FMCSA CSA is a program that is designed to help identify united states based trucking companies that are at high risk of not being compliant with FMCSA regulations.
What is FMCSA CSA?
In 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) launched their CSA 2010 program to help a motor carrier better understand their safety data.
This new compliance measurement program replaced the old FMCSA SAFER system.
The overarching goal of the program is to have carriers promote safety and compliance throughout all safety improvement categories!
Now over a decade old, the CSA safety rating program remains a top concern for most trucking and bus companies!
What Are CSA BASIC Scores?
A trucking company’s “safety score” is determined by the number of roadside inspection violations that the motor carrier has during the prior 24 months in each of 7 different safety related categories.
Those seven behavior analysis categories are:
Unsafe Driving
Crash Indicator
Hours of Service
Vehicle Maintenance
Controlled Substance and Alcohol (Drug and Alcohol)
Driver Fitness
Hazardous Materials
How Are CSA BASIC Scores Calculated?
Each violation that drivers or trucks received has both a time weight and a severity weight.
Those are multiplied together to get a total weight for each violation.
Those total violation points are then added in each CSA BASIC to generate a CSA score for each safety fitness category.
Every motor carrier’s scores in each area is compared to other “similar” carriers and ranked on a percentile basis from 0 to 100.
O is the lowest FMCSA safety score/CSA BASIC score that you can have and 100 is the worst.
For instance, a trucking company with an Unsafe Driving FMCSA CSA BASIC score of 89% would show that only 11% of “similar” carriers have a driver safety score that is worse than that carrier.
How Do I See My CSA Scores?
You can view your FMCSA CSA scores (safety scores) in the FMCSA Safety Measurement System (also known as the SMS) by clicking here!
You can get there by going to the old safer website first and clicking on “SMS” in the top right hand corner of the carrier’s CSA report as well.
All of the following articles and posts relate to the FMCSA CSA program and other issues around US DOT regulations.
This includes information about CSA BASIC scores, CSA BASIC violations, how to avoid getting FMCSA violations, how to improve your CSA BASIC scores, the FMCSA Clearinghouse, FMCSA licensing and insurance issues, how to conduct an FMCSA carrier search, the FMCSA PSP ( pre employment screening program), how to Access the FMCSA portal and other key DOT compliance issues.
We want to help trucking companies learn how to understand the FMCSA CSA system and how to improve their CSA BASIC scores!
Please check out our articles before you jump over to the CSA site/ CSA portal.
I promise that you won’t be sorry that you did!