Safety
CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability)
CSA is the FMCSA's safety scoring program. It rolls roadside inspections and crashes into seven BASIC categories that shape audits and insurance.
CSA, short for Compliance, Safety, Accountability, is the FMCSA's behavior-based safety program. It scores carriers in seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs): Unsafe Driving, HOS Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazmat, and Crash Indicator.
Scores roll up from the past 24 months of roadside inspections and crashes, weighted by severity and time. Carriers above the intervention threshold in a BASIC get warning letters, focused investigations, and eventually compliance reviews.
Most shippers and brokers screen CSA scores before tendering loads, so even a small carrier with one bad maintenance score in a 12-truck fleet can lose contracts before any FMCSA action.
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Related terms
Compliance
DOT Number
A DOT number is the unique identifier the FMCSA assigns to every interstate commercial motor carrier in the United States.
Compliance
HOS (Hours of Service)
HOS rules limit how many hours a commercial driver can drive and be on duty before mandatory rest. They're enforced via the ELD.
Compliance
ELD (Electronic Logging Device)
An ELD is the FMCSA-mandated device that automatically records a commercial driver's hours of service from the truck's engine.