at?
- The seven categories this quiz scores: driver qualification files (49 CFR 391), hours of service and ELD records (49 CFR 395), drug and alcohol testing program (49 CFR 382 + 40), vehicle maintenance and DVIRs (49 CFR 396), accident register (49 CFR 390.15(b)), operating authority and filings (49 CFR 390.19), and financial-responsibility filings (49 CFR 387). Investigators sample driver files and vehicle records, interview the safety contact, and verify ELD compliance. Findings are graded by criticality and rolled up into the safety rating.
- How accurate is this self-score?
- This quiz approximates the audit-readiness questions FMCSA investigators ask but does not replace a real audit-prep engagement. Real audits sample specific files and verify the underlying paperwork — a 100% score here means the carrier reports compliance in every category, not that every individual file would pass inspection. Use the score and gap list as a triage tool to prioritize remediation, then have a safety consultant or Bindly Compliance verify the underlying records.
- What's the difference between a critical, acute, and general violation?
- FMCSA's severity table classifies violations by audit cost. Acute violations are immediate disqualifiers — leasing a CMV without a valid medical card, dispatching a driver without a pre-employment drug test, operating without active authority. Critical violations are patterns that show systemic failure — missing the random-testing pool entirely, no MCS-150 update, no DQFs. General violations are housekeeping gaps that get cited but rarely produce a Conditional rating on their own. This quiz tags each question's severity using FMCSA's published table.
- What happens if my score is low?
- A score below 70% (Grade C or worse) means several findings would each be cited in a real review. Below 60% (Grade D/F) is the level of risk that produces a Conditional rating after a Compliance Review — Conditional status restricts the carrier's authority and is visible to shippers, brokers, and insurance underwriters who pull a SAFER snapshot. Carriers with low scores or any critical-severity gap should remediate before the next FMCSA touchpoint and consider a formal audit-prep engagement.
- Does this calculator collect or store my answers?
- No. Every calculation runs in your browser; nothing is sent to Bindly Compliance or any third party. Reloading the page resets the quiz. Print the result if you want a record of your responses; the print version contains everything on the screen at the time you print.
- What's the difference between this free quiz and a real audit-prep engagement?
- The free quiz is a triage tool: 20 yes/no/n-a questions, automated scoring, gap-by-gap remediation guidance. A real Bindly Compliance audit-prep engagement reviews each driver qualification file, each DVIR sample, each maintenance record, the actual drug-and-alcohol policy document, the real Clearinghouse query log, and the live FMCSA L&I and MCS-150 status. The engagement also includes mock-audit interview prep and a documented filings package to hand the investigator.
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