When can your new-entrant audit land?
Every new USDOT registrant enters an 18-month monitoring period, and FMCSA conducts the safety audit within the first 12 months. Enter your activation month to see both windows on one timeline — and how much runway you actually have.
The month FMCSA activated your operating authority — it's on your registration paperwork, or look your USDOT number up on SAFER.
How the windows work
FMCSA monitors a new entrant for 18 months once it has met the pre-operational requirements (49 CFR §385.307). The 12-month audit deadline comes from the statute: 49 U.S.C. §31144(g)(1)(A) requires the safety audit within 12 months after you begin operations under the new registration, and the regulation adds that it generally comes once you have at least 3 months of records (§385.307(b)). FMCSA sends the pass or fail notice within 45 days of the audit (§385.319(b)–(c)). A failed audit starts a corrective-action clock — 60 days for most carriers, 45 days for the passenger and placarded-hazmat operations listed in §385.319(c)(2) — before registration is revoked and operations are placed out of service.
This tool computes month-granularity estimates from your activation month, used as the conservative stand-in for when operations began. Passenger carriers are on a shorter clock (120 days, 49 U.S.C. §31144(g)(1)(B)) that this tool does not cover. Not legal advice — the regulation and your registration paperwork control.