Why do brokers reject me over my CSA score?

Chapter 01

What does a broker see when it checks my company?

A broker sees your public safety record, not your CSA percentiles. That record holds your roadside inspections and violations, and how many inspections ended out of service. It also holds your crash reports, your safety rating, the date your authority became active and your insurance history. Since December 2015, the law has kept the percentiles and alerts of a truck company off the public website (the FAST Act). You can see your own. The broker cannot.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run four trucks, all dry vans, under your own authority. It became active in November 2024, so it is almost two years old. You passed the new entrant audit, and it gave you no safety rating, because audits never do (the rule on audits). On Monday, September 14, 2026, you apply to haul for a broker with a steady lane you want. You fill in its setup form online. Within minutes, the answer comes back: you do not meet its carrier requirements. On Wednesday, a second broker says the same. Nobody tells you why. You assume it is your CSA score.

What is that score? Most owners call it the CSA score. FMCSA’s name for it is the Safety Measurement System, or SMS. It sorts roadside violations into seven groups, and FMCSA calls each group a BASIC. They are Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours of Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance and Driver Fitness (FMCSA’s scoring manual). In each group, FMCSA works out a number it calls a measure. That is your violations, weighted by how serious and how recent they are, divided by your inspections or by your size. Then it ranks your measure against carriers with a similar number of inspections. The rank is your percentile, from 0 to 100. The higher it is, the worse you look. FMCSA uses the percentiles to pick which carriers get warning letters and investigations.

Now the part many owners miss. Owners often ask: are CSA scores public? For a truck company, mostly not. A federal law passed in December 2015, the FAST Act, keeps the “alerts, or the relative percentile for each BASIC” away from the general public. That lasts until the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General signs off on a list of fixes to the program (the FAST Act). FMCSA’s scoring manual of June 2026 says a truck company’s results are “no longer available for public display”. Carriers “must log in” to see them (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Two groups, Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials Compliance, are not public for anyone. So a broker who opens the public website does not see whether you sit at 30 or at 78 in any group.

What stays public? The same law says your inspection and violation data stay public. So do the “out-of-service rates, and absolute measures” (the FAST Act). FMCSA’s own monthly data file shows exactly that. For every carrier that runs interstate, it lists the number of inspections and how many ended out of service. It lists how many had a violation in each of five groups, and the measure for each. It has no percentile column and no alert column (FMCSA’s monthly data file). FMCSA publishes percentiles and alerts only for bus companies, in a separate file (FMCSA’s file for bus companies).

Other public records fill in the rest. FMCSA’s Company Snapshot, on its SAFER website, shows your company details and size. It also shows your “safety record, including the safety rating (if any), a roadside out-of-service inspection summary, and crash information” (the Department of Transportation’s description). The history of your authority is public too, with the date it became active (FMCSA’s authority history file). So is your insurance history. It lists each earlier policy, the insurer, and the dates it started and was cancelled or replaced (FMCSA’s insurance history file). A broker, or a service working for it, can read all of this in seconds.

So what did the two brokers see about you? Say that in the last 24 months, officers checked your drivers at the roadside 11 times and your trucks 9 times. Four of those 9 truck inspections put a truck out of service. It was brakes out of adjustment in February 2026, a flat tire in April, and broken lights in June and again in July. One driver inspection ended out of service too. In May, a driver was stopped after he had run past his 14 hours on duty. That is 4 out of 9, or 44%, for your trucks. It is 1 out of 11, or 9%, for your drivers. We made these numbers up for this story. But numbers like them are exactly what a broker sees.

Chapter 02

What does a broker count as a pass or a fail?

Each broker sets its own rules, and most do not publish all of them. Some parts are public. C.H. Robinson asks for $1,000,000 of auto liability and $100,000 of cargo coverage (its carrier FAQ). TQL asks for the same two amounts (TQL’s carrier FAQ). Armstrong Transport wants your authority active for 90 days (its carrier page), and MODE Global for a year (its carrier page). None of these pages publishes a cutoff for inspections or scores. The federal minimum for general freight in a truck over 10,000 pounds is $750,000 of liability coverage (the insurance rule).

Why ask for more than the law? C.H. Robinson says the federal limits “do not align with the insurance thresholds required to haul a majority of freight on our platform” (its carrier FAQ). In plain words, its customers want more coverage than the law does. The broker checks your amounts on the certificate of insurance you send it, which most people call a COI. Back to your two refusals. Your auto liability is $1,000,000, but your cargo policy is only $50,000. That is half of what both of those brokers publish.

