CSA Violation Points List: Severity Weights, Caps, and DataQs

Every violation written up during a roadside inspection of a commercial motor vehicle carries a severity weight from 1 to 10 under FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System, and the complete CSA violation points list is published in the SMS Appendix A spreadsheet on the CSA website.¹ A 10 means the violation is most strongly associated with crash risk; a 1 means the opposite. Those raw weights are then adjusted for how recent the violation is, whether it triggered an out-of-service order, and how it fits inside one of seven safety categories. The number on the list is only the starting point.

How a Severity Weight Actually Counts

CSA sorts violations into seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, or BASICs: Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance, Driver Fitness, and Crash Indicator.² The severity weight assigned to any specific violation lives inside one of those categories, and the weights are not comparable across BASICs. A 5 in Unsafe Driving is not equivalent to a 5 in Vehicle Maintenance, because each scale is calibrated to crash risk within that category only.¹

Time Multiplier

Once a violation is recorded, FMCSA multiplies its severity weight by a time factor. Violations from the past 6 months are multiplied by 3. Violations 6 to 12 months old are multiplied by 2. Anything from 12 to 24 months old is multiplied by 1. Past 24 months, the violation drops out of the calculation entirely.¹ A texting citation weighted at 10 and written two months ago effectively contributes 30 points to the Unsafe Driving score today.

Out-of-Service Bonus

If the violation results in the driver or vehicle being placed out of service, an additional severity weight of 2 is added on top of the base weight. This bonus applies in HOS Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Driver Fitness, and Hazardous Materials Compliance. Controlled Substances/Alcohol does not receive the bonus because nearly every violation there is already an out-of-service condition by default.¹

Per-Inspection Cap

The total severity weight from a single inspection is capped at 30 within each BASIC. Even if an inspector writes up a truck with a dozen defects, no more than 30 weighted points from that one stop can count against a carrier in any category.¹

Point Values by Category

Unsafe Driving

Unsafe Driving covers moving violations under 49 CFR Part 392, and this is where the highest-profile weights live. Confirmed severity weights include:¹

Texting while operating a CMV (392.80): 10
Using a hand-held mobile phone while operating a CMV (392.82): 10
Operating a CMV not in accordance with the laws (392.2): varies by type. Generic speeding carries a weight of 1, and speeding well above the limit falls into higher-weight tiers
Failure to use seatbelt (392.16): 7

Other Unsafe Driving entries such as improper lane changes, following too closely, and reckless driving each carry their own weights in the Appendix A spreadsheet. Anything involving a phone in the driver’s hand is an automatic 10.

Hours-of-Service Compliance

HOS violations fall under 49 CFR Part 395. Driving beyond the 11-hour driving limit or the 14-hour on-duty window, and falsifying a logbook to hide the overage, rank among the higher-weighted entries because fatigue is a proven crash contributor. Exact per-violation weights are published in Appendix A.

The ELD mandate added 22 separate ELD-related violations to this BASIC. Small paperwork misses like failing to add an annotation or not carrying an ELD instruction sheet carry a severity weight of 1. Failing to hand over supporting documents to an inspector carries a 7. A driver who cannot produce a working ELD, uses an unauthorized device, or falsifies electronic logs faces an immediate 10-hour out-of-service order, and the violation picks up both its base weight and the OOS bonus of 2.¹

Vehicle Maintenance

Vehicle Maintenance violations sit under 49 CFR Parts 393 and 396. There are hundreds of possible defects, and a poorly kept truck can rack them up quickly. Weights the file confirms directly:¹

Tire violations: 8
Lighting violations: 6
Missing or damaged reflective sheeting: 3
Brake violations: moderate weights that vary by specific defect

Each of these can also pick up the 2-point OOS bonus if the defect is severe enough to hold the vehicle. Paperwork problems like missing annual inspection documentation contribute at lower weights. Even with the 30-point-per-inspection cap, a single truck with brake problems, worn tires, and broken lights can meaningfully move a carrier’s percentile in one stop.

Controlled Substances and Alcohol

Weights in this category vary widely by offense, not the flat 10 that gets repeated in casual summaries:¹

Possession of a narcotic drug or amphetamine while on duty (392.4A): 10
Operating under the influence of a narcotic drug or amphetamine (392.4A): 10
Operating under the influence of an intoxicating beverage (392.5A2): 5
Any detected presence of alcohol while on duty (392.5A2): 5
Possession of an intoxicating beverage while on duty (392.5(a)(3)): 3

No OOS bonus applies in this BASIC because nearly every violation here is already an out-of-service condition on its own.

