What is a driver CSA score?
Well, there isn’t actually a “driver CSA score”.
Truck drivers can receive CSA points from FMCSA regulation violations, like lighting violations, during a DOT Level 2 roadside inspection, a Level 3 DOT roadside inspection or a Level I roadside inspection.
When a driver goes through a roadside inspection, that information gets put into the big Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) database in the sky.
If you want to impress your friends…or scare them, the actual name of the database is the FMCSA Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) database. Try saying that 3 times fast!
Any DOT violations (or lack thereof) are counted against both motor carriers and the driver.
Suppose a driver has an inspection and they receive a flat tire violation and they haven’t done their required annual DOT inspection.
Those 14 CSA vehicle maintenance DOT violation points will count against the motor carrier (in their CSA BASIC scores).
That fleet safety violation, and it’s points, will be listed on the trucking company’s FMCSA “SMS” (or Safety Measurement System) information.
The BASICs of how CSA Scores Are Calculated
These CSA violation points are combined and used to calculate the carriers CSA BASIC score in each major compliance area.
As a refresher, the seven Behavior Analysis Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) in the CSA program are:
- Unsafe Driving
- Crash Indicator
- Hours of Service Compliance
- Vehicle Maintenance
- Controlled Substances and Alcohol (Drug and Alcohol)
- Driver Fitness
- Hazardous Materials Compliance
All of these FMCSA regulation violations are assigned CSA points. These are listed on the roadside inspection report, or DVER. The points are entered into the FMCSA’s computer programs (the FMCSA SMS).
Each trucking company will have “raw” CSA BASIC scores which are then pitted against the scores all of the other carrier’s with a similar number of roadside inspections and a ” CSA percentile score” will be provided for each BASIC category. Find out what a good CSA score is by clicking here!
This is the difference between the number that looks like 0.34 when you check your CSA scores vs. the percentile score of say 56%.
If you own your own trucking company and want to see how to get your CSA score, just click here.
Unless your have your FMCSA PIN, you can only see your “raw” FMCSA scores (your CSA BASIC percentile scores are hidden from public view thanks to MAP-21).
If you can’t find your PIN, click here to find your DOT PIN in about 5 minutes.
A Driver’s CSA score vs. a Trucking Company’s CSA Score
The only real differences between the FMCSA SMS and DSMS are:
1) How long crashes and DOT violations are listed on each report.
2) How public the information is on each report.
3) No CSA scores for truck drivers.
So, Do Drivers have CSA scores?
No, not exactly. CSA scores for drivers don’t exist. But, truck drivers can earn CSA points if they violate the FMCSA regulations.
A driver CSA score isn’t a thing. There also isn’t:
a driver CSA score lookup
CDL CSA score
a CSA score for CDL drivers
truck driver PSP score or
a driver safety rating
and you will never find ” free CSA score for drivers” ….at least not from the FMCSA.
Those are all made up terms which are probably invented by a DOT compliance company trying to sell you something.
CSA scores for carriers are a VERY real thing!
Some companies have cracked the FMCSA’s magic formulas for calculating a carrier’s percentile BASIC score (it’s public information on how it works) and will sell you access to this information.
That may or may not be worth it, depending on your role in the industry.
See, that same flat tire violation also goes on a somewhat secret database called the “DSMS” (or Driver Safety Measurement System). Nobody said that the FMCSA was sexy with their acronyms…
There is no actual score or any calculations to it. It’s more like a giant record of violations…much like a driver’s Motor Vehicle Record (MVR).
I guess you could call it a ” driver CSA report”.
That sounds pretty fancy. Sounds nicer than pre employment screening report, at least.
In 2023, the FMCSA will be changing how they calculate the CSA BASIC scores and making a handful of other changes to how they decide which carriers to audit. Learn more about these upcoming changes to the FMCSA CSA program here!
How long are crashes and CSA violations listed on each report?
Both crashes and roadside inspection violations will show up on a trucking fleet’s SMS (and count against a carrier’s BASIC scores) for 24 months.
Crashes show on a driver’s DSMS record for 5 years and their roadside inspections are recorded for 36 months.
Who Has Access to FMCSA PSP and CSA Information?
A motor carrier’s SMS information is public knowledge and very limited parts are hidden from public view (like their percentile BASIC scores).
A driver’s DSMS information is quite a bit different.
The only way that a potential employer can access a driver’s DSMS information is by running a “PSP” (or Pre Employment Screening Program) report.
Trucking companies can only pull a report for a driver 1 time….before they hire them. It also costs the employer (or their DOT compliance company, like My Safety Manager) $10 plus an annual enrollment fee of either $25 or $100.
Regardless of who pulls the report, these aren’t available for public use and a driver’s PSP report shouldn’t be shared with anyone else.
Especially don’t share these with truck insurance underwriters, freight brokers and/or plaintiff attorneys!
When I was a truck insurance underwriter, I would have loved to have my hands on this information!
The fact that more don’t request them these days is really surprising.
But, many truck insurance companys do ask if you pull a PSP report on any new driver as part of your driver qualification process.
You really should be ordering and reviewing the PSP report of any driver that you’re hiring to haul under your DOT authority!
Anyway, the US DOT makes us swear not to share PSP reports under threat of damnation or excommunication or some other very bad things. So, please just don’t do it.
How Do I Check My CSA Score As A Driver?
Driver’s can pull their PSP report any time, they just have to pay the $10 fee to the DOT. No annual enrollment fee applies.
It only takes a couple of minutes and you can search for information related to your current CDL and/or any commercial drivers license that you have held in another state during the last 5 years.
Click here to check your PSP report!
If you review your PSP report and find that something is incorrect, you can file a DataQ request to have the wrong information changed or removed.
The system is pretty good. So, you probably wouldn’t need to do this each year or anything like that.
You can think of this as kinda like a truck driver credit report, only minus the credit score.
Take a look every once in a while, as needed.
If you’ve applied for a job and the potential employer says that they won’t work with you due to your PSP report, then it would be a great idea to grab one!
Driver CSA Scores: Next Steps
To wrap up, don’t get confused or be fooled into thinking that a truck driver has a personal CSA score or something like that. They don’t.
If you’re a truck driver, you should now understand much more about what can be listed on your PSP report and who can see that information. If you want to check out what’s on your own PSP report, you know where to go and what to do.
Trucking companies who wants to learn more about the roadside inspection activity of a potential driver, a PSP report is well worth the investment and we highly recommend that you used them as part of your driver qualification process.
Want us to help you order and review PSP reports for all of your new drivers? We would love to!
Just go to www.MySafetyManager.com to learn about how we qualify drivers in less than 3 hours!
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