A topic I rarely see discussed, how was your new entrant safety audit?

Had mine in February. No big deal, just have EVERYTHING they ask for available. They may not ask to see it all, but you have to assume they will and have it ready to go.

 

Didn’t you have a huge thread a few months ago where we all tried to help you and encourage you but instead of doing it you decided not to get your authority instead?

 

I started a thread about my experience quite awhile back.

Received notice of my first FMCSA audit...

 

Had mine in TN a few months ago (about 9 months in to my first year of authority). Officer was old school and very helpful. He encouraged me to call him back personally any time I have a problem/question while I'm learning the ropes. He made it pretty easy. All over the phone and email, no meeting in person. We talked for probably an hour.

He wanted 30 days of logs and I had to be real careful to find 30 days without wild card PC but he didn't say a word about it. Mostly he wanted to make sure I know how to work and present my ELD to an officer on the road side. He spent a long time going over this. He was pretty clear that some officers are jerks and I need to be ready for them to protect my backside.

Oddly, he asked me what I was averaging and said he had no idea how I make a living at $2/mile.

 

Called and said I’m coming on this day and I want to see 6 months of logs and receipts for this time period and these two drivers. He found a couple nit picking things where the driver rounded his log wrong and it didn’t match the receipts by a few minutes.

Then he said I’m failing you because you have 5 inspections and every one had a violation. I said that ain’t right where are you getting your info? Our database he said. Them I showed him 15 clean paper inspection reports. It seems the Chumps were onlynentering the bad inspections not the ones we passed. Lesson here is KEEP YOUR INSPECTION REPORTS

 

No they let those roll and then pull over good looking trucks. I swear.