Frequently Asked Questions
The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are questions and answers about Compliance,
Safety, Accountability (CSA) that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
(FMCSA) compiled to assist the public. As questions come in through the website,
FMCSA adds them to the database along with their answers. If you do not see your
question or topic addressed, please
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by submitting a feedback form. We will respond to you directly and consider your
question for inclusion in the FAQs.
The FAQ area has recently been enhanced. Users can now search FAQs by stakeholder
group, topics (displayed on the left side of the page), or by entering a keyword
below. Choosing “Show All” will display the entire collection of FAQs.
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The Safety Measurement System (SMS) Methodology document states that a carrier can
receive no more than 30 severity points in a single inspection. If a carrier has
more than 30 severity points, which points are carried over to SMS?
Answer
This statement is not entirely correct. The SMS Methodology document states that
the sum of all severity weights yielded by any one inspection for violations in
any one Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) is capped at a
maximum of 30. The inspection cap of 30 applies to the sum of violation severity
weights within a BASIC, not summed across all BASICs. This rule prevents one bad
inspection from overwhelming the evaluation of a particular BASIC and allows SMS
to assess a motor carrier's safety performance across several inspections.
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