• Compliance reviews are based on six factors.
• The points assessed against these factors will result in a safety rating of either satisfactory, conditional, or unsatisfactory.

The regulations are categorized into five “factors,” along with a sixth factor addressing accidents:

• Factor 1. General — Parts 387 and 390
• Factor 2. Driver — Parts 382, 383, and 391
• Factor 3. Operational — Parts 392 and 395
• Factor 4. Vehicle — Parts 393 and 396
• Factor 5. Hazmat — Parts 397, 171, 177, and 180
• Factor 6. Accident — Recordable accident rate

Each time the auditor finds a violation of an acute regulation or a pattern of noncompliance with a critical regulation, one point will be assessed against the appropriate factor. However, each pattern of noncompliance with a critical hours-of-service regulation under Part 395 will be assessed two points. These points then translate into a rating for each factor, as follows:

• Zero points = Satisfactory
• One point = Conditional
• Two or more points = Unsatisfactory

Vehicle factor

A special scoring process is used for Factor 4, the vehicle factor. When a carrier has had at least 3 vehicle inspections in the 12 months before the audit, and/or if such inspections are performed during the audit, the vehicle factor will be evaluated based on the carrier’s Out-of-Service (OOS) rate as well as compliance with acute and critical regulations. The OOS rate will affect the vehicle factor as follows:

Scoring the accident factor

Factor 6, Accident, is not based on regulatory compliance but rather the carrier’s recordable accident rate during the past 12 months, when the carrier had at least two such accidents in that time.

A recordable accident, as defined in 390.5, is an accident involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a public roadway that results in:

• A fatality,
• Bodily injury requiring immediate medical treatment away from the scene of the accident, or
• One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident requiring the vehicle(s) to be towed or otherwise transported away from the scene.

The carrier’s accident rate per million miles is compared with the national average rate from the years 1994–1996:

• 0.747 for all carriers, or
• 0.839 for carriers operating entirely within a 100-air-mile radius (a higher rate is used for these short-haul or “urban” operators because they typically have more exposure to risk).

Carriers are expected to keep their accident rates below twice these national averages. Therefore, carriers will receive an unsatisfactory rating on Factor 6 if their accident rate is greater than:

• 1.7 for carriers operating entirely within a radius of 100 air miles, or
• 1.5 for all other carriers.

What about accidents that were not preventable?

ALL recordable accidents will be used in the initial rating process. However, the carrier can contest that process by presenting compelling evidence that the recordable rate is not a fair means of evaluating its accident factor. The FMSCA will then consider whether the carrier’s accidents were preventable or not. Preventability is judged according to this standard:

“If a driver, who exercises normal judgment and foresight could have foreseen the possibility of the accident that in fact occurred, and avoided it by taking steps within his/her control which would not have risked causing another kind of mishap, the accident was preventable.”