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Exceeding these triggers FMCSA alerts or investigations.
The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's system for identifying and addressing high-risk commercial motor vehicle carriers, drivers, and service providers. CSA replaced the older SafeStat system in 2010 and has since become the primary framework for evaluating carrier safety performance in the United States.
CSA scores are calculated using data from roadside inspections, crash reports, and compliance investigations. Every violation recorded during a roadside inspection contributes to a carrier's score in one or more of the seven BASIC categories. The severity of each violation is weighted, and more recent events carry greater weight than older ones through a time-severity weighting system.
FMCSA evaluates every carrier across seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs). Each category focuses on a specific area of safety compliance, and carriers are ranked against peers of similar size and operating characteristics.
Covers speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, texting while driving, and seatbelt violations. Threshold: 65th percentile.
Tracks violations related to driving beyond allowed hours, falsifying logs, and operating without a valid ELD. Threshold: 65th percentile.
Monitors driver qualification requirements including CDL validity, medical certificates, and proper endorsements. Threshold: 80th percentile.
Covers drug and alcohol testing compliance, positive test results, and possession violations. Threshold: 80th percentile.
Evaluates mechanical condition violations including brakes, tires, lights, cargo securement, and coupling devices. Threshold: 80th percentile.
Applies to carriers transporting hazmat. Covers placarding, shipping papers, packaging integrity, and containment issues. Threshold: 80th percentile.
Based on state-reported crash data including frequency and severity. Carriers involved in DOT-recordable crashes receive higher scores. Threshold: 65th percentile.
CSA scores are percentile rankings from 0 to 100. A score of 85 means the carrier performs worse than 85% of its peer group. Lower is better. FMCSA groups carriers into peer categories based on the number of inspections and safety events on record, so a small carrier is compared against other small carriers rather than large national fleets.
When a carrier exceeds the intervention threshold in any BASIC, FMCSA may issue a warning letter, schedule a compliance review, or implement a cooperative safety plan. Repeated or severe violations can lead to proposed out-of-service orders. Brokers and shippers also use CSA data to vet carriers before tendering freight, making clean scores essential for winning and keeping business.
The most effective way to improve CSA scores is to prevent violations before they happen. Implement thorough pre-trip and post-trip inspection programs, invest in ELD compliance, conduct regular driver training on hours-of-service rules, and maintain detailed vehicle maintenance records. DataQs challenges can also correct inaccurate inspection data. Every clean inspection adds positive data that dilutes the impact of older violations over the 24-month measurement window.
Monitor driver files, vehicle maintenance, ELD data, and safety events from one dashboard. Keep your fleet audit-ready and your CSA scores clean.
Start Free TrialCSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) scores are calculated by FMCSA using data from roadside inspections, crash reports, and investigation results. Each carrier is evaluated across 7 BASICs (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories). Scores are percentile-based, meaning they rank you against peer carriers of similar size. A higher percentile means worse performance relative to peers.
The 7 BASICs are: Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazardous Materials Compliance, and Crash Indicator. Each BASIC has its own intervention threshold. Exceeding the threshold can trigger FMCSA warning letters, investigations, or other enforcement actions.
FMCSA updates CSA scores monthly. The data includes the most recent 24 months of roadside inspections and crashes. More recent violations carry heavier weight through a time-weighting system. Carriers should monitor their scores regularly and address any violations promptly to improve their safety profile.