How to improve your CSA score: 7 steps for trucking fleets

To improve your CSA score, lower the weighted violations in each BASIC that's over its threshold, or, in the inspection-based BASICs, add the clean inspections that dilute them. Check your percentiles monthly, challenge wrong data in DataQs, send eligible crashes for a preventability review, make every clean inspection count, fix the root cause, and let recent clean months outweigh old violations.

The steps:

1. Check your own percentiles every month
2. Challenge wrong data in DataQs
3. Submit eligible crashes for a preventability review
4. Make sure clean inspections reach your record
5. Fix the root cause in the BASIC that's over
6. Run the full safety management cycle, including recognition
7. Let recent clean months do the work

How is the CSA score calculated?

There is no single CSA score. FMCSA's Safety Measurement System (SMS) gives each carrier a percentile from 0 to 100 in each of seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs): Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance and Driver Fitness (FMCSA CSA: Measure). Higher is worse.

The SMS Methodology (v3.21, June 2026) sets out the math (PDF):

• Each violation gets a severity weight from 1 to 10, set by its crash risk within its BASIC. An out-of-service (OOS) violation adds 2 more (pp. 2-4, 3-11).
• Each violation and inspection gets a time weight: 3 if it's from the past 6 months, 2 if 6 to 12 months old, 1 if 12 to 24 months old (p. 2-5).
• The measure divides weighted violations by exposure. For HOS Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol and HM Compliance, the divisor is your time-weighted relevant inspections, including inspections with no violation in that BASIC (pp. 2-5 to 2-6, 3-11, 3-14). Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator divide by average power units times a utilization factor based on miles driven (pp. 2-6, 3-1).
• The percentile compares you with peers that have a similar number of inspections or safety events (p. 2-6).

As of October 2026, the intervention thresholds for most property carriers are 65% for Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator and HOS Compliance, and 80% for Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol and Driver Fitness (Table 2-2).

Worked example: how clean inspections change a measure

Illustration only. Severity weights here are made up for the arithmetic; real weights are in the methodology's Appendix A.

The measure fell by a third with no violation removed. Your percentile depends on where that measure lands among your peer group, so you can't compute it yourself, but the direction is clear.

Step 1: Check your own percentiles every month

Log in to the SMS website as the carrier. Since the FAST Act, property-carrier percentiles aren't on the public site, only the inspections and crashes behind them (89 FR 91874). SMS updates once a month. Write down each BASIC's percentile, its threshold, and which violations drive it.

Step 2: Challenge wrong data in DataQs

DataQs lets carriers and drivers "request and track a review of Federal and State data issued by FMCSA believed to be incomplete or incorrect" (DataQs). Look for wrong DOT numbers, duplicate inspections, and violations a court later dismissed.

If a citation tied to a violation is dismissed or found not guilty, the violation can come off; a conviction on a different charge drops it to severity 1. You must file the Request for Data Review. This applies to inspections on or after Aug. 23, 2014 (SMS Methodology p. 2-4). Revised requirements for how States review these requests took effect Sept. 18, 2026 (91 FR 20561). DataQs login now runs through Login.gov with multifactor authentication.

Step 3: Submit eligible crashes for a preventability review

Crashes count in the Crash Indicator "regardless of the carrier or driver's role in the crash" (CSA: Measure). Under the Crash Preventability Determination Program, expanded in December 2024 (89 FR 96269), you can submit eligible crashes through DataQs. Crashes found not preventable show as "Reviewed -- Not Preventable" and are left out of the Crash Indicator measure (SMS Methodology p. 2-5). Gather the police report, photos and any video before you file.

Step 4: Make sure clean inspections reach your record

In the inspection-based BASICs, clean inspections sit in the divisor, so every one that is missing makes your measure worse. FMCSA's Safety Management Cycle suggests a policy "requiring drivers to submit copies of all roadside inspections and citations for moving violations to carrier management within 24 hours" (FMCSA, FMC-CSA-12-019). Match each report against your SMS record. If a clean inspection is missing, or filed under the wrong carrier, that's a DataQs request.

Step 5: Fix the root cause in the BASIC that's over

Different BASICs need different fixes:

• Vehicle Maintenance: In CVSA's 2026 International Roadcheck, the top vehicle OOS violations were brake systems (24.3%), tires (20.9%), 20% defective brakes (14.9%), cargo securement (12.4%) and lights (11.9%) (CVSA, Aug. 25, 2026). Drivers must report defects on a post-trip inspection report and the carrier must repair safety defects before the vehicle runs again (49 CFR 396.11). Electronic inspection reports can make that report easier to complete and audit.
• HOS Compliance: Audit ELD records for form-and-manner errors, missing 30-minute breaks and drivers running past 14 hours. Hours of service was the second most common driver OOS violation in Roadcheck 2026 (23.4%).
• Unsafe Driving: Speeding, texting and hand-held phone use count here (49 CFR 392.80, 392.82). Check whether routes can be run within speed limits, and drop on-time delivery incentives, which FMCSA warns "could encourage speeding."
• Driver Fitness: Audit driver qualification files: medical certificates, annual motor vehicle record reviews and valid licenses. "No medical card" was the top driver OOS violation in Roadcheck 2026 (27.0%).

Step 6: Run the full safety management cycle, including recognition

FMCSA's Safety Management Cycle (January 2013) asks carriers to check six processes in each BASIC: policies and procedures, roles and responsibilities, qualification and hiring, training and communication, monitoring and tracking, and meaningful action (FMC-CSA-12-019). Under meaningful action, it recommends that carriers "design and implement incentives and/or recognition programs" for clean inspections and no crashes, alongside remedial training and a progressive discipline policy. It also suggests telling staff the carrier's Unsafe Driving percentile and explaining what each person can do to improve it. FMCSA's guidance is a recommendation, not a requirement, and does not endorse any vendor.

Recognition won't fix a maintenance backlog, and it doesn't change your percentiles by itself. It's a way to recognize the clean inspections that dilute your measure.

To turn these BASICs into a per-driver view, see our guide to the driver scorecard.

Step 7: Let recent clean months do the work

How long do violations stay on CSA?

Violations and inspections count in SMS for 24 months. "Safety events older than 24 months are no longer used to assess a carrier's safety posture in the SMS" (SMS Methodology). Within that window, a violation counts three times as much in its first 6 months as in its second year, and so does a clean inspection. So a clean six months moves the inspection-based measures faster than waiting for an old violation to age out. Inspection records can still appear outside SMS, so don't tell drivers a violation "disappears" after two years.

What isn't changing yet

FMCSA announced an enhanced SMS in November 2024 that would rename BASICs as "compliance categories" and change the weights and thresholds (89 FR 91874). As of October 2026 it has not launched, and the steps above follow the current seven-BASIC method. If your BASICs are hurting your renewal, see does CSA score affect insurance. If a compliance review has already happened, see conditional safety rating.

Off Duty Not Driving Rewards is a rewards program for trucking fleets. Contact our team to learn more.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm requirements against the current regulation text and with your compliance counsel.