Safety record
CSA scores: what they are and what a broker can see
CSA is the program. The Safety Measurement System is the machine inside it, and it sorts every carrier into seven categories using your roadside inspections and crashes from the last 24 months. Five of those categories are public. This page covers what each one measures, where the line sits for your carrier type, and how a percentile gets built out of a stack of violations.
By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 11, 2026
A percentile, not a score out of 100
The number FMCSA publishes for each category is a percentile rank against carriers with a similar number of inspections, so a higher number is worse performance rather than a better grade. Nothing about it is a pass mark. A carrier is prioritized for intervention when a percentile reaches the threshold for its category and carrier type, or when an investigation turns up an acute or critical violation.
The current methodology is version 3.21, revised May 2026. Everything on this page is read from that document and from Appendix A, its violations list.
The seven BASICs, and the two nobody outside FMCSA sees
BASIC stands for Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category. Each groups the violations that point at one behavior.
| BASIC | Published | What it measures | Threshold for a general carrier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | Yes | Operation of commercial motor vehicles in a dangerous or careless manner. | 65% |
| Crash Indicator | No | Historical pattern of crash involvement, including frequency and severity, based on State-reported crashes that meet reportable crash standards. | 65% |
| HOS Compliance | Yes | Operation of CMVs by drivers who are ill, fatigued, or in noncompliance with the hours-of-service regulations, including records of duty status. | 65% |
| Vehicle Maintenance | Yes | Failure to properly maintain a CMV and prevent shifting loads, spilled or dropped cargo, and overloading. | 80% |
| Controlled Substances/Alcohol | Yes | Operation of CMVs by drivers impaired by alcohol, illegal drugs, or misuse of prescription or over-the-counter medications. | 80% |
| HM Compliance | No | Unsafe handling of hazardous materials on a CMV. | 80% |
| Driver Fitness | Yes | Operation of CMVs by drivers unfit to operate due to lack of training, experience, or medical qualification. | 80% |
Crash Indicator and HM Compliance are not publicly available, and neither is the Insurance/Other Indicator that FMCSA also uses for prioritization.
Where the line sits depends on what you haul
Thresholds are percentiles. A higher percentile is worse performance, so a lower threshold is the more stringent test. FMCSA sets a lower threshold for passenger and hazmat carriers because a crash in those operations tends to be worse, and a lower threshold is the stricter test.
| BASICs | Passenger carrier | Hazmat | General |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, HOS Compliance | 50% | 60% | 65% |
| Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Driver Fitness | 65% | 75% | 80% |
| HM Compliance | 80% | 80% | 80% |
How one violation turns into a percentile
Every violation that maps to a BASIC gets a severity weight from 1 to 10, and a violation that put a driver or vehicle out of service picks up another 2. One inspection can only contribute so much: severity weights are capped at 30 per inspection per BASIC, and the cap applies before the time weight multiplies it.
| Age of the violation | Time weight |
|---|---|
| 0 to 6 months | 3 |
| Over 6 months and up to 12 months | 2 |
| Over 12 months and up to 24 months | 1 |
FMCSA totals those weighted violations, normalizes the total against your inspection count or your power units and mileage, then ranks you against carriers with a similar inspection history. That last step is why a percentile can climb in a quiet month: the carriers around you improved.
Where to read your own record
FMCSA publishes it at the Safety Measurement System website. Free. The five publicly available BASIC percentiles, the carrier's inspection and violation history, and its crash list. Crash Indicator and HM Compliance percentiles, and the Insurance/Other Indicator, are not published.
Your inspection and crash history is public even for the categories whose percentile is not, which is the part a broker's vetting platform reads most closely. The MC number lookup shows that history against your authority and insurance filing, and what brokers check when they pull your MC walks the rest of the record.
What to do about a number you do not like
Three routes exist, and they solve different problems. If the record is wrong, correct it: a DataQs Request for Data Review is how a violation gets removed or reweighted, and it is also the route for a citation you beat in court. If the number is right but you want to know which violations cost the most, CSA points by violation lists the severity weight for every group in Appendix A. If FMCSA has been through your operation and rated it, that is a separate thing from a percentile: DOT safety ratings covers conditional, unsatisfactory and the upgrade request.
The one route that always works is time. With 5 public categories and a 24 month window, a clean stretch moves a percentile on its own as old violations age out of the calculation.