The FMCSA Audit Survival Guide: A 90-Day Plan for the Part-Time Safety Department

By Chad Griffith

Nobody teaches the paperwork side of trucking. You can get a CDL, buy a truck, get your authority, and run freight for years without anyone showing you what belongs in a driver qualification file, how long a maintenance record has to be kept, or what separates a real drug and alcohol program from a certificate in a drawer.

This book shows you, one file at a time.

It's written for the person who handles compliance on top of two other jobs: the owner at the kitchen table, the office manager who also runs payroll, the dispatcher who got handed the binder. It assumes you know how to run trucks and that nobody ever walked you through the files.

The driver qualification file an auditor pulls first, built page by page, with a complete filled-in exampleA drug and alcohol testing program that's provable, not just a certificate in a drawerThe hours-of-service problems your ELD can't catch, and the monthly self-audit that doesMaintenance files that prove the truck was maintained, including one unit's file shown end to endWhat a roadside inspection puts on your record, and how to fix what it findsThe four letters FMCSA sends, what each one wants, and what to do in the first 48 hoursA 90-day plan, threaded through every chapter, that leaves the company audit-proof by default

Every task carries an honest time estimate. Nothing in here requires you to buy software or hire a consultant. The rules are current as of July 30, 2026, and the book prints that date so you always know how old your copy is.

An audit is a document request with a deadline. Get the files right and it's a walk to a shelf.

Chad Griffith has spent his career where new operations meet old federal paperwork: COO of an autonomous trucking company, director at a Part 135/145 air carrier with more than thirty aircraft, then defense programs building autonomous drone systems and communication arrays. Every audit he sat through began the same way: a two-week scramble, and findings anyway. This is the book he couldn't hand people when they needed it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HCLT3LQH
• ISBN13: 9798189954153
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"