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.
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The Safety Measurement System (SMS) calculates a measure for each Behavior Analysis
and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) as described in the
SMS Methodology document. The measure is then used to assign a ranking,
or percentile, for each motor carrier that has information that could be compared
against other similar carriers. This percentile ranking allows the safety behavior
of a carrier to be compared with the safety behavior of carriers with similar operations
and numbers of safety events.
The percentile is computed on a 0-100 scale, with 100 indicating the worst performance
and 0 indicating the best performance. The carrier in the group with the highest
measure will be at the 100th percentile, while the carrier with the lowest measure
in the group will be at the 0 percentile. All other carriers in the group will be
between these two numbers based on their compliance records.
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