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The purpose of the NSC Facility Audit is to monitor carriers for compliance with NSC regulations. The audit is quantifiable and serves as a means of evaluating a carrier’s safety/compliance performance.
Scope
There are four components in the facility audit:
- Driver qualifications;
- Hours of service;
- Vehicle safety; and
- Safety practices.
Facility audits can take from one day to three weeks depending on fleet size and number of drivers.
Regulatory citations
- National Safety Code Standard 15
Key definitions
- Facility audit: A quantifiable, performance based audit designed to review a carrier's compliance, the results of which are used to establish a safety rating.
Summary of requirements
Facility audits are a quantifiable measurement of the carrier’s safety practices and compliance with the NSC regulations. All carriers are measured against the same standards.
In most cases, a carrier that fails the first audit will receive a follow-up audit. There are generally five types of audits: triggered audits (NSC points on the carrier profile), requested audits, follow-up audits, verification audits, and random audits. The NSC facility audits focus on safety risks rather than administrative record keeping.
Most audits are conducted due to excessive NSC points on the carrier profile, a follow-up when the carrier has failed the first audit, or an incident such as a motor vehicle crash. Random audits are necessary to calibrate the audit instrument as well as to establish a benchmark for the industry as a whole.
National standard
National Safety Code (NSC) Standard 15 establishes general requirements for facility audits. The standard identifies what must be checked during the audit (driver and vehicle records), sample size guidelines, and audit procedures.