CSA Points Are Severity Weights

A point is a severity weight inside one BASIC

The SMS turns inspections into BASIC measures. The methodology's violation-severity section says every roadside violation that pertains to a BASIC is assigned a severity weight reflecting its association with crash occurrence and crash consequences. The weights in Appendix A have been converted to a scale from 1 to 10 for each BASIC. One is the lowest crash risk and ten is the highest, relative to the other violations in that same BASIC. Relative is the word that stops people from building a universal point list. The manual's own example is that a 5 in one BASIC is not equivalent to a 5 in another. The 5 is only the midpoint between 1 and 10 inside its own BASIC. Severity weights from one BASIC should not be added, subtracted, equated, or otherwise combined with a severity weight from any other BASIC.

That is why this page will not print a table of violation codes and homemade points. Appendix A is a spreadsheet FMCSA publishes beside the methodology, and the Help Center described Version 3.21 of that appendix as the list that aligns SMS with the violations recorded at roadside. The weight for the code on your inspection is the cell in that appendix for that BASIC. If a blog reprints the appendix, the blog is not the source. If a blog invents a point the appendix does not contain, the blog is wrong even when the number looks precise. Open the appendix for the code you were cited. Do not memorize someone else's top ten.

Multiple counts of the same violation on one inspection are not stacked forever. The measure definitions say the SMS uses each violation cite only once per inspection when the same violation is counted more than once. A stack of identical lines is not a stack of identical weights. Different cites in the same BASIC are different weights, and they do add, until the cap below stops them.

Where out-of-service adds 2, and where the cap stops the pile

The methodology does not add an OOS weight in every BASIC. In the Unsafe Driving measure, it says out-of-service weights are not assigned, because most violations in that category are not considered OOS violations. In the Controlled Substances and Alcohol measure, it says OOS weights are not assigned for that BASIC. In the Hours-of-Service, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazardous Materials, and Driver Fitness measure sections, the text says an OOS violation receives an additional severity weight of 2. Where there are multiple occurrences of the same violation, that additional weight applies to any of those violations that meet the OOS condition. Read the section for the BASIC you are in before you add 2 by habit.

Then the cap. The sum of all violation severity weights for any one inspection in any one BASIC is capped at a maximum of 30. The cap is applied before the severity weights are multiplied by the time weight. Weights from violations outside the BASIC being calculated do not count toward that cap. A ugly inspection can fill the cap. It cannot pour infinite severity into one BASIC from one stop. A second BASIC on the same inspection has its own cap. Do not merge them into a 60 and call it the day's points. The manual forbids combining severity across BASICs, and the cap is written per BASIC.

The order matters. Take the Appendix A weight. Add 2 if, and only if, this BASIC's formula adds it for an OOS condition. Sum within the BASIC. Stop at 30. Only then does time weight multiply. People who multiply first and cap later are not running Version 3.21.

Time weight multiplies severity. It is not a second point system

After severity, the methodology assigns a time weight of 1, 2, or 3. Violations in the past six months get 3. Violations older than six months up to twelve months get 2. Violations older than twelve months but still inside twenty-four months get 1. A time-and-severity-weighted violation is the severity weight multiplied by that time weight. In the Hours-of-Service style measures, relevant inspections get a time weight too, including inspections with no violation in that BASIC, because those inspections sit in the denominator.

That multiplier is why a fresh violation hurts more than an old one of the same severity. It is not a reason to rebuild the duration rules on this page. How long the violation is eligible, when it falls off for scoring, and what a carrier still sees after that are the subject of CSA violation duration. Use that guide for the calendar. Use this one so you do not call the time weight a severity point. They are multiplied. They are not synonyms.

A court result can change the weight, if you send the proof

Table 2-1 of the methodology is the adjudicated-citation rule. If the citation result is dismissed or not guilty, the violation is removed as the methodology describes. If the result is convicted of a different charge, the severity weight is set to 1 and the violation is not subject to the OOS weight. Anything else stays. The manual is explicit that drivers or carriers have to submit certified documentation through a Request for Data Review in DataQs. The process applies to inspections conducted on or after August 23, 2014, and it is not retroactive.

Beating a ticket in a way the table recognizes is how a weight becomes 1 or zero. Telling a broker you beat the ticket, without the DataQs result, leaves the Appendix A weight in place. The SMS does not sit in the courtroom. It sits on the documentation FMCSA accepts.

Crash severity is a different table, and it is not your roadside points

Table 3-6 is crash severity for the Crash Indicator BASIC, which the methodology marks as not publicly available in the same way. A crash that involves a tow-away but no injury or fatality has crash severity weight 1. A crash that involves an injury or a fatality has crash severity weight 2. An HM release adds 1 to whichever of those applied. Those are crash weights. They are not the Appendix A weight of a bad brake or a logbook line. Do not add them to a violation and call the sum CSA points. Do not use them to guess a fine. The methodology is a prioritization math. It is not the civil penalty schedule.

Crashes found not preventable under the Crash Preventability Determination Program are listed and then excluded from the measure and the percentile. That is a crash-indicator rule. It does not erase a violation severity weight from the same day unless the violation itself was removed through the path that applies to violations.

Do not score today's inspection with the future pamphlet

FMCSA has published material on approved changes that would replace the 1-to-10 scale with a severity weight of 1 or 2, assigned to a violation group, with a 2 when the group contains an OOS violation or, for unsafe driving, a disqualifying violation. That design is easier to explain. It is not the math in Version 3.21. The document this page cites still says 1 to 10, still points at Appendix A, still adds 2 for OOS only in the BASICs that say so, and still caps the inspection at 30 before time weight.

When FMCSA replaces the methodology version, the new version wins and this paragraph should be reread against it. Until that PDF says the 1-or-2 scale is the calculation, a carrier who throws away Appendix A and scores everything as 1 or 2 is scoring a proposal. Brokers who already talk in the new scale are ahead of the manual or they are guessing. Ask which PDF they are using. If they cannot name Version 3.21 or its successor, they do not have your weight.

O Trucking will not assign a point value to your inspection code from memory. Bring the code. The weight is the appendix cell, plus the OOS add only if that BASIC uses it, then the cap, then the time multiplier. The duration of the row is the other guide.

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