The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program is an “enforcement and compliance” program run by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that regulates commercial motor vehicles through enforcement of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. The agency’s goal with CSA is to reduce the many thousands of truck and bus crashes, injuries, and fatalities that occur each year. With limited resources to monitor compliance, the agency uses CSA to keep its finger on the pulse of the industry and intervene with enforcement action when a motor carrier or driver appears to be a safety risk and possibly headed for an accident.

Note that CSA is based on policy, not regulation. There are no “CSA regulations” to comply with. In fact, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations make no mention of CSA. Rather, CSA involves the monitoring and evaluating of motor carrier and driver compliance with existing rules, and ways for the FMCSA to step in (“intervene”) when a safety problem is identified before that problem can result in a crash.

See Enforcement (DOT) and Accident Investigation.