Then there is your FMCSA safety rating. It comes only from a full safety investigation of your company. If FMCSA has never done one, you have no rating, like the owner in our story. There are three ratings. Satisfactory means your safety controls work. Conditional means they are not good enough and could lead to trouble. Unsatisfactory means they are not good enough and already have (the rule that defines them). A carrier rated Unsatisfactory may not run at all. For most truck companies, that ban starts on the 61st day after the proposed rating (the rule on Unsatisfactory carriers). So no broker can use you then. A Conditional rating does not stop you by law, but it can stop you with a customer. MODE Global says your rating must be “Satisfactory” or “None” to qualify automatically (its carrier page). Amazon Relay accepts only “Satisfactory,” “None,” or “Not Rated” (Amazon’s Relay FAQ).

Where do the onboarding services come in? Many brokers hand your registration to one. C.H. Robinson and MODE Global both sign new carriers up through Highway (C.H. Robinson’s signup page, MODE Global’s carrier page). Highway says it helps brokers “enforce their carrier standard”, and it puts it plainly: “Every broker has a carrier standard” (Highway). Truckstop’s service, RMIS, says it onboards carriers that meet each broker’s “unique business rules” (Truckstop’s RMIS page). So the service checks you against the broker’s list. The broker writes the list, and it does not have to show it to you.

Some services grade you as well. Carrier Assure gives each carrier a grade from A to F. It says it “analyzes safety scores, inspections, violations, and out-of-service rates reported to the FMCSA”. Then it compares each carrier with “similar-sized peers” (Carrier Assure). Its own page says the grade “is not an indicator of safety”. It also says a carrier that holds broker authority, when its peers do not, may get a lower score. None of these services publishes a cutoff that we could find, and we will not guess one. You may read that onboarding systems flag any authority under 60 or 90 days old on their own. We found that claim in one place only and could not confirm it.

People often ask what is a good CSA score. There is no official one, and lower is better. FMCSA flags a general freight carrier at 65 or higher in Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator and Hours of Service. In Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, and Driver Fitness, the line is 80 (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Many small fleets have no percentile at all in some groups. FMCSA gives none without violations, and none without enough inspections. Vehicle Maintenance, for example, needs at least 5 truck inspections.

Amazon prints its percentile lines. Its Relay FAQ asks for Unsafe Driving and Hours of Service below 60%. It asks for Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, and Driver Fitness below 75%. It also wants your authority active for 180 days (Amazon’s Relay FAQ). Amazon calls its lines “5% lower than federal standards” (Amazon’s insurance post of February 2026). In plain words, each one sits 5 points under FMCSA’s line. The FAQ does not say how Amazon checks percentiles that the public cannot see. The whole application is in our guide to Amazon Relay.

Chapter 03

How do I find out why I was turned down?

Ask the broker first, then check your own record the way the broker does. Call or write to its carrier setup team and ask which requirement you failed. Some will tell you. Then open your Company Snapshot and read it like a stranger would. Log in to FMCSA’s safety score website to see your own percentiles, which the broker cannot see (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Check every inspection report for mistakes. Last, check the details FMCSA holds about your company.

On Thursday, September 17, you call the first broker’s carrier team. The person on the phone reads you two lines from their system. Your cargo coverage is $50,000, and their rules ask for $100,000. And your trucks’ out-of-service rate is over the limit they set. They will not tell you the limit. The second broker only says to try again in 90 days. We made up both answers for this story.

On Friday, you look at yourself the way they did. You open SAFER and search your DOT number. The snapshot shows no rating, your inspections and your out-of-service summary. Then you log in to FMCSA’s safety score website as the carrier. FMCSA’s sign-in runs through its Portal and Login.gov. The law lets a carrier see the data “that relates directly to” it (the FAST Act). Your Vehicle Maintenance percentile is 78, a number we made up for this story. That is under FMCSA’s line of 80, so FMCSA is not flagging you. But it is over the 75 that Amazon asks for. It points at the same weak spot the brokers found: your trucks.

Next, read every inspection report behind the numbers. Check the DOT number, the plate, the VIN, the driver’s name and the date. Say all four truck reports are right. Your trucks really had those defects. If one were wrong, you would fix it through a DataQ challenge, and the State that did the inspection would decide it. Keep in mind that a violation on the report counts even if no ticket was written. The scoring manual says violations “are used in the SMS whether or not a citation is issued” (FMCSA’s scoring manual). In plain words, a warning written on the report still counts.

