Bad CSA scores cause damage long after the violation is filed. Insurance premiums go up. Good drivers walk away. DOT shows up more often for inspections. And fewer customers take the risk of working with you.
The FMCSA’s CSA program is designed to identify risk on the road—but for fleet managers, it’s also a critical measure of operational health. CSA scores are built from real inspection and violation data, and they follow both drivers and carriers over time. Understanding how they’re calculated—and how to keep them in good standing—can mean the difference between growing your fleet or getting sidelined. In this article, we’ll break down CSA score fundamentals, how they impact your bottom line, and how to take control before penalties stack up.
What is a CSA Score?
CSA scores are how the FMCSA evaluates carrier and driver safety performance. Short for Compliance, Safety, Accountability, the CSA program gathers data from roadside inspections, crash reports, and violations to flag risk across fleets. These scores determine how likely a carrier is to face audits, higher insurance rates, or scrutiny from shippers and brokers. While the system is designed to identify high-risk behavior, it also influences how fleets are perceived in the industry.
Scores are tracked across several safety categories, and each violation is weighted based on severity and recency. The more violations you have—or the more serious they are—the worse your CSA score is. Importantly, scores don’t just affect carriers: drivers have their own safety records, and repeated issues can follow them across jobs. Understanding how CSA scores are calculated is the first step toward staying off enforcement radars and protecting your bottom line.
How CSA Scores Are Calculated
CSA scores are based on violations recorded across seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, or BASICs. Each BASIC represents a key area of fleet safety:
- Unsafe Driving, like speeding and reckless driving
- Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance, including logbook violations and fatigue
- Driver Fitness, evaluating medical certification and licensing issues
- Controlled Substances and Alcohol
- Vehicle Maintenance, including lighting, brakes, tire violations, and more
- Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance
- Crash Indicator, based on crash history, not public-facing
Violations are scored using a point system that considers severity, how recent the violation was, and how often it occurs across inspections. More recent and frequent violations have a larger impact, while older events weigh less over time. Carriers are then ranked relative to others in similar operation types.
It’s important to note that the FMCSA is planning major updates to this scoring model in late 2025—including new “safety categories” and a simplified severity scale. But for now, managing BASICs is still the core strategy for maintaining strong CSA performance.
Why CSA Scores Matter to Fleets and Drivers
CSA scores are more than simple compliance metrics—they directly impact how your fleet operates, what it costs to run, and who wants to work with you. While most violations feel like one-off events, the score they contribute to can stick around for years. That makes CSA performance a long-term risk (or opportunity) for both carriers and drivers.
Here’s what’s at stake:
- Insurance premiums – Carriers with poor CSA scores are seen as higher risk and often pay significantly more for coverage.
- DOT audits and enforcement – Higher scores increase the likelihood of full compliance reviews, on-site inspections, and targeted roadside stops.
- Driver hiring and retention – Experienced, safety-conscious drivers prefer to work for carriers with strong safety reputations. A bad score can cost you talent.
- Shipper and broker relationships – Poor CSA performance can raise red flags for potential partners, making it harder to win or keep business.
- Profitability and risk exposure – The more violations you have, the more downtime, liability, and operational disruptions you face—all of which hurt revenue.
CSA scores may seem like just numbers, but they have real consequences for your reputation, growth, and profitability.
Steps to Maintain or Improve CSA Scores
Keeping your CSA scores in good standing isn’t about reacting after a violation—it’s all about building robust workflows and fleet safety policies that reduce risk at every level of your operations. Here’s where to focus:
Driver Education
Ongoing training is essential to prevent avoidable violations. Safety refreshers, defensive driving courses, and HOS compliance training help drivers stay sharp and reduce the risk of repeat issues. Training shouldn’t be a one-time event at onboarding, either. It should be part of a continuous improvement cycle. High-scoring fleets treat coaching as a standard part of operations instead of a reaction to problems.
Proactive Maintenance
Most vehicle-related violations are preventable with a strong maintenance program. Create and enforce a regular inspection schedule across your fleet, from tire checks to brake systems, and make sure drivers know how to spot issues during daily vehicle inspections. Pairing preventive maintenance with digital tracking systems and predictive maintenance tools reduces the chance of missed repairs, untimely breakdowns, and citations that can hurt your CSA score.
Behavior Monitoring
Unsafe driving habits like speeding, harsh braking, aggressive lane changes, and rapid acceleration can drag down your CSA performance over time. Telematics systems and dash cams help you detect risky behavior early, with real-time alerts and historical data. When you know which drivers need coaching and why, you can target your efforts more effectively and reduce the likelihood of safety violations.
Accurate Records
Documentation plays a critical role in compliance management. Accurate driver qualification files, vehicle maintenance records, inspection reports, and corrective action logs all protect your operation during audits and reviews. Missing or outdated records can count against you, even if your actual driving behavior is safe. Staying audit-ready means building habits around consistent, error-free recordkeeping.
Immediate Violation Response
When a violation does occur, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. Investigate the incident, understand the root cause, and take corrective action quickly—whether it’s additional training, vehicle repairs, or policy updates. Properly documenting your response shows regulators that you take safety seriously and are committed to continuous improvement, which can help during audits and investigations.
Technology Use
The most efficient fleets use digital tools to centralize operational data, monitor compliance trends, and proactively manage risks. Real-time alerts about potential violations, automated reporting for inspections and maintenance, and predictive analytics for driver behavior all provide the visibility you need to act fast. Fleet management technology transforms compliance from a reactive task into a proactive advantage.
Building Safer, More Profitable Fleets with Solera Fleet Solutions
Strong CSA scores are the result of consistent, strategic safety practices backed by the right technology. Solera Fleet Solutions gives you the tools to identify risks early and correct issues faster, so you can keep your fleet on track.
Here’s how Solera helps you take control:
- Dash cams and video-based safety – In-cab cameras provide instant insights into speeding, harsh braking, distracted driving, and HOS violations, enabling targeted coaching and safer habits.
- Vehicle telematics – Real-time diagnostics, fault code alerts, and predictive maintenance insights help prevent violations before they happen.
- Compliance tools for HOS and inspections – Automate log management, digitize DVIRs, and driver alerts to reduce the chance of errors or missed requirements.
- Fleet analytics and risk monitoring – Access trends across your fleet, drill into violation patterns, and benchmark performance to continuously improve your CSA standing.
Solera brings visibility, automation, and insight together, so you’re not chasing compliance after the fact. If you’re ready to reduce violations, lower insurance costs, and protect your fleet’s reputation, it’s time to put smarter tools to work. Talk to Solera today and start turning compliance into a competitive advantage.
