Fleet vehicles are subject to yearly inspections and may encounter roadside inspections or one of six levels of inspection at weigh stations. If a vehicle or fleet driver is not up to code, companies may face DOT violation fines, placed out of service, and higher CSA scores. Certain technologies, such as electronic logging devices (ELD) for Hours of Service (HOS) and fleet management software make compliance easier than ever. However, understanding what CSA scores are and how they impact your fleet is pertinent to a fleet company's success. Even more important than knowing how to avoid higher CSA scores is knowing what to do to improve your score. We’ll cover everything you need to know about the FMCSA driver score below.
The FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) uses a CSA (compliance, safety, accountability) score to identify high-risk motor carriers. The goal of this is to reduce the number of accidents on the road by enforcing accountability and encouraging fleet risk management and safety planning. When a driver operating a commercial vehicle under a carrier DOT number receives a violation fine, the fine is assigned to that DOT carrier.
The CSA point system uses a 100-point scale, with 100 being the worst record and zero being the best. Therefore, the lower the CSA score the better.
CSA scores are calculated based on driver performance data, inspections, and accidents. The FMCSA collects this data via their Safety Measurement System (SMS), which is a database of state-reported crashes, inspections, and investigations from the last two years. This data is updated once per month and can alter your CSA score. In other words, your score may change monthly, leaving room for you to either improve or make it worse. This is why it’s vital to know everything that goes into your score. Here’s how the FMCSA calculates your points:
Using SMS, the FMCSA documents all types of safety violations from commercial fleet drivers. Drivers can negatively impact their CSA score if certain violations, or too many violations, are cited against them. When calculating a CSA score, the aspects listed below are kept at the forefront:
After the collection of these details, the FMCSA breaks down the data using the BASICs (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories).
The BASICs are comprised of seven different categories, including:
Another factor the FMCSA uses is insurance. Drivers and carriers must have the right amount of documentation and coverage.
There are a lot of reasons CSA scores are vital to your fleet company. Perhaps the most notable and obvious is that a high CSA score indicates a company with a higher risk of accidents and non-compliance with safety regulations. This is important because it tells your customers how reliable you are. They use this information to determine whether or not they want to work with you. Insurance companies use this information for the same thing. They assess risk for every company and individual they work with, counting every bit of information they have available. CSA scores help them identify those in high-risk categories, which helps to determine premiums.
The FMCSA may not be able to suspend a CDL license, but they can intervene or fine drivers. This may include warning letters, safety investigations, fines, and even higher CSA scores. Fleet companies already face budget constraints and high costs of fuel and maintenance, so there’s no room for additional fines when you can avoid them. Especially since they affect your ability to increase your client base, and your insurance premiums, and therefore your bottom line.
A high CSA score also increases the negative attention on your company. The FMCSA is more likely to watch your operations and increase the number of inspections to push for corrective action. They’re also more likely to push for out-of-service orders. Of course, all of this has a negative impact on your ability to do business. Operations slow down with more inspections and more out-of-service orders.
It can be difficult to improve CSA scores, just as it is with any credit system, but knowing where you stand is the first step. To do this, go to the FMCSA website called SAFER (Safety and Fitness Records). You can search for your company records using your DOT number. Select SMS once you’re inside the profile to see your scores. You do need a DOT pin to see this score, which all carriers receive with their DOT number or obtained through the FMCSA.
Once you know where you stand, you can work on improving your CSA score. Just like your personal credit score, it can be difficult to improve. The FMCSA updates scores every month, counting accidents, inspections, and the aforementioned data in these scores. Accidents closer to the date of the calculation hold much more weight than violations in the past. But the FMCSA will continue including accidents and infractions as far back as 36 months. This means that, without extra violations, scores can improve over time. When they do, you’ll benefit from reduced accidents, inspections, fines, more clients, lower insurance premiums, and more.
There are many ways to improve your score. The actions below are some of the simplest and most options for improvement.
The Pre-employment Screenings Program (PSP) is not the same as a CSA score for drivers, though many confuse the two. The PSP stores information about a candidate’s driving history. Fleet managers should use this during the hiring process to determine eligibility for the position. When you make the right hiring decisions, you lower accident risk and out-of-service likelihood.
Dashcams allow you to view driver behavior, rather than solely rely on diagnostic data. You’ll be able to see hard braking, speeding, seatbelt compliance, accidents, and other violations. You can use this footage for insurance claims, lawsuits, inspections, and for improving training by tailoring to the needs of the driver.
If you’re actively working on preventative maintenance, your vehicles are much safer on the road, as well as your drivers. Telematics systems monitor vehicle diagnostics, alerting you to vehicle issues well before the diagnostic trouble codes. Telematics also collects vehicle and driver data and stores it in one place, providing an easy way to create and store DVIR forms. This makes it much easier to pass inspections.
When a carrier receives a violation that affects their CSA score, they have two years to challenge it. It’s a lot like disputing challenges on your credit report—you can dispute violations on your CSA report. Not only can you challenge the charge, but you can also challenge the severity of it, which may result in fewer CSA points.
Training is one of the most effective ways to make a change in your company’s fleet risk management and driver safety. First, you must educate drivers on the importance of safety and the measures your company is going to take to increase safety. You can also use telematics devices to monitor driver behavior to tailor training to each driver, improving safety on a more permanent basis.
It isn’t just about the most common violations of all carriers, but about your carrier’s common violations. You have to know your areas of weakness. What are your drivers doing to impact your CSA score? How can you use training to change that? What can you do to decrease your score? Telematics can help you monitor your fleet in comprehensive ways, such as driver behavior and vehicle diagnostics. This allows you to see exactly where your fleet is at risk to create strategies for improvement.
