What Is a CSA Score?
The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program is FMCSA's safety measurement system for commercial motor carriers. It collects data from roadside inspections, crash reports, and investigation results to generate percentile scores that show how a carrier's safety performance compares to similar carriers.
Here's the part most truckers misunderstand: a higher CSA percentile is worse. A score of 90 means you're performing more poorly than 90% of similar carriers. A score of 10 means you're outperforming 90% of your peers. Think of it like a golf score — lower is better.
The scores are organized into seven categories called BASICs — Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories:
| BASIC Category | What It Tracks | Intervention Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | Speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, texting while driving | 65% (carriers with hazmat or passenger) |
| Hours of Service (HOS) | HOS log falsification, driving beyond limits, missing logs | 65% |
| Driver Fitness | Invalid CDL, missing medical certificates, disqualified drivers | 80% |
| Controlled Substances / Alcohol | Positive drug/alcohol tests, refusals | Any violation triggers review |
| Vehicle Maintenance | Brake violations, tire defects, lighting defects, cargo securement | 80% |
| Hazardous Materials | Placarding errors, spills, improper packaging | 80% |
| Crash Indicator | Frequency and severity of crashes in the carrier's history | 65% |
Your public CSA BASIC percentile scores are visible to anyone — including insurance underwriters — at ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS. Look up your DOT number and see exactly what underwriters see when they evaluate your account. Do this before you shop for insurance so you know what you're working with.
How Underwriters Use CSA Scores
When you apply for trucking insurance, the underwriter doesn't just look at your loss history — they pull your CSA BASIC scores as part of their standard screening. This happens whether you know it or not. Your scores are public record.
What underwriters are looking for:
- Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator: The two BASICs most directly correlated with liability claims. High scores here are serious red flags.
- Vehicle Maintenance: High percentiles signal a carrier that doesn't maintain equipment — which means brake failures, tire blowouts, and large liability claims.
- Hours of Service: Fatigued driving is a major loss cause. Underwriters treat high HOS scores as a predictive marker for serious accidents.
- Controlled Substances: Any violation in this BASIC is typically an immediate declination at standard markets.
Preferred pricing. Standard market carriers compete for your business. Best available rates.
Some underwriters become cautious. Premium surcharges apply. Fewer carriers will quote.
Many standard markets decline. Pushed to surplus lines carriers. Premium increases of 30–60%+.
The Real Dollar Impact on Your Premium
Here's what this looks like in practice for a single-unit owner-operator running a 53-foot dry van:
Clean CSA Profile
DOT number 3+ years old
Unsafe Driving: 22nd percentile
Vehicle Maintenance: 18th percentile
HOS: 30th percentile
No crashes in 24 months
High CSA Profile
DOT number 3+ years old
Unsafe Driving: 78th percentile
Vehicle Maintenance: 82nd percentile
HOS: 71st percentile
1 preventable crash in 24 months
The same truck, the same driver experience, the same route — but the high-CSA carrier pays $7,500–$15,000 more per year on insurance alone. Over a five-year period, that gap is $37,500–$75,000. This is money that compounds: higher insurance costs leave less margin for equipment maintenance, which leads to more inspection violations, which worsens the CSA score further.
Carriers with a new DOT number (less than 2 years old) already face premium surcharges. If a new carrier also accumulates high CSA scores in the first 6–12 months, many standard markets will either decline entirely or price the policy out of range. Getting safety right from day one is not just good practice — it's financial survival.
Which Violations Hurt the Most
Not all violations are weighted equally in the CSA scoring algorithm. Violations are weighted by severity (1–10 scale) and recency (violations in the most recent 6 months carry more weight than older ones).
High-Severity Violations (Weight 8–10)
- Operating while disqualified (CDL revoked/suspended) — weight 10
- Positive drug or alcohol test — weight 10
- Driving while ill or fatigued to the point of danger — weight 8
- Brake out-of-service (brakes adjusted beyond limits) — weight 8
- Operating a commercial vehicle without a CDL — weight 7
Medium-Severity Violations (Weight 3–6)
- Speeding 15+ mph over the limit — weight 6
- Failure to use ELD when required — weight 5
- Tire out-of-service (exposed belt, serious damage) — weight 6
- Lighting violations (non-functioning headlights, brake lights) — weight 3–5
- Hours of Service logbook violation — weight 3–5
Any violation that resulted in an out-of-service (OOS) order is multiplied by 2x in the CSA scoring system for the first 12 months. A single OOS brake violation has more impact on your score than several minor paperwork issues combined. Pre-trip inspections that catch brake problems before a roadside check are not just safety-smart — they're score-protection.
How to Improve Your CSA Score
1. Fix Errors via FMCSA DataQs
The fastest way to improve a CSA score is to remove violations that don't belong there. The FMCSA DataQs system (dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov) lets carriers request a review of inspection data they believe is inaccurate, duplicate, or incorrectly coded.
Common successful disputes include:
- Violations recorded under the wrong DOT number
- Violations citing incorrect regulations (officer cited wrong code)
- OOS violations the carrier can prove were corrected before departure
- Duplicate entries from the same inspection
DataQs disputes require documentation — inspection reports, maintenance records, driver logs. Keep these records meticulously so you can dispute quickly when errors appear.
2. Address the Highest-Severity Violations First
Since violations are severity-weighted, fixing the root causes of high-severity violations creates the most score improvement. If your Vehicle Maintenance score is high because of brake violations, implementing a rigorous brake inspection and adjustment program will have more impact than addressing a handful of lighting violations.
3. Time Your Insurance Renewal Strategically
Since violations age off after 24 months, timing matters. If you had a cluster of violations 20 months ago, waiting 4 more months before you shop for new coverage means those violations drop off your score before underwriters see it. A good agent will know to ask about this.
4. Driver Qualification File Management
Driver Fitness and Controlled Substances violations often come from administrative failures — expired medical cards, missing MVR reviews, incomplete DQ files. These are entirely preventable with a systematic compliance calendar:
- Annual MVR check for every driver
- Medical certificate expiration tracking
- Pre-employment drug screening documentation
- Random drug testing program properly implemented
5. Pre-Trip Inspection Documentation
Vehicle Maintenance violations caught at roadside are almost always things that could have been caught in a pre-trip inspection. Drivers who document thorough pre-trip inspections create a paper trail that demonstrates systematic maintenance — and inspection officers notice the difference between well-maintained equipment and neglected equipment.
If your CSA scores are high but you have a concrete improvement plan — new maintenance protocols, driver training, DataQs disputes filed — tell your insurance agent. Some underwriters will consider "trend improvement" when pricing your policy if you can demonstrate that your safety culture has genuinely changed. A written safety management plan submitted with your application can make a difference at certain markets.
Shopping Insurance With High CSA Scores
If your CSA scores are elevated, you still have options — but the process requires a specialist rather than a standard commercial auto agent.
Standard admitted carriers (the household names) typically decline carriers with high CSA scores or charge premiums that don't make business sense. But the surplus lines market — carriers that specialize in non-standard trucking risks — exists precisely for this situation.
What to expect in the surplus lines market:
- Higher premiums (30–60% above standard market rates)
- Possible loss control requirements (telematics, driver training programs)
- Annual reviews with tighter conditions
- Monthly payment plans may have higher financing charges
- Path back to standard markets once scores improve
A general commercial lines agent who doesn't specialize in trucking likely doesn't have relationships with surplus lines trucking markets. If your CSA scores are high and a standard agent can't find coverage, you need a trucking specialist — not a different standard agent. The markets they access are simply different.