How to Look Up Your CSA Score: Free FMCSA Safety Score Check (2026)

Your CSA scores are public. Shippers check them before booking loads. Insurance companies review them when setting premiums. And FMCSA uses them to decide which carriers get pulled in for inspections and compliance reviews. If you're not checking your scores regularly, someone else is checking them for you—and making decisions based on what they find.

The good news: looking up your CSA score takes less than 60 seconds and costs nothing. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, what the numbers mean, and when you should be concerned.

Looking for a deep dive into how CSA scores are calculated? Read our comprehensive CSA scores guide for the full breakdown of severity weights, time weights, peer groups, and improvement strategies.

How to Check Your CSA Score (Step-by-Step)

FMCSA publishes CSA scores through its Safety Measurement System (SMS) website. Here's how to look up your scores right now:

Step 1: Go to the FMCSA SMS Website

Open your browser and navigate to ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS. This is FMCSA's official Safety Measurement System portal. No account or login is required to view public CSA data.

Step 2: Enter Your USDOT Number

In the search bar, enter your USDOT number, MC number, or company name. Your USDOT number gives the most accurate results. Click Search.

Don't know your USDOT number? Find it on your MCS-150 form, your operating authority documents, or by searching your company name on the SAFER website.

Step 3: View Your Safety Measurement Results

The results page shows your carrier's SMS overview. You'll see:

• Company snapshot: Your USDOT number, legal name, operating status, and fleet size
• BASIC category bars: Color-coded horizontal bars showing your percentile in each of the 7 BASICs
• Alert icons: Exclamation marks next to any BASIC where you exceed the intervention threshold
• Last update date: When FMCSA last refreshed the data (typically the first Friday of each month)

Step 4: Click Into Each BASIC Category

Click on any BASIC category bar to see the details behind your score:

• Inspection list: Every inspection that contributes to your score in that BASIC
• Violations: Specific violations found, with severity weights
• Dates: When each inspection occurred (remember, older violations carry less weight)
• Trend: Whether your score is improving or worsening compared to previous months

This detail view is where you identify exactly which violations are driving your score up. Focus on the most recent, highest-severity violations first—those have the biggest impact on your current percentile.

Understanding Your CSA Score at a Glance

CSA scores are percentile rankings from 0 to 100. Higher is worse. A score of 75 in Unsafe Driving means your carrier performs worse than 75% of your peer group in that category. Here's a quick reference for all seven BASICs:

Note: Hazmat and passenger carriers face lower thresholds (50-65%) in most BASICs due to the higher risk associated with their operations.

CSA Score Thresholds: When to Worry

Not every CSA score requires immediate action. Here's how to interpret what you see:

Below 50% — You're in good shape. Your carrier is performing better than half your peer group. Keep doing what you're doing. Continue monitoring monthly for changes.

50-64% — Watch closely. You're approaching intervention thresholds in some BASICs. Identify the specific violations pushing your score up and address them. One or two bad inspections could push you over the line.

65-79% — Above threshold in some BASICs. If your Unsafe Driving, HOS Compliance, or Crash Indicator score is in this range, you've exceeded the intervention threshold. Expect a warning letter from FMCSA and increased roadside inspection targeting. Take corrective action immediately.

80%+ — Serious concern. You're above the intervention threshold in all BASICs at this level. FMCSA may schedule an investigation or compliance review. Insurance companies will flag this. Shippers may drop you from load boards.

Can Drivers Look Up Their Own CSA Score?

This is one of the most common questions in the industry, and the answer has an important nuance: CSA scores are assigned to motor carriers, not individual drivers.

The public SMS website only shows carrier-level data. When you search by USDOT number, you see the company's aggregate CSA scores based on all inspections and violations across all of the carrier's drivers and vehicles.

What Drivers Can Access

While drivers don't have individual CSA scores, they do have a personal inspection and crash history that carriers and enforcement can view:

• PSP Reports: Drivers can purchase their own Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) report at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov for $10. The report shows the driver's personal crash history (5 years) and roadside inspection history (3 years), including every violation attributed to that driver.
• CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse: Drivers can check their own Clearinghouse record for free at clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov to verify no drug or alcohol violations are on their record.

Why It Matters for Drivers

Even though CSA scores belong to the carrier, a driver's violation history follows them. Carriers hiring new drivers routinely purchase PSP reports to evaluate a driver's safety record. A driver with multiple violations may have difficulty getting hired, regardless of which carrier they were driving for when the violations occurred.

