Methodology

Every figure shown on a carrier page is derived from public FMCSA data. This page documents exactly what we ingest, how we compute the derived metrics, when we refresh, and what the data does and doesn’t cover.

Data sources

All carrier data comes from the FMCSA’s SAFER system, accessed via the public Socrata API at data.transportation.gov. We replicate the following datasets into our own database for fast querying:

  • Company Census (~4.4M rows) — every USDOT entity
  • SMS BASIC scores (~2M rows) — monthly safety measures
  • Inspections (~5.7M rows) — roadside inspections, last 24 months
  • Violations (~6.6M rows) — violation details linked to inspections
  • Crashes (~4.9M rows) — crash reports, last 24 months

Refresh cadence

The full pipeline runs daily. Each carrier’s updated_attimestamp reflects the last time we synced their record. The same timestamp is exposed in the sitemap’s lastmod, so search engines can prioritize freshly-updated profiles.

Cohort percentile computation

For each carrier, we compute their percentile rank within their cohort on each of the five SMS BASIC measures (Unsafe Driving, HOS, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances, Vehicle Maintenance). Two cohorts are computed:

  • State cohort — all active carriers in the same state
  • State + fleet-size cohort — carriers in the same state and fleet-size bucket (small / medium / large per FMCSA classification)

Lower percentile = lower SMS measure = stronger safety record. Carriers without a measure for a given BASIC are excluded from that BASIC’s cohort to avoid biasing the percentiles.

Risk narrative generation

The plain-English risk summary on each carrier page is generated deterministically from rules over the data — there is no AI-generated prose. The rules surface FMCSA SMS alert codes (when set to “Y”) and elevated cohort percentiles (≥75th percentile = elevated, ≤25th = above average).

How we present safety

We mirror FMCSA’s own approach. The top line on each carrier page is the FMCSA Safety Rating: Satisfactory, Conditional, Unsatisfactory, or Not Rated. The rating is issued by FMCSA only after a Compliance Review, so most carriers carry Not Rated — this is the norm, not a red flag.

Below the rating we show each of the five SMS BASIC categories (Unsafe Driving, HOS Compliance, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances, Vehicle Maintenance) with FMCSA’s published percentile measures and Alert flags. We do not compute or display our own composite safety score, because rolling these into a single number hides important detail and inflates ratings for carriers without enough roadside inspections to be scored.

Limitations

  • BASIC scores are only computed for carriers with sufficient inspection activity. Many small or inactive carriers have no BASIC data.
  • FMCSA data is self-reported in places (MCS-150) and contains known outliers (e.g., 90,000-truck declarations). We expose the raw fields without correction.
  • Crash data lags ~30 days behind incident date due to state reporting cadence.
  • Authority status (Active / Inactive / Pending) reflects the FMCSA snapshot at our last sync; for real-time authority verification, use FMCSA QCMobile or SAFER directly.

Reporting issues

If you spot data that’s clearly wrong (e.g., a carrier showing as active when FMCSA shows them inactive), the underlying record needs correction at FMCSA — we don’t override source data. Contact us if you want to flag a sync issue specifically.