CSA Scores Explained: How to Understand and Improve Your Safety Record
Preventing crashes and fatalities related to large vehicles such as trucks and buses is at the heart of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s mission. With the creation of its CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) program, the FMCSA rolled out a way to identify carriers that present the greatest safety risks and help these carriers take steps to correct their actions.
The program uses a points-based system to create CSA scores for every motor carrier, even owner-operators. The scores help make both drivers and motor carriers more accountable for safety, and spell out what actions should be taken for carriers to improve.
“Depending on what is found during a roadside inspection, violations have a point value ranging from one to 10,” says Eddie Prather, who conducts DOT Compliance Training for Smith System. “At some point, if that number gets too high, the DOT [U.S. Department of Transportation] will do an intervention.”