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
contact us
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.
-
What are the intervention thresholds for each BASIC?
Answer
Interventions are selected based on the following factors: number of Behavior Analysis
and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) percentiles above the threshold (Note:
a high BASIC percentile indicates high noncompliance), a 
symbol due to Serious Violations,
commodity hauled (e.g., passengers, Hazardous Material (HM)), intervention history,
and time since last intervention. A complaint or fatal crash could also trigger
an investigation.
The Intervention Thresholds for carriers are organized by BASIC and are set based
on a given BASIC's relationship to crash risk. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration’s analysis has shown that the strongest relationship to crash risk
is found with high percentiles in the Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance
and Crash Indicator BASICs. Therefore, these higher risk BASICs have a lower threshold
for interventions than the other BASICs. Currently, the Intervention Thresholds
are as follows:
|
BASIC
|
Intervention Thresholds
|
|
Passenger
|
HM
|
General
|
|
Unsafe Driving, HOS Compliance, Crash Indicator
|
=50%
|
=60%
|
=65%
|
|
Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance
|
=65%
|
=75%
|
=80%
|
|
HM Compliance
|
=80%
|
=80%
|
=80%
|
(
link)