- A safety rating (Satisfactory, Conditional or Unsatisfactory) comes from an FMCSA compliance review. Most carriers have never had one and are "unrated".
- CSA/SMS scores rank carriers against similar carriers in seven safety categories (BASICs), using inspections, violations and crashes from the past 24 months.
- Out-of-service rates are the easiest public measure to compare against national averages.
Safety ratings
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| Satisfactory | The carrier has adequate safety management controls in place. |
| Conditional | The carrier's safety management controls fall short in ways that could lead to violations. It can still operate. |
| Unsatisfactory | The carrier lacks adequate controls. A final Unsatisfactory rating means it must stop interstate operations unless it improves. |
| Unrated | FMCSA hasn't rated the carrier. This is common and isn't a negative finding. |
The rating process is set out in 49 CFR Part 385. A rating can be years old, so check its date.
The seven BASICs
| BASIC | Based on |
|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | Speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, phone use and similar violations |
| Crash Indicator | State-reported crashes, weighted by severity |
| Hours-of-Service Compliance | Logbook and hours-of-service violations |
| Vehicle Maintenance | Brakes, lights, tires and other mechanical violations |
| Controlled Substances/Alcohol | Drug and alcohol violations |
| Hazardous Materials Compliance | Hazmat packaging, placarding and paperwork |
| Driver Fitness | Invalid licenses, medical certification and qualification problems |
Each BASIC produces a percentile from 0 to 100 compared with similar carriers, where higher is worse. A percentile above FMCSA's intervention threshold can trigger warning letters or investigations. Some BASIC results, including the Crash Indicator, aren't shown to the public. FMCSA has also proposed changes to how SMS is calculated, so the presentation may change.
Reading out-of-service rates
An out-of-service rate is the share of inspections in which a driver or vehicle was ordered off the road. Compare a carrier's vehicle and driver OOS rates with the national averages FMCSA publishes on each carrier's SAFER snapshot. Rates well above the average, based on a meaningful number of inspections, are a warning sign. A rate based on only one or two inspections says little.
Limits of the data
- Small carriers may have too few inspections for any measurement.
- Crash records don't show fault, though FMCSA marks crashes found not preventable.
- Data can lag by weeks or months, and carriers can challenge errors through FMCSA's DataQs system.
To look up any carrier, use the trucking company safety lookup. To understand what counts as a crash, see DOT-recordable accidents.