Choosing the right ELD makes all the difference in your ability to comply with regulations and pass inspections. Comprehensive fleet management software doesn’t stop with Hours of Service logging. It provides vehicle diagnostics monitoring, driver behavior reporting, real-time location, maintenance alerts, fuel card integration, route optimization, and so much more.
Learn more about an ELD solution that provides your fleet more than compliance, at Azuga.
Dispatch software is a lifesaver when it comes to organizing your dispatch process and keeping operations streamlined. It offers a variety of features that make daily procedures so much easier, from fleet tracking to reports that help businesses make decisions. What features does dispatch software offer, and how do these features benefit fleets? We will break this down for you.
It is easy to assign and monitor jobs with dispatch software because it uses fleet tracking. Fleet tracking allows you to assign jobs to crews in the field. If you need a lead technician for a job, it’s simple to attach that lead tech to any job you need. You can even sort jobs based on their status, whether they’re one-time, recurring, or multi-day, or based on urgency.
When workers finish jobs, they can mark the job as complete on their end. This way, you can know when each job concludes and when your technician moves on to their next task.
Back and forth calls between technicians and managers are no longer a problem. With dispatch software, you simply input the job you want your technicians to address. Your technicians access it from their phones and know what to do from there. When they’re done, they can mark it complete and view their next job right away. They can track their time, update their schedules, and input notes all while on the go. Everything you need to know will be on your screen when you need to know it, no need to track the information down.
Dispatch software can improve your business’s customer service reputation in a variety of ways. Firstly, GPS tracking allows for route optimization software, which gets your technicians to their destinations quickly and efficiently. No more late technicians making your customers wait. Furthermore, dispatch software allows you to assign technicians to customers they already know, building an improved relationship with your business. And with all of your customer information in one place, it’s easy to respond to disputes and issues in a timely and personal manner.
All of your client and order information is available in a field service CRM that details everything you need to know about your customers and the jobs you’ve done for them.
Azuga offers state-of-the-art dispatch software that your business is sure to benefit from every single day. These benefits will improve your fleet’s daily operations, boost customer service, and maximize productivity among your workers. These features and more bring your fleet to its maximum potential, allowing you to focus on making important decisions to help the business grow and thrive. Find out everything you can do with dispatch software by trying out a free demo today. You’re certain to be impressed with the improvements.
A multi-drop route planner is a process that plans a route for a driver to make more than two deliveries in multiple locations. It uses vehicle routing software to collect and analyze thousands of data points and determine the best delivery route. This route planning software can plan, re-route, and reschedule without causing any danger to the driver, environment, or business. It considers many factors, such as the number of distribution centers, warehouses, or residential areas a driver has to visit, resource availability, and driver safety.
The route optimization software tracks the vehicle while factoring in when deliveries need to arrive. Of course, a human being should ensure that everything has been planned out properly, but the process should be automatic. Both this person and the system should look at distances, travel time, and fuel consumption.
Once a route is set, the route optimization software compiles data to choose the best vehicle and driver depending on the delivery. It uses data based on the route and the client’s needs. At this point, it also considers the driver’s hours and weather conditions to determine how much time is needed. These systems need to work in real-time to ensure that managers and clients can connect with up-to-date information.
There are various benefits to multi-drop route planning. It maximizes productivity, keeps fuel costs low, promotes driver safety, and helps businesses stay compliant with federal driver hour regulations. Your business will save money by using its drivers effectively and not using as much fuel.
If you’re looking for this software, you don’t need to search any further! Azuga’s route optimization software allows for multiple stops. It provides the best routes based on historical data, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and machine learning that helps it create the best routes for you in real-time. See what you can do with route planning software by trying out a demo today!
If you manage a fleet, you probably already understand the delicate dance that is fleet dispatching. If not, you may not realize just how crucial this process is to the success of any fleet-based business.
Simply put, fleet dispatching is the process by which commercial fleet drivers are sent out into the field to make deliveries, service customers, and handle other business-related tasks. But it involves so much more than simply telling drivers, “you go there.” Good fleet dispatching may also involve considerations for traffic conditions, road hazards, driver skill sets, customer preferences, and onboard equipment. When done correctly, it’s a skillful juggling act that helps a business reach its daily goals. When poorly handled, it can be a disaster for all concerned.
A fleet dispatcher is a person in charge of scheduling and arranging dispatch for a commercial fleet. Small fleets may have a single dispatcher to manage all calls, while larger enterprise fleets may employ an entire team.
A fleet dispatcher must clearly understand schedules and routes, job proficiencies, fuel management, fleet maintenance, and regulations related to hours of service and other fleet compliance issues. A good fleet dispatcher knows the drivers in the fleet well and can anticipate their scheduling needs and which jobs they are most suited to handle. Fleet dispatchers must be masters of communication and have elite organizational skills.
Fleet dispatching is as much an art as a science, and it can be overwhelming at times. The best way to support the fleet dispatchers on your team is to give them tools and technology that make the job easier. Fortunately, Azuga offers the answers to all of your fleet dispatching conundrums.
Our GPS Fleet Tracking software can keep track of all the vehicles in your fleet along with large equipment and other assets. Dispatchers can use this information to see which vehicles are nearby when a job pops up. What’s more, we offer top-notch route optimization tools to help guide drivers around road construction, accidents, and other hazards that might prevent them from getting to their destination on time. We can even help you schedule routine maintenance, promote road safety, and automatically deliver dispatch notifications to drivers in the field.
Learn about all the ways Azuga Fleet can help your commercial fleet stay productive and efficient while simplifying maintenance schedules and creating a culture of safety on the road. Schedule an Azuga demo today!
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