CarrierScrub
What is a CSA score?
CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) is FMCSA's enforcement program, and its Safety Measurement System (SMS) ranks carriers in seven categories called BASICs: "Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance (HM), and Driver Fitness." For each BASIC, SMS turns the carrier's violations and crashes into a measure, then ranks that measure against carriers with similar exposure as a percentile from 0 to 100.
"CSA score" is the everyday name for those percentiles. There is no single overall score; a carrier has up to seven, and a higher percentile means worse performance relative to its peers. SMS scores carriers, not drivers.
How the score is calculated
Each roadside violation carries a severity weight that FMCSA converts "to a scale from 1 to 10 for each BASIC, where 1 represents the lowest crash risk and 10 represents the highest." That weight is multiplied by a time weight: "Violations recorded in the past six months receive a time weight of 3," those six to twelve months old a weight of 2, and those "older than 12 months but within the past 24 months" a weight of 1. After 24 months a violation drops out of SMS altogether.
So the same violation counts three times as much this quarter as it will in its second year, and a carrier's percentiles move every month as old inspections age and new ones arrive, even if nothing about the carrier changes.
CSA violation points: common violations and their weights
"CSA points" are a violation's severity weight, a number from 1 to 10 that FMCSA sets for every roadside violation. These are the weights for common ones, as FMCSA's SMS methodology lists them:
| Violation | BASIC | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Texting while driving (392.80) | Unsafe Driving | 10 |
| Using a hand-held mobile phone while driving (392.82) | Unsafe Driving | 10 |
| Occupants not properly restrained (392.16B) | Unsafe Driving | 7 |
| Inattentive driving (392.2-INAT) | Unsafe Driving | 5 |
| Failure to maintain lane (392.2-ML) | Unsafe Driving | 5 |
| Not slowing for a railroad crossing (392.11) | Unsafe Driving | 5 |
| Speeding, no speed range recorded (392.2S) | Unsafe Driving | 1 |
| Driving past 8 hours without a 30-minute break (395.3(a)(3)(ii)) | Hours-of-Service Compliance | 7 |
| Not providing supporting documents on request (395.11G) | Hours-of-Service Compliance | 7 |
| No record of duty status, ELD required (395.8A-ELD) | Hours-of-Service Compliance | 5 |
| Log form and manner (395.8) | Hours-of-Service Compliance | 1 |
| Front tire tread under 2/32 inch (393.75B) | Vehicle Maintenance | 8 |
| Inoperative brake lamps (393.9) | Vehicle Maintenance | 6 |
| Possessing a narcotic drug or amphetamine on duty (392.4A) | Controlled Substances/Alcohol | 10 |
| Any detected alcohol while on duty (392.5A2) | Controlled Substances/Alcohol | 5 |
| Possessing alcohol while on duty (392.5A2-POS) | Controlled Substances/Alcohol | 3 |
| Fraudulent medical certificate (390.35B) | Driver Fitness | 10 |
| CDL suspended for a safety reason, in the issuing state (383.51A) | Driver Fitness | 8 |
| CDL suspended for a non-safety reason, outside the issuing state (383.51A) | Driver Fitness | 1 |
Two things change what a violation actually counts for. "OOS violations receive an additional severity weight of 2," so a violation that put the driver or vehicle out of service is worth two more. And the time weight multiplies it: a texting violation from last month counts 10 x 3 = 30 in the Unsafe Driving measure, and the same violation eighteen months later counts 10 x 1 = 10. FMCSA's Appendix A spreadsheet lists the weight of every violation SMS uses.
What is a good CSA score?
Lower is better, and the line that matters is FMCSA's intervention threshold: a percentile at or above it marks the carrier for possible intervention in that BASIC. The thresholds depend on the carrier type.
| BASIC | Passenger | Hazmat | General property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service Compliance | 50% | 60% | 65% |
| Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Driver Fitness | 65% | 75% | 80% |
| Hazardous Materials Compliance | 80% | 80% | 80% |
A general freight carrier at the 40th percentile in Unsafe Driving is below the threshold; at the 70th it is over it. "Points" usually means a single violation's severity weight, so "7 points" is a violation near the heavy end of the 1-to-10 scale (see the points table). No number of points maps to a score on its own: the percentile depends on every violation's weight and age, on the carrier's exposure, and on how it compares with its peer group.
Who can see a CSA score
Not brokers, for most carriers. FMCSA's notice on the SMS site: "Pursuant to the FAST Act of 2015, certain information previously available on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) Safety Measurement System (SMS) Website related to property carrier's compliance and safety performance is no longer available for public display." What remains public for property carriers is "inspection and crash data, investigation results, and measures for all public" BASICs; "however, the Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance BASICs remain hidden from public view."
A carrier can see its own complete results by logging in: through Login.gov to the FMCSA Portal, then "A&I (SMS)". FMCSA notes that "logged-in motor carriers can only view their own data." So a vendor showing a BASIC percentile for a property carrier you are vetting is worth asking where it came from. What a broker can weigh instead is the public layer: the safety rating and its date, 24-month inspections and out-of-service rates, and crashes.
Can a driver see their CSA score?
Drivers do not have one; SMS ranks carriers. A driver's own record is the Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) report. In FMCSA's words, "PSP records contain a commercial driver's 5-year crash and 3-year inspection history. The PSP record does not contain a score." A single record costs $10, and the same information "can be obtained for free by filing a Privacy Act request." Violations found while a driver hauls for a carrier count in that carrier's BASICs.
How to lower a CSA score, or challenge one
Time does part of it: a violation's weight drops from 3 to 2 after six months and to 1 after a year, and it leaves SMS after two. The rest is not getting new violations, which is a maintenance, hours-of-service and driver-qualification question rather than a paperwork one.
Data that is wrong can be challenged. "DataQs is an FMCSA system that allows users to request and track a review of Federal and State data issued by FMCSA believed to be incomplete or incorrect," signed in through Login.gov. A violation removed through DataQs comes out of the measure.
The CSA changes FMCSA has announced, and whether they are live
In November 2024 FMCSA announced an enhanced SMS. Among the changes: BASICs renamed "compliance categories," "reorganizing the existing 959 roadside violations into 116 violation groups," severity weights moving from a 1-to-10 scale to a simplified 1 or 2, percentiles only for carriers with violations in the past 12 months, Controlled Substances/Alcohol folded into Unsafe Driving, and the Driver Fitness threshold for general carriers raised from 80% to 90%. FMCSA said a follow-up Federal Register notice would announce the launch date.
As of 17 September 2026 it had not launched. FMCSA's preview page says "Until the updated system is in effect, carriers should continue to use the current SMS website," and the methodology FMCSA published in June 2026 still uses the seven BASICs. Pages describing a 2026 overhaul as already in force are ahead of FMCSA. This page will be updated when the launch notice is published.
What CarrierScrub shows
The verdict is decided by operating authority and insurance on file, the filings that decide whether a carrier may haul the load at all. Each result also carries the public safety layer from FMCSA's SMS snapshot: the safety rating with its date, 24-month inspections and out-of-service rates, crashes, and any acute or critical violation found in an investigation, each dated to its snapshot and never guessed. It does not show BASIC percentiles for property carriers, because FMCSA does not publish them. Safety rating vs. BASIC scores vs. out-of-service rate sets the three side by side.