Guides / CSA BASICs explained
The seven CSA BASICs, explained
CSA, short for Compliance, Safety, Accountability, is FMCSA's program for finding motor carriers with safety problems and stepping in before a crash. At its center is the Safety Measurement System (SMS). The SMS turns roadside inspection results and crash reports into scores in seven categories called BASICs. Insurers, brokers and shippers watch those scores, and FMCSA uses them to decide which carriers to investigate.
The seven BASICs
| BASIC | What feeds it |
|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | Speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, following too closely, phone use |
| Crash Indicator | Reportable crashes in the carrier's history |
| Hours-of-Service Compliance | Driving over the limits, missing or false logs, ELD violations |
| Vehicle Maintenance | Brakes, lights, tires and other defects found at inspection |
| Controlled Substances/Alcohol | Use or possession of drugs or alcohol |
| Hazardous Materials Compliance | Placarding, packaging and paperwork for hazmat loads |
| Driver Fitness | Invalid licenses, missing medical certificates, disqualified drivers |
How the scores work
Each violation found at a roadside inspection carries a severity weight. Recent violations count more than older ones, and the SMS looks back 24 months. The carrier's result in each BASIC is compared with carriers of similar size and exposure and shown as a percentile from 0 to 100. A higher percentile is worse.
Above a set threshold, FMCSA flags the BASIC with an alert. For most property carriers the threshold is the 65th percentile for Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator and Hours-of-Service, and the 80th for the others. Passenger and hazmat carriers have lower thresholds. An alert makes a warning letter, a targeted inspection or an investigation more likely.
Since 2015, property carriers' percentiles have been hidden from public view, but carriers can see their own by logging in, and FMCSA still uses them. The underlying inspection data stays public.
FMCSA has proposed changes to how the SMS groups and weighs violations. Check FMCSA's current SMS methodology for the latest rules.
Things that surprise carriers
- A violation counts without a ticket. An inspector can record a violation without writing a citation, and it still feeds the BASIC.
- A clean inspection helps. Inspections with no violations count in the carrier's favor, so more clean inspections can bring a percentile down.
- One driver can move a small carrier's score. With few inspections, a single bad one has a large effect.
What to do about a rising score
- Check the data. Pull the carrier's inspection history and look for violations that are wrong, assigned to the wrong driver or vehicle, or tied to a citation later dismissed in court. Those can be challenged through DataQs.
- Find the pattern. If most points come from one BASIC, one terminal or one driver, fix that first.
- Fix the cause. Pre-trip inspection discipline lowers Vehicle Maintenance violations, log audits lower HOS violations, and coaching lowers Unsafe Driving.
- Keep watching. Scores update monthly. Monitoring every BASIC catches a rise before an insurer or broker does.