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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
Find answers to questions about FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, policies, and procedure to help everyone Get Road Smart about safety compliance.
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1. How do I determine if a violation will count against a carrier, a driver, or both in the Safety Measurement System (SMS)?
The SMS uses all safety-based violations recorded during roadside inspections to evaluate safety. A list of these violations can be found in Appendix A of the SMS Methodology document. All of the violations in Appendix A count against the motor carrier. A subset of these violations is applied to evaluate driver safety in cases where the commercial motor vehicle driver is also responsible in part for the occurrence. This subset of violations is noted in the “Driver Responsible” column in Appendix A of the Carrier SMS Methodology document, and is also noted in Appendix A of the Driver SMS Methodology document.
At present, only enforcement personnel who are conducting motor carrier investigations use the driver safety assessment tool in the SMS. The new tool enables Safety Investigators to focus on drivers with poor safety performance histories when they are investigating a motor carrier.
