CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) Program Overview

What Is the CSA Program?

Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) is FMCSA's data-driven enforcement and compliance program. Launched in 2010, CSA replaced the earlier SafeStat system with a more comprehensive approach to identifying high-risk carriers and drivers, and intervening before crashes occur.

CSA integrates three core components: the Safety Measurement System (SMS), safety interventions, and the safety fitness determination.

How CSA Works

1. Data Collection

CSA begins with data. Every roadside inspection, violation, crash report, and investigation result is fed into FMCSA's databases. This data comes from:

• State and federal roadside inspections
• State-reported crash records
• Compliance reviews and investigations
• Driver fitness and medical certificate records

2. Safety Measurement System (SMS)

The SMS processes this data to produce percentile scores in seven BASICs. Carriers that exceed intervention thresholds (65th percentile for most carriers, 50th for passenger and hazmat carriers) are flagged for potential enforcement action.

3. Interventions

When a carrier is identified as high-risk through SMS, FMCSA applies a progressive intervention model:

1. Warning Letter: An automated letter notifying the carrier that its safety performance has triggered concern. This is the most common initial intervention.
2. Investigation: An FMCSA investigator may conduct an on-site or off-site review of the carrier's operations, records, and safety management practices.
3. Cooperative Safety Plan: The carrier works with FMCSA to develop and implement a plan to improve specific safety areas.
4. Notice of Violation (NOV): A formal notice of specific regulatory violations with a required corrective action.
5. Notice of Claim / Consent Order: Civil penalties and mandatory compliance requirements, potentially including operational restrictions.
6. Operations Out-of-Service Order: The most severe intervention, shutting down the carrier's operations entirely.

Severity Weights

Not all violations are equal in CSA. Each violation is assigned a severity weight from 1 (least severe) to 10 (most severe). For example:

• Driving while ill or fatigued: severity weight 10
• Operating an OOS-ordered vehicle: severity weight 10
• Inoperative turn signal: severity weight 2
• Speeding 6–10 mph over: severity weight 4

Additionally, violations found during inspections that result in an out-of-service order receive a time weight multiplier, further increasing their impact on SMS scores.

Impact on Carriers

CSA scores affect carriers in multiple ways beyond FMCSA enforcement:

• Insurance premiums: Many insurers review SMS scores when setting rates
• Shipper selection: Large shippers increasingly require carriers to maintain clean CSA profiles
• Broker screening: Freight brokers may refuse to work with carriers above certain BASIC thresholds
• Frequency of inspections: The Inspection Selection System (ISS) flags carriers with high CSA scores for more frequent roadside inspections

How to Manage Your CSA Profile

• Monitor your SMS scores monthly after each update
• Address violations through DataQs challenges when data is inaccurate
• Focus corrective action on the BASICs with the highest percentiles
• Train drivers on the most heavily weighted violations in your problem areas
• Implement a strong preventive maintenance program to address Vehicle Maintenance violations
• Use clean inspection data strategically—inspections with no violations help lower your scores