Hazardous Materials Compliance

Hazmat violations fall under 49 CFR Parts 171 through 180 and Part 397. Containment failures and spill-related violations carry the higher weights in the Appendix A spreadsheet; placarding failures and shipping paper deficiencies fall into the moderate range. Any hazmat violation that triggers an out-of-service order picks up the additional 2-point weight.¹

Driver Fitness

Driver Fitness violations under 49 CFR Part 391 cover whether a driver is qualified to be behind the wheel: valid medical certificate, correct CDL class, required endorsements. Per-violation weights live in Appendix A and tend to cluster in the higher range for qualification failures. Out-of-service violations pick up the 2-point bonus, and a driver caught operating without a valid CDL or medical card is likely to be held on the spot.¹

Crash Indicator

The Crash Indicator BASIC works differently. It doesn’t count specific regulatory violations. It counts a carrier’s involvement in reportable crashes, and every reportable crash is included regardless of who was at fault.³ A passenger vehicle rear-ending a parked trailer still shows up on the carrier’s profile. Carriers can request a crash preventability determination for certain crash types, and a “not preventable” finding can affect how the crash is weighted. The same time multiplier applies: recent crashes count for triple.

What Enough Points Actually Trigger

FMCSA compares each carrier’s BASIC scores against other carriers of similar size and type, producing a percentile from 0 to 100. Crossing the intervention threshold in any BASIC starts an escalating enforcement process. The thresholds vary by BASIC and carrier type:¹

Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, HOS Compliance: 50th percentile for passenger carriers, 60th for hazmat carriers, 65th for general freight
Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Driver Fitness: 65th for passenger carriers, 75th for hazmat, 80th for general freight
Hazardous Materials Compliance: 80th across all carrier types

Once a carrier crosses a threshold, FMCSA starts with warning letters, then may order targeted roadside inspections aimed at the specific weaknesses in the profile. If scores don’t improve, investigations follow, either offsite document reviews or onsite inspections at the carrier’s terminal.⁴ The most serious tools are Notices of Violation, Notices of Claim with civil penalties, and Operations Out-of-Service Orders that shut a carrier down.

Points Follow the Driver, Too

Violations recorded on the carrier’s record also attach to the individual driver. Through the Pre-Employment Screening Program, prospective employers can pull a driver’s last 5 years of crash data and 3 years of roadside inspection history from the FMCSA database, showing which carrier the driver was working for at the time, the location and date, and whether the driver or vehicle was placed out of service.⁵ Employers need the driver’s written authorization to pull the report, but refusing tends to end the interview. Drivers should check their own PSP record periodically so any errors get caught before an employer sees them.

Disputing a Violation Through DataQs

If an inspection violation is wrong, the path to fix it is FMCSA’s DataQs system, which lets carriers and drivers request review of data they believe is incomplete or incorrect.⁶ What happens to the underlying citation determines what happens to the CSA record:

Dismissed without fine or punitive court costs: the violation is removed
Not guilty finding: the violation is removed
Convicted of a lesser charge: the violation stays but its severity weight drops to 1
Dismissed with fine or punitive court costs: the violation remains unchanged

That last outcome catches people. Paying a fine as part of a “dismissal” deal leaves the CSA record intact. A successful challenge needs documentation: the Driver Vehicle Examination Report, dashcam footage, ELD data, maintenance records. A submission that reads as a factual argument tied to evidence has a chance; a general complaint of unfair treatment does not.¹

Where to Find the Complete List

The definitive violation-by-violation point list is FMCSA’s SMS Appendix A spreadsheet, downloadable from the CSA website. It covers all seven BASICs and includes two tables per category: one with each violation’s base severity weight, and one with the additional OOS weight where it applies. The companion SMS Methodology document lays out the arithmetic behind the time multipliers and the percentile calculation.¹ Both are updated periodically, so pull the current version directly from FMCSA rather than relying on third-party summaries that may quote outdated weights.

1
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Safety Measurement System (SMS) Methodology
2
Compliance, Safety, Accountability. CSA – Measure
3
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Safety Measurement System – Crash Indicator BASIC
4
Compliance, Safety, Accountability. CSA Interventions
5
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Pre-Employment Screening Program – Frequently Asked Questions
6
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. FMCSA Upgrades DataQs Program to Improve Efficiency and Transparency