To find your CSA score on the FMCSA website, open the Safety Measurement System at ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS, type your USDOT number into the search box, and select your carrier from the results. That gives you the public view. To see everything in your file, including the Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance categories, sign in to the FMCSA Portal with your USDOT PIN first.
What You Need Before You Log In
Two identifiers get you to the data, and a third unlocks the private parts of it.
Your USDOT number is the key. Every motor carrier files a Motor Carrier Identification Report (Form MCS-150) with FMCSA, and the agency issues the USDOT number when it processes the form.1eCFR. 49 CFR 390.19T – Motor Carrier Identification Reports If you don’t have it in front of you, it appears on your MCS-150 confirmation, on the side of your commercial vehicles, and in the FMCSA’s SAFER search.
If you operate as a for-hire carrier of federally regulated commodities or passengers in interstate commerce, you also have an MC number tied to your operating authority. Private carriers hauling their own cargo and carriers that only move exempt commodities generally do not.2Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. What Is Operating Authority (MC Number) and Who Needs It? You can search SMS by either number.
For anything beyond the public dashboard, you need a USDOT PIN. This is an eight-character code of letters and numbers that FMCSA issues to authorized company officials. Lost it? Request a new one through the SAFER system with your USDOT number and Employer Identification Number. You can have it sent immediately by email or text to the contact information already on file, or by U.S. mail, which takes about 7 to 10 business days.3Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Request a USDOT Personal Identification Number (PIN)
Looking Up Your Score in the Safety Measurement System
Go to ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS. Enter your USDOT number in the search field. Pick your company from the results. The dashboard that loads is your safety profile, built from roadside inspections, crash reports, and investigation results collected over the previous 24 months.4Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. What Is CSA? Factsheet
What most people call a “CSA score” is not a single number. It’s a set of percentile rankings across seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, known as the BASICs:5Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Measure – CSA
- Unsafe Driving — speeding, reckless driving, improper lane changes, and similar moving violations.
- Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service) — driving beyond allowed hours or failing to keep required logs.
- Driver Fitness — licensing, medical certification, and other driver qualification issues.
- Controlled Substances/Alcohol — drug or alcohol use and testing failures.
- Vehicle Maintenance — brakes, lights, tires, and other component defects found during inspections.
- Cargo-Related — load securement, shifting cargo, and improper loading.
- Crash Indicator — patterns of crash involvement based on state-reported crash data.
Each BASIC shows a percentile that compares your performance against carriers of similar size and type. Higher means worse. A carrier in the 80th percentile has more problems in that category than 80 percent of its peers.
What Anyone Can See vs. What Only You Can See
The public view shows percentiles for Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, and Cargo-Related. Two categories stay hidden from the public: the Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance. Those only appear when the carrier logs in through the FMCSA Portal.6Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Safety Measurement System – Help Center
Signing in gives you more than the two extra BASICs. You also see your Inspection Selection System (ISS) value, which roadside officers use to decide whether to pull you in, along with driver names and other carrier-specific detail the public search never displays.
How the Numbers Get Built
Every violation logged during a roadside inspection counts against your BASIC scores, whether the officer issued a citation or only a warning.7Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. CSA GRS Visor Each violation stays in the file for two years from the date it was recorded. Within that window, the system weights recent events more heavily: violations from the last six months count three times as much as violations from 12 to 24 months ago, and violations from 6 to 12 months ago count double.8Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Safety Measurement System (SMS) Methodology A rough patch in the past few months moves your percentile faster than the same violations would have a year ago.
When the Data Refreshes
Percentiles in the SMS update once a month.5Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Measure – CSA If a clean inspection just posted, or if a disputed violation was removed, you’ll see the effect after the next monthly refresh, not the same day. The Company Snapshot on SAFER, which shows basic registration and census information rather than BASIC scores, updates daily.
All inspection and crash data feeding the SMS covers a rolling 24-month window. Once an event passes the two-year mark, it drops out of your BASIC calculations entirely.8Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Safety Measurement System (SMS) Methodology
If the Data on Your Dashboard Is Wrong
Errors get challenged through the DataQs system at dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov. Log in with your USDOT PIN and submit a Request for Data Review that identifies the specific inspection report number, event state, date, and violation codes you’re challenging. Attach documentation — for a violation tied to a citation that was later dismissed, that means certified court records or a direct link to the adjudication on an official court website. FMCSA aims to give an initial response within 10 business days, though complicated cases take longer.9Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. DataQs User Guide and Best Practices Manual
You have three years from the inspection date and five years from a crash date to file. Because violations only affect your BASICs for 24 months, waiting can mean the damage is already done by the time a correction posts.
DataQs handles inspection, crash, and registration data. It does not handle disputes about an assigned safety rating; those go through separate administrative review under 49 CFR 385.15 or 385.17.
If You’re the Driver, Not the Carrier
The SMS is a carrier tool. As an individual commercial driver, you check your own record through the Pre-Employment Screening Program at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov. A PSP report pulls your last five years of crash data and three years of roadside inspection data from FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System.10Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Pre-Employment Screening Program
Complete the online form with your commercial driver’s license number, issuing state, Social Security number, and current address, and sign the electronic disclosure. The report costs $10, paid by card, and downloads immediately after payment and identity verification clear.
If you’re not in a hurry, you can get the same crash and inspection data for free by submitting a Privacy Act request directly to FMCSA. It takes longer than the instant PSP download, but there’s no fee.11Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Frequently Asked Questions – Pre-Employment Screening Program