CSA Scores
The Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program was started by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) back in November 2010. It was designed to support FMCSA’s initiatives to reduce crashes and focus their resources where necessary based on roadside activity (or lack thereof, such as in a newer fleet).
Over the years, it has also become a way for insurance carriers to determine the cost of your insurance, and for shippers and freight brokers to see which motor carriers to trust with the safety of their freight. That means, the worse your CSA score, the more it can cost your business – not just increased insurance rates and financing, but potential shipper loss. So, let’s look at how that score is calculated, how you can check it, and the different ways you can improve it.
How is Your CSA Score Calculated Today?
The FMCSA uses what’s known as the seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) to assign a CSA score.- Unsafe Driving
- Crash Indicators
- Hours-of-Service Compliance
- Vehicle Maintenance
- Controlled Substances/Alcohol
- HAZMAT Compliance
- Driver Fitness
Using these categories and data collected from your roadside inspections, the FMCSA creates a rank for the motor carrier between 0 and 100. The worse the business’s violation record, the higher the CSA score.
How Do You Check Your CSA Score?
Using the name of your motor carrier or your DOT number, you can check your CSA scores for free online using the FMCSA’s system. This can be especially helpful to insurance brokers, freight brokers, or motor carriers who want to check up on their competition.
However, not all the data you may need or want will be available on the company’s public profile. If viewing your own profile, you can log into the FMCSA system through login.gov. This will provide you with additional information, such as your crash records, driver names associated with entries, and hazardous material records.
How To Improve Your CSA Score
Here are some steps you can take to improve your CSA score if it’s too high for your liking:
1. Understand FMCSA’s Regulations
Having a strong understanding of the FMCSA’s regulations can not only help you and your drivers be more prepared for roadside inspections, but it can also help you protest violations you believe to be incorrect.
If you think an incorrect violation was given to your company, you can fight them through the DataQs process. DataQs is the online system for motor carriers that allows you to request and track a review of Federal and State crash and inspection data. If you want to learn more about FMCSA’s regulations, consider using CVSA’s North American Out-of-Service Criteria handbook or app to better understand the criteria that dictates out of service violations.
2. Develop a Safety Culture
Motor carrier safety culture refers to how employees of a motor carrier perceive safety. That includes everyone in the company from the drivers and mechanics to the CEO. Years of research have concluded that motor carriers who foster a safety culture have less crashes and reduce their number of inspection violations. That’s sure to not only bring down your CSA score, but also help you save money on insurance costs.
To develop a strong safety culture, consider hosting frequent safety check-ins with your drivers. This can help keep all your employees up to date on current rules and regulations. You can also consider creating an open communication and reporting environment for you and your drivers to help encourage an open dialogue about safety issues and make sure that feedback is taken seriously.
3. Identify and Fix Problem Areas
Identifying problem areas in your safety performance can be crucial to improving your CSA score. But it’s often easier said than done.
However, using a tool such as MCAdvantage by CAB can make it a lot easier for you.
With MCAdvantage, you can see all the information you need about your motor carrier’s safety, including detailed inspection reports, details on crashes, and which violations are most common for your fleet. You can even rank drivers by inspections or violations and develop score cards for each of them to see which ones might need more safety training.
Lastly, with MCAdvantage’s BASICs calculator, you can calculate your CSA score based on the removal of problematic VINs or drivers and create plans for the improvement of certain problem areas.
Safety is one of the most important aspects of running a motor carrier. Don’t wait for your scores to improve on their own. If you want to improve your CSA scores, it’s important to take proactive steps to do so. Start with MCAdvantage and fix the problem areas in your fleet today.