Last, check what FMCSA holds about your company. That comes from a form called the MCS-150. You must update it at least every 24 months, in a month set by the last digit of your DOT number. If you do not, your DOT number can be deactivated (the rule on updates). FMCSA also uses the truck count and the miles on that form to calculate your Unsafe Driving measure (FMCSA’s scoring manual). So wrong numbers there can make you look worse than you are.

Say your record still shows the phone number of the office you left last year. That can cost you more than missed calls. Truckstop’s RMIS says it “flags discrepancies in contact information between RMIS and DOT” (Truckstop’s RMIS page). Amazon says its onboarding team uses your FMCSA contact details to reach you. It asks that they match your application “down to the dash or comma” (Amazon’s Relay FAQ). So update your details whenever your phone, email or address changes. Now you know your three problems: your cargo limit, your trucks and an old phone number.

Chapter 04

What can I fix, and how fast will it change?

You can fix the cause, but you cannot erase a true violation. Improvements appear on three different timelines. Insurance and registration change as soon as the paperwork does. Your out-of-service rates improve as clean inspections add up, because FMCSA counts clean inspections in its math. And each violation counts less as it ages and drops off after 24 months (FMCSA’s scoring manual). So start with the paperwork, then fix the trucks, the hours and the driver files.

On Monday, September 21, you call your insurance agent and raise your cargo coverage to $100,000. The new certificate comes on Monday, September 28. You send it to the first broker and ask it to run your setup again. What a certificate must show is in our guide to the insurance papers brokers need. The same week, you put your new phone number on your FMCSA record. Say the first broker approves you on Monday, October 5. The second still says no. Its rules may weigh your out-of-service rate more, and it does not say. These dates and answers are made up. We cannot tell you how any real broker will decide.

Then the trucks. The rules ask every carrier to “systematically inspect, repair, and maintain” its trucks (the maintenance rule). Before driving, the driver must be sure the truck is in safe operating condition (the rule on driver checks). At the end of each day, the driver writes up any defect he found. You must fix anything that affects safety before the truck goes out again (the rule on driver reports). Each truck also needs a full inspection at least once every 12 months, with proof carried on the truck (the rule on periodic inspection).

Your four out-of-service reports were brakes, a tire and lights. A careful walk-around inspection finds a flat tire or a dead light before an officer does. Brakes also need regular adjustment in the shop. So you ask each driver to check the brakes, the tires and every light before each trip. You ask for a photo of the defect report whenever something is wrong. And you have the brakes checked at every service.

Then the hours. A driver may drive 11 hours. He may not drive after 14 hours on duty, counted from when he comes back after 10 hours off (the hours rule). Your driver in May ran past his 14 hours on a late delivery. So you stop taking loads you can deliver on time only if nothing goes wrong. And you look at each driver’s hours in the ELD once a week.

Then the driver files. You must keep a file for each driver (the rule on driver files). The Driver Fitness group counts roadside violations such as a driver without a valid CDL, or one who is not medically qualified (FMCSA’s scoring manual). So keep license and medical card expiration dates where you will see them in advance.

One cause is new for many owners. A driver must read and speak English well enough to talk with the public, read road signs and answer officials (the rule on driver qualifications). Since June 25, 2025, a driver who fails that check at the roadside is put out of service (FMCSA’s August 2026 proposal). FMCSA has proposed writing this into its own rules, and comments close on October 9, 2026. If a driver of yours struggles with English, work on it before an officer finds it.

Now the math, and why patience pays. For hours of service and for vehicle maintenance, FMCSA divides your weighted violations by all your inspections, clean ones included (FMCSA’s scoring manual). So every clean inspection pulls your measure down. A violation counts three times in its first six months. It counts twice until it is a year old, and once in its second year. Then it drops off. Each violation also gets a weight from 1 to 10 for how serious it is. In these two groups, it gets 2 more if it put the truck or driver out of service. FMCSA runs the numbers again every month (FMCSA’s monthly data file).

Here is how that plays out for you. Your February brake violation has counted twice, not three times, since August. It will count once from February 2027 and drop off in February 2028. Say your trucks get 6 more roadside inspections by March 2027, all clean. Your truck out-of-service rate falls from 4 out of 9 to 4 out of 15. That is from 44% to about 27%. Your percentile should fall too, but it also depends on how other carriers do. We cannot tell you whether that is enough for a given broker, because brokers do not publish that line. But it is the direction every broker wants to see.