How to Improve a Bad CSA Score

If your CSA lookup reveals scores above intervention thresholds, here are the most impactful steps you can take. For a complete improvement strategy, see our in-depth CSA improvement guide.

1. Stop the bleeding—prevent new violations. Recent violations (past 6 months) carry three times the weight of violations 12-24 months old. Every clean inspection from today forward starts diluting your bad data. Focus your immediate effort on preventing the violation types that are hurting you most.

2. Challenge incorrect data through DataQs. Review every violation in your SMS detail view. If any violation was attributed to your carrier incorrectly, the severity weight is wrong, or the data is factually inaccurate, submit a DataQ challenge at dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov. For non-preventable crashes, submit a Request for Data Review (RDR).

3. Target high-severity violations. Not all violations are equal. A single severity-8 violation (DUI, egregious HOS violation) impacts your score more than five severity-2 violations (minor equipment defects). Review the severity weight breakdown to understand which violations to prioritize.

4. Increase clean inspection volume. CSA scores are calculated by dividing total violation severity by number of inspections. More clean inspections = lower score. Some carriers participate in voluntary inspection programs or encourage drivers to request inspections at weigh stations when they know the vehicle is clean.

5. Fix the root cause. If brake violations keep appearing, your maintenance program has a gap. If HOS violations are recurring, your dispatch practices or driver training need attention. Treating symptoms without addressing root causes means the same violations will keep coming back.

CSA Scores vs. Safety Rating: What's the Difference?

Carriers often confuse CSA scores with their FMCSA safety rating. They're two different things:

CSA Scores (SMS Percentiles) are automatically calculated from your inspection and crash data, updated monthly, and range from 0-100 in seven BASIC categories. Every carrier with sufficient inspection data has CSA scores. They change constantly as new data enters the system and old data ages out.

Safety Rating is assigned by FMCSA only after a formal compliance review (CR) or new entrant safety audit. The three possible ratings are Satisfactory, Conditional, and Unsatisfactory. A safety rating does not change unless FMCSA conducts another review. Many carriers have never been reviewed and therefore have a rating of “None”—this does not mean they're unsafe, only that they haven't been formally reviewed.

Key distinction: You can have excellent CSA scores but a “Conditional” safety rating from a past compliance review, or terrible CSA scores with a “Satisfactory” rating from years ago. The two systems measure different things on different timelines.

When shippers and brokers “check your safety score,” they're usually looking at both—your CSA percentiles for current performance and your safety rating for formal FMCSA assessment. Both are publicly visible on the SMS website.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check my CSA score for free?

Go to FMCSA's Safety Measurement System website at ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS, enter your USDOT number or company name, and click Search. Your CSA scores for each BASIC category are displayed for free. No account is required to view public SMS results. For detailed violation-level data, you can log into the FMCSA Portal with your carrier credentials.

Can a truck driver look up their own CSA score?

Drivers don't have individual CSA scores—CSA scores are assigned to motor carriers. However, drivers can purchase a PSP report at psp.fmcsa.dot.gov for $10 to see their personal crash and inspection history from the past 3-5 years. This is the same data that prospective employers check when hiring.

What is a good CSA score?

Lower scores are better. Scores below 50% are generally considered good, and below 30% is excellent. The critical numbers are the intervention thresholds: 65% for Unsafe Driving, HOS, and Crash Indicator; 80% for Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances, Vehicle Maintenance, and HM Compliance. Stay below these thresholds to avoid FMCSA enforcement attention.

How often are CSA scores updated?

FMCSA updates SMS results monthly, typically on the first Friday of each month. However, new violation data from roadside inspections can take 30-60 days to appear after the inspection occurs. Set a monthly reminder to check your scores after each SMS update.

What is the difference between a CSA score and a safety rating?

CSA scores are automatically calculated percentile rankings (0-100) updated monthly from your inspection and crash data. A safety rating (Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory) is assigned only after a formal FMCSA compliance review and doesn't change until another review is conducted. Many carriers have CSA scores but no safety rating because they've never undergone a compliance review.

Check Your CSA Scores Today

Looking up your CSA score takes less than a minute, and the information it reveals can save your fleet from FMCSA enforcement action, insurance premium increases, and lost freight contracts. Make it a monthly habit to check your SMS results after each update, review the violations driving your scores, and take action before small problems become intervention-level issues.

If your scores need improvement, don't panic—but don't ignore them either. Start by preventing new violations, challenge any inaccurate data, and give your older violations time to age out of the system. For a complete breakdown of how CSA scores are calculated and detailed strategies for each BASIC category, read our comprehensive CSA scores guide.