The route, step by step
Go to FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System at ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS. Search by USDOT number — or by company name if you do not have it to hand — and open your carrier record. You will see your BASIC categories, the inspections and violations behind them, and where you sit relative to comparable carriers. It costs nothing. Be aware that FMCSA has changed which BASICs are publicly displayed over the years, so what a carrier sees publicly and what appears in the full record are not always the same.
Getting your USDOT PIN
The full detail behind your own carrier’s record sits behind a USDOT PIN, which FMCSA issues to the officially registered contact for the carrier. If you have never requested one, or the PIN went to a previous owner or a former address, request it through FMCSA — it is worth doing before you need it, not during an audit. Keep it somewhere your compliance person can actually find it.
Read the inspections, not just the number
The percentile tells you where you rank. The inspection list tells you why. Open the underlying violations and look for the pattern: is it one truck failing repeatedly, one driver, one lane where you keep getting inspected, or one category of defect like lights or brakes? A single number gives you nothing to act on. Three brake violations on the same unit gives you a maintenance decision.
If a violation is wrong, challenge it through DataQs
Inaccurate records do happen — a violation attributed to the wrong carrier, a citation later dismissed, a duplicate inspection. FMCSA’s DataQs system at dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov is the official channel for requesting a review. Submit the documentation, be specific about what is factually wrong, and keep a copy. This is the only legitimate route, and it only works when the record is genuinely incorrect — it is not an appeals process for violations you actually committed.
Check drivers separately
Carrier CSA percentiles and driver history are different records. The Pre-Employment Screening Program gives you an individual driver’s inspection and crash history, which is what you want when you are hiring rather than when you are auditing the fleet. A carrier with a clean percentile can still be about to hire a problem, and PSP is where you would see that coming.
How often to look
Monthly is enough for most carriers, and FMCSA updates SMS data on a regular cycle. The value of checking regularly is not the number — it is catching a trend early, while it is still two violations and not an intervention letter. If you run compliance with us, this is part of the standing work rather than something you have to remember.
If you want this handled rather than researched: safety & compliance and documentation.
Worth reading next: The FMCSA compliance checklist every carrier should run quarterly.
Unfamiliar with a term used above? The trucking glossary defines the words brokers, dispatchers and auditors actually use.
Want a straight answer about your own operation? Send your last ten loads. We will tell you what we would have done differently — including "nothing, you are doing fine", when that is the honest answer. Book a free audit, or read who runs the desk first.
Sources and further reading
This site publishes no performance statistics of its own, because none could be independently verified. Where a fact is checkable, here is where to check it — primary sources, not summaries of summaries.
- FMCSA — Safety Measurement System (SMS) — Where you look your carrier up.
- FMCSA — DataQs — The official route to challenge an inaccurate violation record.
- FMCSA — Pre-Employment Screening Program — Driver-level inspection and crash history, used in hiring.
Regulations, fees and processing times change. Verify current requirements directly with the issuing agency rather than relying on any third-party summary, including this one.