What Is the FMCSA Safety Measurement System (SMS)?

As the owner of a trucking company, you rely on having a good standing with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Part of that involves maintaining your metrics in the FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS), but what is FMCSA SMS all about?

If you're wondering how the agency uses this system to monitor trucking companies and drivers, you can learn everything you need to know about FMCSA SMS below. Then, check out this FMCSA compliance checklist for peace of mind.

Understanding the FMCSA Safety Measurement System

Have you ever wondered how your trucking company officially stacks up in categories such as driver safety, accidents, and vehicle maintenance? With FMCSA SMS, you’ll gain an in-depth look into how your company ranks in compliance, safety, and accountability (CSA).

The SMS tool organizes data into seven categories called Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) as follows:

• Vehicle maintenance: Maintain your fleet’s brakes, tires, lights, and other critical components. This category includes balancing your cargo to prevent shifting.
• Unsafe driving: Speeding, switching lanes without signaling, hard braking, and driver inattention appear here.
• Driver fitness: If your trucking company allows drivers to work without the proper training, you’ll get a bad score in this category. It also includes drivers who lack medical clearance or don’t hold a commercial driver’s license.
• Hours Of Service requirements: Any of your drivers ever skip their mandated breaks and continue to drive while fatigued? The FMCSA takes this HOS violation very seriously, as it can cause devastating accidents.
• Controlled substances and alcohol: Drivers who commit a violation due to the use of alcohol, drugs, or the misuse of controlled substances (like opiates) appear here.
• Hazardous materials compliance: Example violations include failing to mark hazardous materials, not carrying the proper paperwork, or releasing hazardous materials from containers.

There’s also the Crash Indicators category. This metric, which is based on data from state-reported crashes, shows the frequency and severity of trucking accidents.

Calculating Carrier Safety Scores

What is FMCSA SMS going to tell your trucking company? How does the system score carriers?

Firstly, the tool uses violation severity weightings to compare your trucking company to others. SMS calculates your score based on severity, time, and total weight. It runs from 0 to 100, with 100 being the worst score possible, and the system calculates these scores as a percentage, so you’ll see your trucking company’s percentile rating in each category.

Once you have your rating, you can compare your scores to the FMCSA’s intervention thresholds. If your scores are approaching those intervention thresholds, the FMCSA may be monitoring or preparing to investigate your company. 

For more information, check out our guide to the FMCSA rules in 2025.

How Will FMCSA SMS Change Going Forward?

In 2023, the FMCSA proposed a few amendments to its Safety Measurement System. What is FMCSA SMS ready to change? Revamping BASICs into something called “safety categories” came first, but only the categories of Unsafe Driving and Vehicle Maintenance have really changed from before. 

New Unsafe Driving Category

Controlled substances or alcohol violations and operating out-of-service violations will move into the Unsafe Driving category. The FMCSA intends for these changes to help it better investigate trucking companies with high crash rates.

New Vehicle Maintenance Category

Vehicle Maintenance will split into two subcategories. The first includes violations noted during a roadside inspection or by a mechanic during regular maintenance. The second category will be named “Driver Observed” and includes any violations that a driver could reasonably notice during a walk-around inspection.

Simpler SMS Weightings

What is FMCSA SMS’s new simplified weighting system? The new weightings will rate violations as either Level One or Level Two violations. The FMCSA believes that this change will help improve its ability to identify drivers with high crash rates.

Organized Roadside Violations

Another change is the reorganization of roadside violations, of which there are currently more than 950. Under the proposed changes, the FMCSA SMS will reorganize itself into 116 violation groups (to group related violations together).

Other Changes To Expect From FMCSA Regulations

Finally, the FMCSA plans to improve its intervention thresholds for vehicle maintenance and driver fitness. This change will help the FMCSA find carriers and drivers with the highest accident rates.

Got Questions About FMCSA SMS? Contact FMCA Filings

What is FMCSA SMS? It’s a helpful tool that your trucking company might want to use to monitor violations and improve your safety metrics. If you have further questions about SMS, how to update your USDOT number, or even how the HOS violation duration could affect you, contact FMCA Filings today!