CSA scores explained: the BASICs, percentiles and DataQs

A "CSA score" is the percentile FMCSA's Safety Measurement System (SMS) gives a carrier in each of seven safety categories, called BASICs. It's built from the last two years of roadside inspections and crash reports, updated monthly, and ranks you against carriers with a similar number of safety events. FMCSA uses it to decide which carriers to contact first. It is not your safety rating.

The seven BASICs

• Unsafe Driving: speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, texting, not wearing a seat belt.
• Crash Indicator: your history of reportable crashes, by frequency and severity. Not publicly available.
• Hours-of-Service Compliance: driving while ill or fatigued, driving past the hours limits, and records of duty status (§395.8).
• Vehicle Maintenance: brakes, lights and other defects, load securement and failing to make required repairs (§396.3).
• Controlled Substances/Alcohol: impaired driving and failing to run a testing program.
• Hazardous Materials Compliance: marking, placarding and securing hazardous materials. Not publicly available.
• Driver Fitness: invalid licenses, medically unqualified drivers and missing driver qualification files.

FMCSA also keeps an Insurance/Other indicator from investigation findings, which isn't public either.

How a violation becomes a percentile

Every violation on a roadside inspection report is assigned to a BASIC with a severity weight from 1 to 10, where 10 is most closely linked to crash risk. Violations that put a driver or vehicle out of service carry extra weight. A 5 in one BASIC doesn't mean the same as a 5 in another, so the weights are never added across categories.

Time matters as much as severity. Recent events count more than older ones, and anything older than 24 months drops out entirely. The total is then divided across the number of relevant inspections: driver inspections for the driver-related BASICs, vehicle inspections for Vehicle Maintenance and Hazmat. Finally, you're compared with carriers that have a similar number of safety events, and that comparison is your percentile. These details come from FMCSA's SMS methodology, version 3.21, revised May 2026.

Two things surprise people. A violation counts once it's written on the inspection report, whether or not the officer also issued a ticket. And an inspection with no violations still counts toward your inspection total, which spreads your violations over more inspections.

Who can see your scores

Since the FAST Act of 2015, FMCSA no longer shows property carriers' SMS results to the public. You see your full results by logging in to your own profile, and enforcement sees them too. Inspection and crash records themselves remain available, so a broker or shipper can still see your inspection history.

What happens when a score is high

FMCSA prioritizes carriers with alerts in a BASIC. The interventions escalate: a warning letter, then a targeted roadside inspection, then an investigation. An investigation can be offsite, with documents sent to a safety investigator, or onsite, either focused on the problem area or comprehensive. It can end in a cooperative safety plan or a notice of violation.

A percentile isn't a safety rating. Satisfactory, Conditional and Unsatisfactory ratings come from a compliance review measured against the safety fitness standard in §385.5. A poor percentile can lead to that review, but it doesn't set the rating by itself.

Challenging a record with DataQs

If an inspection report has a mistake, like the wrong carrier, a violation that didn't happen or a crash you weren't in, file a Request for Data Review in FMCSA's DataQs system.

Tickets that go to court have their own path. If the citation linked to a violation is dismissed or you're found not guilty, the violation can be removed from the SMS. If you're convicted of a different charge, its severity weight drops to 1. Either way, you submit the certified court documents through DataQs.

For crashes, FMCSA's Crash Preventability Determination Program reviews eligible crashes. One found not preventable stays listed but is left out of your Crash Indicator measure.

Keeping the numbers down

• Read every inspection report. Certify corrections on time; the carrier's signed certification is due within 15 days (§396.9(d)). The roadside inspection guide covers that step.
• Catch defects before the scale house does. A pre-trip inspection that reports and repairs a defect keeps it off a roadside report. See the DVIR guide.
• Keep driver files current. Expired medical cards and missing qualification documents feed Driver Fitness.
• Check your SMS profile monthly. It updates once a month, so a monthly look catches errors while the inspection is recent.

Ledger Road keeps inspection reports, repairs and driver files together, so the evidence behind a correction or a DataQs request is in one place.