What if an FMCSA investigation ever gives you a Conditional rating? You do not have to wait it out. You can ask for a new rating at any time, in writing, with proof of what you fixed. You send it to the FMCSA Service Center for your region. If the rating is Unsatisfactory, FMCSA must review a truck company’s request within 45 days (the rule on rating changes).

Chapter 05

What if my record is clean and I still get turned down?

Then check your authority’s age and your paperwork before assuming safety is the problem. A new authority has no inspections, so there is nothing to score. FMCSA gives no percentile without violations and enough inspections (FMCSA’s scoring manual). What brokers do see is the date your authority became active (FMCSA’s authority history file). The published rules run from no wait at all to a year. C.H. Robinson’s carrier page says you can sign up as soon as your number is active (its carrier page). Armstrong Transport asks for 90 days (its carrier page), Amazon for 180 (Amazon’s Relay FAQ) and MODE Global for a year (its carrier page).

Say another owner runs one truck. Her authority became active on Monday, August 17, 2026. By late September, she has no inspections, no crashes and no rating. Her record is clean because it is empty. C.H. Robinson’s carrier page says she can sign up at once. Its FAQ page says at least 7 days, which means August 24 (its carrier FAQ). Even there, some shippers’ freight “may require” 90 days of experience, it adds. Armstrong’s 90 days run out on November 15, 2026. Amazon typically wants 180 days before onboarding is finished, which for her means about February 13, 2027. Amazon also says she may apply early, and it will keep her updated while she waits (Amazon’s Relay FAQ). MODE Global’s year ends on August 17, 2027. Other brokers turn her down and give no reason.

You may read that most brokers want six months of authority. No count of brokers backs that up. The pages we read ask for anything from no wait to a year. So she does not assume every refusal is about age. She asks, as the first owner did. When it is age, her time is better spent where a new authority is welcome. Our guide on getting loads with a new authority walks through those first months. Our guide on where to find loads compares brokers, load boards and direct shippers.

She uses the wait well. From the start, she carries $1,000,000 of auto liability and $100,000 of cargo coverage, the amounts the brokers above publish. So those insurance limits are not a reason to reject her. She keeps her FMCSA details and her certificate matching. And she gets ready for the new entrant audit. The rule says it comes within 12 months after a truck company gets its DOT number (the rule on audits). The whole audit is in our guide to the new entrant safety audit.

Her first inspections matter most. With so few, one out-of-service order can make her rate 100% for a while. One clean inspection after another is the best record she can build.

Chapter 06

Is it worth the work, and what has changed?

Yes, because your record still affects you after a broker approves you. The services brokers use keep watching you. RMIS says it “continuously monitors carrier compliance” and sends “automatic alerts for any changes in status or documentation” (Truckstop’s RMIS page). Carrier Assure says it recalculates each carrier’s score every day (Carrier Assure). So a lapse in your insurance, or a bad run on the road, can reach the brokers you already haul for.

Amazon works the same way. It said it would enforce its roadside violation limits for carriers already on Relay from February 2026. Carriers with three or more inspections over its limits “may lose access to Relay loads” (Amazon’s post on violation rates). Keeping a Relay account is covered in our guide to the Relay performance score.

What has changed? The biggest change is old, and many guides still miss it. Before December 2015, anyone could look up a truck company’s percentiles in most groups on the public website. Since then, the FAST Act has kept them private (the FAST Act). Advice that says brokers look up your CSA score on FMCSA’s website is out of date. They look at the inspections, rates and measures underneath it. Even a 2024 post on Amazon’s Relay blog says five of the seven groups are public (Amazon’s 2024 post on CSA scores). For a truck company, the percentiles in those groups have not been public since December 2015. You may also read that CSA was replaced by new “compliance categories”. It was not. FMCSA’s scoring manual of June 2026, version 3.21, still uses the seven groups (FMCSA’s scoring manual). Two newer changes matter too. Drivers who fail the English check have been put out of service since June 25, 2025 (FMCSA’s August 2026 proposal). And as of September 2026, Amazon invites you to apply before your 180 days are up (Amazon’s Relay FAQ).

There are things we could not check. FMCSA’s websites block automated tools, so we could not look at the public SAFER and SMS screens themselves. We describe what they carry from the law, FMCSA’s manual and its public data files. We could not see the rules inside any onboarding service, and none of them publishes a cutoff. We found no broker page that sets a line for inspections or out-of-service rates. We do not know how Amazon checks percentiles the public cannot see. And no official figure says how many carriers brokers turn down.

So start with the broker’s answer, then your own record, then the cause behind it. If you want a team to keep your records, insurance papers and inspection follow-up in order all year, here is what we offer.