How to find your CSA score before a customer reads it
Brokers, shippers, and underwriters can pull most of your safety record for free in a minute. You should read it first, including the parts only you can see.
Written by Gabriel Gonzalez
Your record in numbers
To find your CSA score, log in to FMCSA's Safety Measurement System (SMS) through the FMCSA Portal with a Login.gov account, then open each BASIC to see your percentile. Anyone can search your USDOT number on the public SMS, but for property carriers it shows measures and inspections, not percentiles.
Most carriers think of a CSA score as FMCSA's business. It is also your customers' business: the people who book your trucks and price your insurance can read most of your safety record for free.
I have spent more than 22 years at Simplex, nearly 16 of them as COO, and I treat a safety record the way I treat any number that affects revenue: you check it on a schedule, and you know it before anyone asks. This guide shows how to find your score, what others can see without your login, and where it touches your business.
The full briefing, read aloud
7 chapters. Select one to jump to it.
Generated with AI text-to-speech from this article's key insights, in order, rather than reading it word for word. Chapter times come from a transcript of the audio. The article itself was written and reviewed by Gabriel Gonzalez.
Key takeaways
There is no single CSA score
FMCSA gives you a percentile from 0 to 100 in each BASIC where you have enough data. A higher percentile means worse performance than carriers with a similar number of safety events.
The PIN login is gone
SMS now requires multifactor sign-in. You log in to the FMCSA Portal with a Login.gov account that uses your Portal email, then open A&I (SMS).
Outsiders see the record, not the rank
For property carriers, percentiles and alerts are hidden from the public. Inspections, crashes, investigation results, and the measures for five BASICs are not.
Customers set their own lines
Amazon Relay requires Unsafe Driving and HOS Compliance below 60%. Brokers can face state negligent-hiring claims after the Supreme Court's May 2026 Montgomery ruling.
Check it every month
SMS updates monthly. Read each release, challenge bad data in DataQs, and keep your MCS-150 truck count and mileage current, because they feed the math.
In this articleContents
What is a CSA score?
A CSA score is a percentile from 0 to 100 that FMCSA's Safety Measurement System gives your company in each Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category, or BASIC. The higher the percentile, the worse you compare with carriers that have a similar number of inspections or crashes.
There is no single overall score. Each percentile starts from a measure: your violations or crashes from the last 24 months, weighted by severity and by how recent they are. The measure is about you alone, and the percentile ranks it against your peers. Our guide to the 7 CSA BASICs explains what each category tracks.
Your percentiles are also separate from your DOT safety rating. A rating comes from an FMCSA investigation under 49 CFR Part 385, while percentiles move every month with roadside data.
How do you find your CSA score?
You find your CSA score by logging in to SMS through the FMCSA Portal with a Login.gov account. Anyone can search a USDOT number on the public SMS, but if you haul property, the public view leaves your percentiles out.
The old login with a USDOT number and PIN no longer works. FMCSA now requires multifactor authentication for its A&I and SMS systems, so every carrier signs in through Login.gov.
Step 1: Set up Login.gov with your Portal email
Create a Login.gov account with the same email address your FMCSA Portal account uses, so it links to your Portal roles, and add a second authentication method. An existing Login.gov account from another government site works too. FMCSA's Login.gov guide walks through it.
Step 2: Sign in to the Portal and open SMS
On the FMCSA Portal, choose Sign in with Login.gov. Select “A&I (SMS)” from Available FMCSA Systems, click Go, then click SMS in the top navigation. If you have no Portal account yet, the login page links to registration.
Step 3: Read the overview, then each BASIC
The Carrier Overview marks any BASIC that FMCSA may prioritize, either because you are at or over the intervention threshold or because a recent investigation found acute or critical violations. Select a BASIC to see the percentile itself, your measure, and the inspections behind it.
Step 4: Download the inspections behind the numbers
Use Data Downloads to pull the inspections, violations, and crashes behind your results in Excel or XML. FMCSA suggests sorting them by driver, date, location, vehicle, and violation to find the root cause.
Logged in, you also see what the public can't: your Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance BASICs, your Inspection Selection System value, and driver names on inspections. If you can't get in, FMCSA takes motor carrier login questions through Ask FMCSA.
What can brokers and shippers see without your login?
Without your login, anyone can see your inspections, crashes, investigation results, and the measures for your public BASICs. If you haul property, they can't see your percentiles or alerts: FMCSA removed those from public view under the FAST Act of 2015. Passenger carriers' results stay public.
| Item | Public | You, logged in |
|---|---|---|
| Percentiles and alert symbols | Not public | Yes |
| Measures for Unsafe Driving, HOS Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Driver Fitness | Yes | Yes |
| Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance BASICs | Not public | Yes |
| Inspections, crashes, and investigation results | Yes | Yes, with driver names |
| Inspection Selection System value | Not public | Yes |
The quickest public check is FMCSA's free SAFER Company Snapshot. It shows your safety rating if you have one, your out-of-service rates for the last 24 months beside the national averages, and your reportable crashes. On data as of September 25, 2026, those averages were 22.26% for vehicle inspections and 6.67% for driver inspections.
So a broker can't read your percentile, but it can read the record the percentile is built from. Before you quote a new customer, look at your snapshot the way their carrier team will.
How can CSA scores affect your business?
CSA scores affect your business through the people who decide whether you get freight, coverage, or attention from FMCSA: shippers that set cutoffs, brokers choosing carriers, insurers, and the agency itself.
