If you haven’t already adjusted your compliance strategies to align with FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) changes, now is the time. Last year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rolled out significant updates to its Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, fundamentally reshaping how carriers are assessed for safety and compliance risks. While many in the industry have adapted, some fleets may not fully grasp how these changes impact their scores—and their bottom line.

Key Changes in the CSA SMS Update

The FMCSA’s updates to the Safety Measurement System (SMS) were designed to create a clearer, fairer, and more effective system for identifying high-risk carriers. Here’s a breakdown of the most critical changes:

1. Reorganized Safety Categories

The previous Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) have been restructured into compliance categories with clearer definitions, making it easier for carriers to understand how violations affect their scores.

2. Consolidation of Violations

FMCSA grouped over 2,000 violations into approximately 100 broader violation categories. This ensures that multiple citations for the same underlying issue don’t disproportionately impact a carrier’s score.

3. Simplified Violation Severity Weights

Gone is the complex 1-10 severity scale. Now, violations are classified with either a weight of 1 or 2—where out-of-service (OOS) violations and driver disqualifications receive a weight of 2, and all others are assigned a weight of 1. This makes it easier to assess risk at a glance.

4. Proportionate Percentiles for Fairer Comparison

FMCSA replaced the old safety event groupings with proportionate percentiles, ensuring that fleets are compared more accurately based on the number of safety events they have rather than lumped into broad categories.

5. Adjusted Intervention Thresholds

Thresholds for intervention have been fine-tuned to better reflect their correlation to crash risk. For example, the threshold for the Driver Fitness category was raised from 80% to 90% for general carriers, allowing for a more precise focus on high-risk fleets.

6. Increased Emphasis on Recent Violations

Recent violations, especially those within the past 12 months, now carry more weight in the SMS calculations. This shift ensures that fleets maintaining strong compliance records see improvements in their scores faster.

7. Refined Utilization Factor Adjustments

Adjustments to the utilization factor mean that fleets are now assessed more fairly based on their level of exposure to inspections and crashes. This helps balance score fluctuations for high-mileage carriers.

What This Means for Your Fleet

For many fleets, these changes have provided a more transparent and predictable compliance landscape. However, if you haven’t closely reviewed how your CSA scores have shifted since these updates took effect, now is the time to take action.

• Review your SMS scores regularly to see how the changes impact your fleet’s standing.
• Ensure your violation management process is up to date to minimize risks.
• Train your drivers on areas that carry the highest safety weight.
• Utilize telematics and safety monitoring systems to stay ahead of compliance issues.

Final Thoughts

While these FMCSA updates took effect last year, their impact is ongoing. Staying proactive with compliance management ensures your fleet remains competitive, avoids unnecessary interventions, and keeps operations running smoothly. If you haven’t fully adjusted your safety protocols to reflect these changes, don’t wait—make compliance a priority today.