Your score moved. Now what?
A percentile is only useful if you can act on it. Here's a practical, BASIC-by-BASIC starting point. The fastest wins come from fixing what's weighted heaviest and what recurs most — which is exactly what the violation drill-down in a free account ranks for you, by severity and time decay.
Unsafe Driving
What drives it: Speeding, reckless/aggressive driving, improper lane change, texting, seatbelt.
- → Coach the small number of drivers generating most violations — UD is usually concentrated.
- → Dashcams and telematics deter the behaviors that score highest (speeding, following distance).
- → Defensive-driving refreshers for repeat offenders before the next inspection.
Hours of Service (HOS) Compliance
What drives it: Log falsification, driving over hours, form-and-manner errors, no record of duty status.
- → Audit ELD edits and unassigned drive time weekly — most HOS hits are avoidable paperwork.
- → Tighten dispatch so schedules don't force drivers past their clock.
- → Train on form-and-manner: small logging errors stack up fast.
Vehicle Maintenance
What drives it: Lights, brakes, tires, and other OOS defects found at roadside inspection.
- → Enforce real pre-trip/post-trip inspections — lights and tires are the most common (and cheapest) hits.
- → Move to scheduled preventive maintenance instead of fix-on-failure.
- → Fix the high-severity items first (brakes, steering) — they're weighted heaviest.
Controlled Substances / Alcohol
What drives it: Positive tests, refusals, and use/possession violations.
- → Make sure your random testing program actually hits its rates and is documented.
- → Check the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse before every hire.
- → A single violation here is heavily weighted — prevention is the whole game.
Driver Fitness
What drives it: Expired/invalid CDL or medical card, missing qualification-file documents.
- → Track CDL and medical-card expirations with reminders — these are 100% preventable.
- → Keep driver qualification files complete and current.
- → Verify endorsements match the equipment and freight.
Found an error in your record?
If a violation or crash on your record is wrong, you can challenge it through FMCSA's DataQs system at dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov. Fixing bad data is one of the fastest ways to move a percentile.
General guidance, not compliance advice. Carrier-Aware is not affiliated with or endorsed by FMCSA.