- Load programs with hard cutoffs. Some shippers write BASIC limits into their requirements. Amazon Relay requires Unsafe Driving and HOS Compliance below 60%, and Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, and Driver Fitness below 75%. Our guide to Amazon Relay requirements for new carriers covers the rest.
- Brokers with more at stake. On May 14, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that federal law does not preempt state negligent-hiring claims against a broker. That claim rested on the carrier's safety rating. Here is what the ruling means for broker vetting.
- Insurers. Underwriters look at your inspection, out-of-service, and crash history when they price a policy. See how CSA scores affect truck insurance premiums.
- FMCSA. A BASIC over its threshold can bring a warning letter or an investigation, and FMCSA gives roadside inspectors data that flags a carrier's compliance problems by BASIC, which drives targeted inspections.
In revenue terms, a high percentile works against you in three places at once: the freight you can book, what you pay for coverage, and how often your trucks are stopped. None of those shows up on one invoice, which is why it is easy to underestimate.
What is a bad CSA score?
A bad CSA score is a percentile at or above FMCSA's intervention threshold in a BASIC. For most carriers, that is 65% in Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, and HOS Compliance, and 80% in Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Driver Fitness, and Hazardous Materials Compliance. Hazmat and passenger carriers face lower thresholds.
A customer's line can sit lower than FMCSA's, as Amazon's 60% and 75% cutoffs show. And a blank BASIC is not automatically good news. Unsafe Driving needs at least three inspections with a violation before it shows a percentile, and Vehicle Maintenance and Driver Fitness need at least five relevant inspections, so a small fleet can carry violations without a ranking.
Do drivers have a CSA score?
No. SMS ranks carriers by USDOT number, and a driver's violations count only against the carrier the driver was working for at the time. They stay on that carrier's record for 24 months, even after the driver leaves.
What follows the driver is the Pre-Employment Screening Program record: 5 years of crashes and 3 years of roadside inspections, with no score. A driver can buy a copy for $10, and carriers use it to screen new hires.
How do you keep the record you are checking accurate?
Check SMS after each monthly release and fix what is wrong before a customer finds it. FMCSA takes a data snapshot on the third or last Friday of each month and posts the results about 10 days later; the October 2026 release used data current as of September 25.
- Challenge bad data in DataQs. An inspection on the wrong USDOT number, a violation that didn't happen, or a citation later dismissed in court can be reviewed through a Request for Data Review in FMCSA's DataQs system.
- Keep your MCS-150 current. SMS divides your Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator results by your average power units, adjusted for the mileage you report. Stale truck counts or mileage throw that math off, and SAFER can mark your snapshot “Carrier Registration Information Outdated.” Our MCS-150 update guide covers the filing.
- Work the worst BASIC first. In your downloaded data, look for the violations that occur most often and carry the highest severity weights. FMCSA points to those two numbers as the place to start.
If a BASIC is already near its threshold, our CSA program can monitor your data and help you fix the programs behind it.
How Simplex helps you read and fix your CSA record
Finding the score is the easy part. Keeping it where customers want it takes monitoring, clean data, and programs that work.
Help with a high CSA score
Our CSA program team monitors your CSA data and helps fix the safety programs behind it.
Monitoring every month
Our compliance programs include CSA monitoring and reporting with score forecasts, and the Essentials and Managed programs include DataQs support.
Coverage that reflects your record
As a broker, we quote and place commercial truck insurance, so you can see how your safety record is being priced.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CSA score?+
How do I find my CSA score?+
What is a bad CSA score?+
Do drivers have a CSA score?+
Do BASIC scores affect your CDL?+
How often are CSA scores updated?+
Where this information comes from
The steps and figures below come from FMCSA's own systems, its SMS methodology, the Supreme Court, and Amazon Relay's published requirements, checked on October 19, 2026.
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1
FMCSA — Safety Measurement System (SMS) website
What the public can see for property carriers under the FAST Act, the hidden BASICs, and the current data and release dates.
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2
FMCSA — Login to Access A&I and SMS
The Login.gov sign-in steps through the FMCSA Portal, and the end of the USDOT number and PIN login.
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3
FMCSA — SMS Help Center
Percentiles, the Carrier Overview and data downloads, what logged-in carriers see, the release schedule, and how driver violations count.
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4
FMCSA — SMS Methodology, version 3.21
Intervention thresholds, data sufficiency minimums, and the power unit and mileage normalization.
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5
FMCSA — SAFER Company Snapshot
The free public snapshot: safety rating, 24-month out-of-service rates with national averages, and crashes.
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6
FMCSA — Pre-Employment Screening Program for drivers
What a PSP record covers, that it has no score, and the $10 price of a single record.
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7
Supreme Court — Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC (2026)
The May 14, 2026 holding that federal law does not preempt negligent-hiring claims against brokers.
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8
Amazon Relay — Frequently Asked Questions
Relay's published BASIC cutoffs for carriers.
Written by
Gabriel Gonzalez
Chief Revenue Officer, Simplex Group
Chief Revenue Officer at Simplex Group, with more than 22 years at the company, including nearly 16 years as Chief Operating Officer. His background combines revenue strategy with deep operational experience, giving him a strong perspective on how compliance, risk, permits, cash flow, and operational readiness affect a carrier's ability to grow profitably.
Published · Updated
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Know your numbers before your customers do
Your CSA record changes every month whether you look or not. Reading each release tells you what a broker, a shipper, or an underwriter will see, while there is still time to fix it.
If you want help reading your SMS results or cleaning up your record, talk to our team.