Violations & Scoring

The CSA 2010 Safety Measurement System will replace the SafeStat measurement system as FMCSA’s tool to identify high-risk motor carriers requiring interventions. SMS will evaluate the safety of individual motor carriers by considering all safety-based roadside inspection violations, not just out-of service violations, as well as State-reported crashes, using 24 months of performance data.

SMS will assess each carrier’s safety performance in each of the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs).

SMS calculates a measure for each BASIC by combining the time and severity weighted violations/crashes (more recent violations are weighted more heavily) normalized by exposure (e.g. hybrid of number of power units/vehicle miles traveled or number of relevant inspections). Applying a similar approach to that used in SafeStat, SMS converts each carrier’s BASIC measures into percentiles based on rank relative to carriers with similar safety event groupings (i.e. number of relevant inspections or crashes). SMS will be updated monthly.

> Click here to download the full FMCSA SMS methodology.

Red Flag Violations

There are 12 red-flag violations identified as the most serious. These violations are always investigated as part of any carrier investigation. The red-flag violations are as follows:

 Code

 Violation

 Points

 BASIC

383.21  

Operating a CMV with more than one driver's license  

8

Driver Fitness

383.23(a)(2)  

Operating a CMV without a CDL  

8

Driver Fitness

383.51(a)  

Driving a CMV (CDL) while disqualified  

8

Driver Fitness

383.91(a)

Operating a CMV with improper CDL group

8

Driver Fitness

391.11

Unqualified driver

8

Driver Fitness

391.11(b)(5)  

Driver lacking valid license for type vehicle being operated  

8

Driver Fitness

391.11(b)(7)

Driver disqualified from operating CMV

8

Driver Fitness

391.15(a)

Driving a CMV while disqualified

8

Driver Fitness

392.4(a)  

Driver uses or is in possession of drugs  

10

Controlled Substances/Alcohol

392.5(a)  

Possession/use/under influence alcohol-4hrs prior to duty  

5

Controlled Substances/Alcohol

395.13(d)  

Driving after being declared out-of-service   

10

Driver Fatigue

396.9(c)(2)  

Operating an OOS vehicle  

10

Vehicle Maintenance

 

> Click here to download a full list of points and violations.

Quick Links

> Get my CSA Score
> CSA Points List
> CSA Intervention Process


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