Methodology

Carrierintel Safety Score

A score from 0 to 100 for each month, built from the 12 months that end with it. A higher score means more favorable results under our model, including adjustments for the amount of data and for how recent it is. Each score falls in one of five bands: Excellent, Good, Fair, Below Average or Needs Attention. The score uses these factors:

• Out-of-service rate: the share of inspections that put a driver or a vehicle out of service.
• Violation severity: the CSA severity points of the carrier's violations, per inspection. Recent violations count more than older ones.
• Crashes, relative to fleet size.
• Injury crashes and fatal crashes, relative to fleet size, each as its own factor.
• Time since the last inspection. Recent inspections are more current evidence, so the score goes down as that evidence ages. The adjustment is larger for a larger fleet.
• Amount of data. With few inspections, the carrier's rates are pulled toward national averages, so one clean inspection does not make a perfect score. A carrier with very few inspections and no crash starts from a neutral score. A carrier with no inspection and no crash on record has no score.

Crash involvement does not establish fault. The crash factors of the score and of the Risk Grade do not adjust for FMCSA crash-preventability determinations.

Fleet size is the number of power units on the carrier's MCS-150 registration. When that number is missing, or lower than a fleet estimate based on the carrier's driver count, the model uses that estimate.

Sources: FMCSA inspections, violations and crashes, and the carrier's MCS-150 registration.

Risk Grade

One of four grades: Minimal Risk, Moderate Risk, Elevated Risk or Severe Risk. Each profile lists the risk factors and the strengths behind its grade. The grade uses these factors:

• Fatal crashes, and how recent the latest one is.
• Out-of-service rate over the last 24 months, or over the whole record when there are few recent inspections.
• Crashes per truck over the last 24 months, and injury crashes in the same period.
• Violations per inspection, and the share of inspections that ended without an out-of-service order.
• BASIC alerts in FMCSA's latest SMS release. FMCSA publishes alerts only for passenger carriers: under section 5223 of the FAST Act, FMCSA removed SMS percentiles and alerts for property carriers from its public SMS website.
• Insurance. For a motor carrier with active authority: whether a federal insurance filing is on file, and the amount of cover. For a broker or a freight forwarder: the BMC-84 or BMC-85 bond. When the registration does not show that a federal filing is required, the profile asks you to verify coverage and does not count it against the carrier.
• The Carrierintel Safety Score. A low Safety Score can raise the assessed risk; a high score does not offset other risk factors.
• Carrier age. A carrier that got its authority or its USDOT number only recently is not graded Minimal Risk.
• FMCSA out-of-service orders against the carrier.

When a carrier has few inspections in the last 24 months, the profile says that the grade rests on limited data.

Sources: the FMCSA records behind the score, FMCSA insurance filings, operating authority from the FMCSA Motus system, FMCSA SMS releases and FMCSA out-of-service orders.

SMS and CSA measures

• FMCSA's own SMS measures for each BASIC, from FMCSA's monthly SMS release. FMCSA publishes percentiles only for passenger carriers. We show FMCSA's percentiles where FMCSA publishes them, and we do not compute our own for property carriers.
• Our estimated measures for four BASICs: HOS Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol and Vehicle Maintenance. We recompute them every night with FMCSA's published SMS method on our inspection data, and label them Estimated.
• A violation that FMCSA does not count in SMS is marked Not counted in SMS.

Fleet Reality

The power units the carrier declares on its MCS-150 registration, against the distinct power units (by VIN) seen at its roadside inspections in the last 12 months. A large gap is a reason to check the carrier's fleet and registration. The comparison alone does not establish fraud or misuse of operating authority. The Phantom Fleets report lists carriers with such a gap by state.

Data sources and freshness

All carrier data comes from FMCSA public datasets on data.transportation.gov and the FMCSA Motus system.

• Inspections, violations and crashes: checked for new records every hour.
• Carrier registrations (MCS-150) and authority events: checked every hour.
• Insurance filings and insurance history: refreshed every day.
• FMCSA out-of-service orders: refreshed every day.
• FMCSA SMS measures: FMCSA publishes them monthly, and we load each release.
• Our estimated SMS measures and the CSA points behind the Safety Score: rebuilt every night.
• Officers and operating-authority status, from the FMCSA Motus system: read for a new carrier, and read again when FMCSA data shows a change, such as a registration filing that names a different officer or a new event in the carrier's authority history.

These schedules describe Carrierintel's checks and processing. They do not guarantee that FMCSA has published every recent event.

How to read the results

• FMCSA publishes inspection records days or weeks after the inspection date, so the latest weeks of any window are understated. That delay is in the FMCSA data.
• A profile is only as complete as the public record: an inspection, a crash or a filing that FMCSA has not published is not on it.
• Our SMS measures are estimates, not FMCSA's numbers.
• The Carrierintel Safety Score and the Risk Grade are Carrierintel's own assessments. They are not FMCSA scores or ratings, and not a regulatory determination. Check FMCSA's records before a decision that depends on them.

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