CSA Score Management & Compliance Services
Lower your CSA scores, avoid DOT interventions, and protect your insurance premiums. We monitor your BASICs, challenge the data that’s wrong, and tell you exactly where to focus.
What Is CSA — and How FMCSA Calculates Your Scores
CSA — Compliance, Safety, Accountability — is FMCSA’s system for spotting high-risk carriers. Behind it is the Safety Measurement System (SMS), which takes your roadside inspection and crash data, weights each event by severity and recency, and ranks you by percentile in seven categories called the BASICs.
The problem for most carriers isn’t that they’re unsafe — it’s that they don’t see the scores moving until a threshold is crossed and a warning letter shows up. By then the data is months old. Continuous management flips that: you see the trend early, fix what’s real, and challenge what isn’t.
What Our CSA Score Management Includes
SMS Monitoring & Score Tracking
We track your Safety Measurement System data continuously, so you see where your fleet stands instead of finding out at renewal or an audit.
7 BASIC Category Analysis
We break your scores down by BASIC, show you what’s driving each one, and pinpoint where a little attention moves the needle most.
DataQs Challenges & Dispute Filing
Inspections and crashes that don’t belong on your record drag your scores down. We file DataQs challenges to get inaccurate data corrected or removed.
Crash Preventability Requests
Through FMCSA’s Crash Preventability Determination Program, we request non-preventable determinations so crashes that weren’t your driver’s fault stop counting against you.
Roadside Inspection Review
We review your inspection history for violations to contest, patterns to fix, and corrective actions that keep them from repeating.
Monthly Reporting & Trends
Clear monthly reporting on your scores and trends — so you and your consultant always know which direction your safety profile is heading.
The 7 BASICs — Where Your Fleet Is Scored
Every CSA score lives in one of these seven categories.
What Score Management Does for Your Fleet
Stay Below Intervention Thresholds
When a BASIC crosses FMCSA’s threshold, you invite warning letters and investigations. We help you keep scores under the line.
Protect Your Insurance Premiums
Insurers look hard at CSA scores. A cleaner safety profile is a stronger position at renewal — and that flows to your bottom line.
Fix the Record That’s Wrong
A surprising share of the data dragging fleets down is inaccurate or non-preventable. We challenge it through DataQs and the preventability program.
Know Before the Auditor Does
Continuous monitoring means you see a developing problem early — while there’s still time to act, not after it’s triggered a review.
Your CSA scores are driven by the rest of your compliance program:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CSA and how does FMCSA calculate my scores?
CSA stands for Compliance, Safety, Accountability — FMCSA’s program for identifying high-risk carriers. It uses the Safety Measurement System (SMS), which takes your roadside inspection and crash data, weights each event by severity and how recently it happened, sorts it into seven categories called BASICs, and ranks you by percentile against carriers with a similar number of inspections.
What are the 7 BASICs?
The seven BASICs are Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances & Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazardous Materials Compliance, and the Crash Indicator. Your fleet is measured and percentile-ranked in each one, and a high percentile in any single BASIC can trigger FMCSA attention.
What is an intervention threshold?
Each BASIC has a percentile threshold. When your score crosses it, FMCSA may intervene — starting with warning letters and escalating to investigations or on-site audits. The goal of score management is to keep every BASIC below its threshold and to act early when one is climbing.
Can you dispute violations or crashes on my record?
Yes. Through the FMCSA DataQs system we challenge inspection and violation data that’s inaccurate or improperly assigned, and through the Crash Preventability Determination Program we request non-preventable determinations on qualifying crashes — so events that weren’t your driver’s fault stop counting against your scores.
What is a “good” CSA score?
There’s no single number — each BASIC is a percentile, and lower is better. The practical goal is keeping every BASIC comfortably below its intervention threshold. We track all seven and focus effort where you’re closest to a threshold or trending the wrong way.
How quickly can CSA scores improve?
SMS weights recent events more heavily and older ones fade over a 24-month window, so scores respond over time as clean inspections accumulate and bad data is corrected. Successful DataQs challenges can remove qualifying items sooner. We set realistic expectations and report progress monthly.
How much does CSA score management cost?
CSA score management is part of one monthly fee per driver covering your whole compliance program — no per-dispute charges. Pricing depends on your fleet and the services you need, so the next step is a short conversation.
Get your scores moving in the right direction.
Start with a look at your current BASICs. We’ll show you what’s driving them and how CSA management fits into one fee per driver.