The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the federal Department of Transportation (DOT), retains safety information for every commercial carrier that drives on public roads. It also keeps a safety record for every trucking company or independent owner-operator. Although it stores several types of documents, the Company Safety Profile (CSP) is by far the most comprehensive.
What information does the FMCSA keep on a CSP?
Below is a list of the safety information that the FMCSA keeps on all motor carriers.
- The identity of the motor carrier and a description of the business
- History of past safety reviews and compliance reviews, federal safety ratings, and educational contacts
- Inspection summaries going back two years
- Individual inspection reports for the past one to two years, including both state and federal sources
- Crash summaries for the past four years
- Individual crash summaries for the past four years from only state sources
- History of any type of enforcement
Investigators at the state and federal levels can obtain a CSP to review information regarding interstate carriers as well as some intrastate carriers. The agencies requesting a CSP use it to take certain action against the motor carrier. An example of how a state or federal investigator might use a CSP is to conduct a compliance review at the appropriate state or federal level. An investigator might also use a CSP to research an enforcement action or a specific complaint.
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), any member of the public may also request a CSP through an FMCSA program called MCMIS Data Dissemination. However, no public report contains driver names or other identifying information. The FMCSA will only release driver data to organizations that have registered as an authorized recipient.
Sources of information and reports for the CSP
The FMCA relies on numerous sources to provide a CSP for a motor carrier. Data sources include the following:
- MCS-150, also known as the Motor Carrier Identification Report
- MCS-63, which is the driver and vehicle inspection report for motor carriers and includes inspection reports submitted by state agencies
- MCS-151 for educational contacts including parts A, B, C, and D
- Crash reports obtained from state agencies
- MCS32-A, which are enforcement reports
In addition, the FMCSA pulls information from the following reports:
- Safety and carrier operation ratings
- Contact listings for states
- Enforcement data
- Non-printed reports
- Four-year crash summaries
- Individual inspection reports from the past one to two years
- Individual crash reports from the past one to two years
- A two-year summary of inspections, including characteristics of inspections
Because CSPs can be quite lengthy, the FMCSA recommends requesting reports for individual carriers rather than entire organizations.
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Source:
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/company-safety-records
https://ask.fmcsa.dot.gov/app/mcmiscatalog/d_profile_contents