What is a good CSA score?

Short answer: as low as you can keep it, and under 65 in every category. CSA percentiles run backwards from school: 0 is the cleanest record in the country, 100 is the worst. A "good" CSA score is one no broker's policy can flag — and that line is not a matter of opinion. FMCSA itself draws it.

The three zones

The line, category by category

One honest note about the Vehicle Maintenance line: FMCSA's methodology sets it at 80 because inspection volume is so high — yet in FMCSA's current public files, the alert symbol on a carrier's own record prints at the 65th percentile there too. Treat 65 as your working line, and when your report card shows the flag, believe the flag.

What is a high CSA score?

A high CSA score is a bad score — the percentile runs backwards from school. A score in the 80s or 90s means your record is worse than 80–90% of carriers in that category. "My score is high" is never good news in this system; what you want is low numbers and, in the flagged categories, a number under the line.

What is a bad CSA score?

Any category at or over its intervention line is a bad score, full stop — that is the definition FMCSA and broker policies both use. Below the line, "bad" is a matter of direction: a 58 that was 40 last quarter is a problem arriving; a 58 that was 75 is a recovery in progress. Read the direction, not just the number.

The best way to keep a good CSA score

Three habits, in order of value. First, the pre-trip walk, every departure — the top violations in the file (lamps, brakes, tires) are all visible in five minutes. Second, never let paperwork expire: medical cards, licences, and filings fail on dates, and dates can be managed with a calendar. Third, run your own card monthly — the scores refresh with FMCSA's run, and the cheapest score problem is the one you catch at 58 instead of 71. The 90-day plan that turns these into a schedule is in the Fix Kit.

Three records, three answers

The clean two-truck carrier. Percentiles in the 20s and 30s, no category flagged, a handful of clean inspections a quarter. His card says "Brokers see a clean record" — and his job is not improvement, it's protection: the pre-trip routine and the monthly self-check that catch a problem at 45 instead of 70.

The watch-zone carrier. Vehicle Maintenance at 58, everything else quiet, one lamp-heavy inspection last quarter still at ×3. Not flagged — yet. One more bad stop this quarter puts him over, and he knows the date his heaviest violation steps down to ×2. His move: challenge nothing (the record is accurate), fix the lamp pattern at the source, and drive out the clock clean.

The over-the-line carrier. Hours of Service at 74 after a false-log finding, brokers going quiet. His card names the flag first. His move is sequenced: check the finding for a DataQs case (was the citation dismissed? was the log record genuinely wrong?), fix the dispatch practice that produced it, and rebuild with clean months — in that order, because a granted challenge is worth more than a quarter of aging.

What is a good CSA score for a driver?

Drivers don't have CSA scores — companies do. A driver's record is the PSP, and "good" there means a clean inspection history and no preventable crashes following you from job to job. The full split is on CSA scores for drivers.

What if I don't have a percentile?

Most carriers don't — FMCSA stopped publishing percentiles for the majority of records in 2015. What you always have is a measure: the weighted number underneath. On your report card, when no official percentile exists, we show your measure and your estimated position against carriers your size, labelled as our estimate. To judge a measure without a percentile, compare it to the middle of your size group below — at or under the median carrier in your group is a fair working definition of "good."

The middle of the road, by category

Median CSA measure for all carriers in the current FMCSA file (our computation from the public record — half of carriers sit above each number, half below):

Is a high CSA score the same as a bad safety rating?

No. A safety rating comes from an audit; most carriers have none, and none is normal. A high CSA percentile comes from roadside data alone. You can hold a Satisfactory rating and a flagged CSA category at the same time — and brokers will still pass on you for the category. The two systems are explained side by side on what is a CSA score.

What is a bad CSA score worth, in money?

Nobody publishes a rate card for it, but the mechanism is simple: the brokers with the best freight run the strictest screens. A flagged category doesn't cost you every load — it costs you the first call, repeatedly, until the number heals. The fix is boring and it works: challenge what's wrong (fight the points), then let clean inspections and time pull the measure down (the lowering plan).

See where you stand: check your CSA score free.