MattMMarketing/fmcsa-new-entrant-audit-violations

FMCSA New-Entrant Safety-Audit Violations Dataset

Dataset Summary

103 acute and critical CFR regulations scored in an FMCSA new-entrant safety audit, including the 16 violations that automatically fail the audit under 49 CFR 385.321(b). Each row is sourced directly from the official Code of Federal Regulations and verified against ecfr.gov.

• Rows: 103
• Scope: All violations listed in 49 CFR Appendix B to Part 385
• Automatic-failure violations: 16 (per 49 CFR 385.321(b))
• Severity classes: acute (42 rows), critical (61 rows)
• Audit factors covered: General, Driver, Operational, Vehicle, Hazardous Materials
• Verified: 2026-07-04

Use cases: motor-carrier compliance tooling, safety audit preparation, regulatory research, transportation data analysis.

Supported Tasks

• Reference lookup by CFR citation, factor, or automatic-failure status
• Compliance gap analysis for new motor carriers
• Safety audit preparation tools
• Regulatory research

Languages

English (en)

Dataset Structure

Files

File	Format	Description
new-entrant-audit-violations.csv	CSV (UTF-8)	All 103 rows
new-entrant-audit-violations.json	JSON array	Same data

Column Schema

Column	Type	Description
id	string	Stable row ID (e.g. fmcsa-nesa-001)
cfr_cite	string	CFR section (e.g. 395.3(a)(1))
audit_factor	string	Audit factor: General, Driver, Operational, Vehicle, or Hazardous Materials
severity	enum	acute or critical
automatic_failure	enum	yes if a single occurrence fails the audit; no otherwise
auto_fail_guideline	string	§385.321 guideline text (auto-fail rows only)
description	string	Verbatim short description from 49 CFR Appendix B
plain_meaning	string	Plain-language explanation of what the regulation requires
source_url	URL	Primary source — 49 CFR Appendix B to Part 385 at ecfr.gov
auto_fail_source_url	URL	49 CFR 385.321(b) at ecfr.gov (auto-fail rows only)
verified_on	ISO date	Date the source URL was live-checked
notes	string	Optional disambiguation

Example rows

Automatic-failure violation (acute):

{
  "id": "fmcsa-nesa-001",
  "cfr_cite": "382.115(a)",
  "audit_factor": "Driver",
  "severity": "acute",
  "automatic_failure": "yes",
  "auto_fail_guideline": "Single occurrence.",
  "description": "Failing to implement an alcohol and/or controlled substances testing program (domestic motor carrier)",
  "source_url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-385/appendix-Appendix%20B%20to%20Part%20385",
  "auto_fail_source_url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-385/subpart-G/section-385.321",
  "verified_on": "2026-07-04"
}

Critical violation (not automatic failure):

{
  "id": "fmcsa-nesa-007",
  "cfr_cite": "382.301(a)",
  "audit_factor": "Driver",
  "severity": "critical",
  "automatic_failure": "no",
  "description": "Using a driver before the motor carrier has received a negative pre-employment controlled substance test result",
  "source_url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-385/appendix-Appendix%20B%20to%20Part%20385",
  "verified_on": "2026-07-04"
}

Data Collection and Processing

Every row is sourced directly from the official Code of Federal Regulations:

1. Primary source: 49 CFR Appendix B to Part 385 ("List of Acute and Critical Regulations") at ecfr.gov — the authoritative list of regulations scored in an FMCSA safety audit.
2. Automatic-failure source: 49 CFR 385.321(b) at ecfr.gov — the 16 regulations that automatically fail a new-entrant safety audit on a single occurrence.
3. Verification: Each source URL was live-checked on 2026-07-04. No rows were fabricated or inferred.
4. Severity definitions: Acute = noncompliance severe enough to require immediate corrective action regardless of overall safety posture (single occurrence scored); Critical = relates to management or operational controls, scored when auditors find a pattern (generally more than one occurrence, or at least 10% of records examined).

Source Data

• 49 CFR Appendix B to Part 385 — List of Acute and Critical Regulations: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-385/appendix-Appendix%20B%20to%20Part%20385
• 49 CFR 385.321(b) — Automatic failure violations: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-385/subpart-G/section-385.321
• Full dataset + methodology: https://newentrantauditkit.com/data/new-entrant-audit-violations

Licensing

This dataset is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

You are free to share and adapt for any purpose, including commercial use, with attribution.

Attribution line:

CarrierReady (https://newentrantauditkit.com/data/new-entrant-audit-violations), CC BY 4.0.

The underlying CFR text (49 CFR Appendix B to Part 385 and 49 CFR 385.321) is US government work and not subject to copyright.

Citation

@misc{carrierready_fmcsa_violations_2026,
  title        = {{FMCSA New-Entrant Safety-Audit Violations Dataset}},
  author       = {{CarrierReady}},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://newentrantauditkit.com/data/new-entrant-audit-violations},
  note         = {103 acute and critical CFR regulations scored in an FMCSA new-entrant safety audit, CC BY 4.0},
}

Publisher notes

• Not legal advice. Always verify regulations against the official text at ecfr.gov, as the CFR is amended over time.
• Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the FMCSA or any US government agency.
• The Accident audit factor is scored by accident rate, not individual violations, so it has no rows in this dataset.

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