New motor carriers face a dense thicket of federal and state requirements in their first 18 months. This report walks the full compliance stack, from MC authority application through the New Entrant Safety Audit, quantifies costs, and provides a checklist-format audit prep guide.
Insurance Minimums
Federal minimum primary liability for general freight is $750,000. Hazmat haulers face $1M-$5M, and household goods carriers $300k cargo. Most shippers and brokers require $1M liability + $100k cargo as a contractual baseline.
- Lowest quote
- Highest quote
ELD & Hours of Service
All commercial drivers operating CMVs across state lines must use a registered ELD (Electronic Logging Device). The current HOS framework caps daily driving at 11 hours within a 14-hour on-duty window, with a 30-minute break required after 8 cumulative hours of driving.
New Entrant Safety Audit Prep
FMCSA conducts a New Entrant Safety Audit within the first 12 months of operation (typically months 6-11). The audit reviews driver qualification files, drug & alcohol testing program, HOS compliance, vehicle maintenance records, and accident register.
| Metric | What FMCSA reviews | What to have ready |
|---|---|---|
| Driver Qualification files (49 CFR 391) | Application, MVR, road test, medical card | One file per driver, organized chronologically |
| Drug & Alcohol program (49 CFR 382) | Pre-employment + random testing pool | C/TPA enrollment cert, MIS report ready |
| Hours of Service (49 CFR 395) | ELD records last 6 months | Logbook export ready, no falsifications |
| Vehicle maintenance (49 CFR 396) | Annual inspection, repair records | Periodic inspection cert, DVIR per shift |
| Accident register (49 CFR 390.15) | All DOT-recordable accidents | Register form even if zero accidents |
| Insurance | Active BMC-91 on file | Current declaration page + cert |
Brobas Capital Partners Research. (2026). FMCSA Compliance for New Carriers. Report BCP-2026-006. Retrieved from https://brobascap.com/publications/fmcsa-compliance-new-carriers