In trucking, CSA stands for Compliance, Safety, Accountability. It’s a government program that tracks if carriers meet the regulations for commercial motor vehicles. Since 2010, CSA has used seven categories to judge how safely a carrier operates over the road. They’re called Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) and they help identify safety risks. Lower scores indicate higher safety – 0 out of 100 is the best score possible for each category.
Keep reading to learn the BASIC categories, how they’re calculated, and how to maintain good scores to haul for Amazon Relay.
What is an FMCSA BASIC category?
First, let’s break down the acronyms. BASIC was established by FMCSA’s CSA’s SMS.
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA): U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) agency that enforces the safety compliance of commercial motor vehicles.
- Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA): Department within FMCSA, focused on regulation programs and outreach to reduce crashes.
- Safety Measurement System (SMS): Method used by CSA to assess a carrier’s safety performance. It pulls from state reports, roadside inspections, and FMCSA investigation results.
- Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC): Safety categories related to accidents caused by commercial motor vehicles.
What are the seven BASIC categories?
- Hours of service: Maximum time allowed for drivers to be on duty, and influencing factors. Example violations would be operating a CMV while sick or tired, requiring or permitting driving for more than 11 consecutive hours, or failing to maintain supporting documents, such as accurate hour logs.
- Unsafe driving: Dangerous or reckless operation of CMVs. Speeding, improper lane changes, and texting while operating a CMV are all violations. Seat belt violations made up 1 in 20 violations in 2023.
- Vehicle maintenance: Failure to properly maintain a CMV and prevent shifting, spilled, or overloaded cargo. The number one roadside inspection callout for this metric involves lamps (lights).
- Controlled substance: Operation of CMVs by drivers impaired by alcohol, illegal drugs, and misuse of prescription or over-the-counter medication. This also includes possession and failing to implement required substance testing programs.
- Driver fitness: Operation of CMVs by drivers who lack of training, experience, or medical qualifications. Carriers need to make sure drivers’ medical cards, licenses, and training records are valid and accessible for roadside inspections. Missing or outdated Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) accounted for 5% of the violations in 2023.
- Crash indicator: Crashes represent a company’s loss history – lost equipment and lost income. The CSA updated this metric to be fair to those that didn’t cause the crash. It focuses on fatality, serious injury, and vehicle damage warranting a tow. Since this is private data, Relay doesn’t monitor this metric.
- Hazardous materials: Improper HAZMAT handling and hauling, whether it’s the packaging or the placement. Leaking containers would add penalty points, for instance. This is another private metric that Relay doesn’t factor into a carrier’s ability to haul Amazon loads.
Why do CSA scores matter?
- Public safety: The scores are based on a carrier’s number of trucks and violations, as well as the severity and recency of those violations. High scores in any BASIC category are linked to a 79% increased likelihood of crashes, posing a serious risk to drivers and the community at large.
- Operations: Bad scores result in warning letters and roadside inspections from the DOT before they launch a carrier investigation of safety performance. That could lead to onsite employee interviews and vehicle inspections, out-of-service orders (adding even more points), and an Unsatisfactory safety rating. In short, trucks taken off the road.
- Reputation: Since most performance data is public, bad scores affect a carrier’s ability to attract business. Amazon wants to work with accountable carriers that have safety as a core value, including CSA compliance.
How is a CSA score calculated?
The seven BASIC metrics are monitored and updated monthly by SMS, factoring in the last 24 months of data. Each violation can add between 1-10 points, and newer violations weigh more (3x points for 1-6 months).
A carrier’s fleet size and annual mileage (or relevant inspections) places them in a group with similarly-sized carriers for a comparable score. They’re assigned a score from 0-100 in each category. CSA scores only affect carriers, not drivers, but include violations for vehicles operating under the carrier’s DOT authority.
What is a good CSA score?
A good score is close to zero for each BASIC category, and it comes with lower insurance premiums and fewer DOT audits and road inspections. A bad score is one that doesn’t meet the government’s intervention threshold. Here are the FMSCA’s safety thresholds for each category – when the score exceeds them, the carrier is deemed high-risk.
- Unsafe driving, Crash indicator, HOS compliance: 65% (50% for passenger vehicles and 60% hazardous materials vehicles)
- Vehicle maintenance, Controlled substance, Driver fitness: 80% (65% for passenger vehicles and 75% hazardous materials vehicles)
- Hazardous materials: 80%
You can check your private CSA score data by registering for a Personal Identification Number with your DOT or Motor Carrier number. Otherwise, anyone can look up a DOT number’s public performance data on FMCSA. We’ve got tips to fix and maintain each score later for the best representation of your company.
How is a CSA score used at Amazon?
Amazon Relay uses CSA scores to vet reliable companies to haul our freight. Only five of the seven CSA BASIC categories are public – those are the ones that Relay monitors. SMS converts each BASIC score into a percentile. Our standards are 5% lower than federal thresholds, which means our demands for safety are stricter.
- Unsafe Driving <60%
- HOS Compliance <60%
- Vehicle Maintenance <75%
- Controlled Substance <75%
- Driver Fitness <75%
Just like FMCSA, we use this prioritization system to flag high-risk carriers. Bad scores increase the number of interventions we take regarding inspections and audits. Each month, Relay reaches out to carriers when their CSA score ranking nears a threshold, and we coach them to remain in our network. Here are a few of our recommendations.
How to practice road safety for a good CSA score
- Protect working hours: Make sure drivers are able to remain alert. Check ELDs (Electronic Logging Devices), institute mandatory ELD failure reporting, and provide regular paper back-up training. Relay carriers can filter available loads by transit time and distance to buffer hours of service.
- Drive safely: All unsafe driving potentially increases haul time, security risk, and crash opportunities. To prevent unsafe driving, the driver-facing side of the Relay app comes with truck routing software and weather alerts. Because speeding is one of the most common and harshly–penalized hits to the Unsafe Driving score, carriers should also monitor drivers’ speed and coach them accordingly.
- Maintain equipment: Making sure your teams have appropriate, serviceable equipment is a duty owed to drivers, the community, and customers. Address mechanical defects and make required repairs. Relay carriers get exclusive discounts on vehicle parts and more.
- Establish preventative maintenance: Vehicle failures, towing, and missed delivery timelines negatively impact business. Create a system for reporting equipment issues. You’ll want to add pre-trip inspection audits to help identify vehicle and asset condition. Don’t forget a check for the confirmation of on-time repairs.
- Document everything: Confirm proper team training, evaluation, and capability for assigned tasks. If your company doesn’t keep records, it can’t track credential expiration, required truck maintenance, etc.
- Update MCS-150 every six months: Carriers have to update every two years, but SMS looks at current, six-, and eighteen-month data. Carriers can update their MCS-150 any time, but we recommend a six-month cadence to ensure you’re presenting the most accurate version of your company.
- Incentivize clean inspections to your drivers: More clean inspections promotes safe behavior and can improve your company’s BASIC scores in HOS, vehicle maintenance, controlled substances, and driver fitness.
Healthy score? Haul for Relay
Check out Relay’s carrier requirements to make sure we’re the right fit for your business. Then, you can start your sign-up on desktop or the Relay Mobile App on iOS or Android.
Disclaimer: Amazon does not tender loads through any third-party load boards. Any Amazon loads posted on third-party load boards will only be tendered directly to approved and onboarded carriers via the Relay web portal or Relay mobile app. If you are interested in hauling loads for Amazon, sign up and book directly on relay.amazon.com.
