How safety culture and technology improve CSA scores

CSA scores are an excellent way for carriers to track their fleet’s safety performance and achieve regulatory compliance. Maintaining a good CSA score requires a robust safety culture, and there are a range of technologies that can support organizations in this goal.

What is a CSA Score?

Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) is the safety compliance and enforcement program of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The agency assesses commercial carriers using its Safety Measurement System (SMS), which collects information through inspections, investigations, crash reports and safety violation history. The SMS uses this data to grade carriers in seven safety-related categories to produce a CSA score expressed as a percentile from 0 to 100—the higher the percentile, the worse the safety performance.

Carriers don’t have complete control over their CSA score, but they can make a positive impact on it by working to develop a strong safety culture and implementing fleet management technology for commercial driver behavior and vehicle management.

What is a Culture of Safety?

The FMCSA defines “safety culture” as an organization’s norms, attitudes, values and beliefs regarding safety. Establishing safety policies and procedures and enforcing them company-wide can go a long way towards creating a culture of safety, where safety behaviors are ingrained in day-to-day operations. When a company has a culture of safety, it's reflected in an on-road record of few safety incidents such as crashes and a lower CSA score.

How Can I Check My CSA Score?

Visit the FMCSA website and find the box on the home page labeled “Check Motor Carrier Safety and Performance Data.” Enter your carrier name, U.S. DOT number or motor carrier number. For more information, log into the FMCSA portal.

Factors Impacting Your CSA Score

Many safety factors impact CSA scores, but essentially the FMCSA is looking for indicators that are key in predicting crash rates. The safety areas that impact CSA scores are known as the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs). They include:

• Unsafe driving
• Crash indicators, such as frequency and severity of crashes
• Hours-of-service compliance
• Vehicle maintenance
• Controlled substances/alcohol
• Hazardous materials compliance
• Driver fitness

The seven BASICs are weighted on a 10-point scale based on how recently a safety event (inspection, crash, violation) occurred and the severity of the event. Severity reflects the event’s association with a crash occurrence and its consequences. 

The most severe violations are assigned the highest points. The highest point violations (10 points) include speeding 15 MPH or more over the limit, texting while driving and the use of drugs or alcohol while operating a vehicle. Lower point violations include items such as not wearing corrective lenses while driving (2 points), not having seat belts installed (2 points) and improper turns (5 points). You can find more examples here.

Download our fleet vehicle compliance management guide to learn more about fleet compliance management as well as common mandates and requirements.

How CSA scores may impact carriers

Because these factors are used to identify high-risk motor carriers, the scores can influence a carrier’s bottom line as well. A carrier with a high CSA score may experience CSA interventions that include warning letters, targeted roadside inspections, safety investigations, civil penalties and out-of-service orders.

A lower score goes a long way toward reducing the potential for costly delays and fines, and customers may see carriers with low CSA scores as more attractive business partners.

Download our fleet vehicle compliance management guide to learn more about fleet compliance management as well as common mandates and requirements.

How to address a fleet’s CSA score

Once a carrier or owner-operator is aware of their score, it’s important to take necessary steps in addressing any areas of concern so they don’t hit or surpass an intervention threshold.

Each of the seven BASIC areas carries an intervention threshold, which is the percentile at which a carrier is prioritized for interventions. Depending on the BASIC area and the carrier type (passenger, hazardous materials, general), the thresholds range from 50% to 80%. You can find them here.

Carriers should immediately address any outstanding safety and compliance violations, then work to develop stringent safety and vehicle maintenance policies and procedures and implement them from the top down. Along with the adoption of a safety culture, carriers should strive to hire drivers with safe driving records using Pre-employment Screening Program (PSP) reports.

Impacting Safety Culture Using Technology

Cultivating a positive safety culture means investing in tools and developing programs that can monitor, track and measure the key safety areas of the CSA program. Most of these areas touch on driver behavior and fitness, regulatory compliance and vehicle maintenance. 

Addressing all these areas can be a lot to manage, but fleet management software can help support a robust culture of safety in several key ways:

1. Monitor driver behavior: Driver tracking and driver management software helps drivers by making dispatch smarter, offering directions to help them get to and from jobs faster and providing proof of their activities. It also gives carriers insight into driver behaviors, alerting back-office staff when harsh driving takes place, so they know which drivers need more safety support.
2. Coach drivers: Carriers can use data from GPS tracking software to coach driver safety and reward drivers who are performing safely. Additionally, intelligent AI dashcam solutions can automatically alert drivers in real-time when they are distracted, too close or falling asleep. These videos can also provide carriers with personalized, visual information about drivers for more effective coaching.
3. Track compliance: Fleet management solutions can support compliance for a host of Department of Transportation mandates, including electronic logging device (ELD), hours-of-service and DriverVehicle Inspection Reports. DVIRs are critical for  simplifying maintenance and compliance, and technology can help you streamline the cumbersome process with integrated, customizable, native eDVIR tools.
4. Manage vehicle maintenance: Fleet management software can monitor vehicle diagnostics and vehicle maintenance needs by automating schedules and alerting you when maintenance is needed. 
5. Provide proof of what happened in a crash: Sometimes, crashes happen that your drivers couldn’t prevent. The FMCSA’s Crash Preventability Determination Program allows carriers and drivers to submit evidence that an eligible crash was not preventable. With technologies like GPS tracking and dashcams, you can submit compelling data, photos and videos as evidence. If the crash is found “not preventable,” it will not be used when calculating your CSA score.

With so many different aspects of safety to address, look for comprehensive fleet management software that can connect them all and perform reliably over time, so nothing slips through the cracks. As these government programs evolve, look for a software provider that is innovative enough to evolve with them and find new ways to support a stronger safety culture. 

The goal of any CSA program is to make the roads safer for carriers, their drivers and the public. By establishing a positive safety culture and implementing the right fleet management technology, you can make an impact on fleet safety and your CSA score.

Sources

¹ https://www.freightwaves.com/news/2018/7/7/coretexreleases-post-mandate-eld-satisfaction-survey-results