BASIC Percentile
A 0-100 peer-relative safety score across seven FMCSA categories: Unsafe Driving, HOS, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances, Driver Fitness, Hazmat, and Crash Indicator. Higher is worse. CarrierOk computes all 7 BASICs including the two FMCSA withholds from public view.
Learn moreWhat is BASIC Percentile?
BASIC stands for Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories. FMCSA's Safety Measurement System evaluates motor carriers across seven BASICs using data from roadside inspections, crash reports, and investigations over a rolling 24-month window. Each carrier is ranked against peers with similar operations (measured by vehicle-miles traveled and inspection counts), producing a percentile from 0 to 100 where higher scores indicate worse relative safety performance. The seven categories are: Unsafe Driving, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance, Driver Fitness, and Crash Indicator. FMCSA only publishes five of these publicly — Crash Indicator and Hazmat are withheld from the public SAFER site. CarrierOk computes and serves all seven, along with the underlying measures and alert flags, updated more frequently than FMCSA's monthly SMS cycle. BASIC percentiles are the foundational inputs to the ISS score and are the most granular safety data available for any carrier with inspection history.
Why does basic percentile matter?
Insurance Underwriters
BASIC percentiles are the core of automated safety screening — most programs set hard decline thresholds (e.g., any BASIC above 75) and use weighted combinations for tiered pricing.
Freight Brokers
A carrier with elevated Unsafe Driving or Vehicle Maintenance BASICs is more likely to cause an incident on your load — check these before tendering, not after a claim.
Developers & Platforms
BASIC percentile fields are the most valuable data points in the CarrierOk API for building risk models — use basic_alert_* flags to trigger automated workflows without parsing raw percentiles.
Key values & thresholds
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving Alert | ≥ 65th percentile |
| HOS Alert | ≥ 65th percentile |
| Vehicle Maintenance Alert | ≥ 80th percentile |
| Controlled Substances Alert | ≥ 80th percentile |
| Driver Fitness Alert | ≥ 80th percentile |
| Crash Indicator Alert | ≥ 65th percentile |
| Hazmat Alert | ≥ 80th percentile |
BASIC Percentile in the CarrierOk API
This data is available via the /v2/profile endpoint. The following fields are returned in the carrier profile:
/v2/profilebasic_percentile_unsafe_drivingbasic_percentile_hours_of_servicebasic_percentile_vehicle_maintenancebasic_percentile_controlled_substancebasic_percentile_driver_fitnessbasic_percentile_hazardous_materialsbasic_percentile_crash_indicatorbasic_alert_unsafe_drivingbasic_alert_hours_of_servicebasic_alert_vehicle_maintenancebasic_measure_unsafe_drivingbasic_measure_hours_of_servicebasic_measure_vehicle_maintenanceFrequently asked questions
What is a good BASIC percentile score?
Lower is better. A carrier at the 20th percentile performs better than 80% of its peers. FMCSA intervention thresholds vary by category — Unsafe Driving and HOS trigger alerts at the 65th percentile, while Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances, Driver Fitness, and Hazmat trigger at the 80th percentile. Most insurance programs prefer carriers below the 50th percentile across all categories.
Why are only 5 BASICs shown on SAFER?
FMCSA withholds Crash Indicator and Hazardous Materials percentiles from its public SAFER website due to ongoing methodological debates about crash accountability. The data still exists in FMCSA's internal systems and is used for enforcement prioritization. CarrierOk computes all seven BASICs from the underlying inspection and crash data so that underwriters and brokers have the complete picture.
How often are BASIC percentiles updated?
FMCSA updates SMS data monthly, typically in the last week of each month. The calculation uses a 24-month rolling window of inspections and crashes, with more recent events weighted more heavily. CarrierOk processes these updates and makes them available via API the same day FMCSA publishes, and supplements with more frequent intermediate calculations.
Related terms
CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability)
FMCSA's enforcement and compliance program that uses the Safety Measurement System to identify and prioritize high-risk motor carriers for intervention. CSA drives BASIC percentile scores, warning letters, and compliance reviews. CarrierOk provides all 7 BASIC percentiles, alert flags, and historical trend data via API.
ISS Score (Inspection Selection System)
FMCSA's composite 1-100 algorithm for prioritizing carriers at roadside inspections. Higher scores mean higher inspection probability. The insurance industry widely uses ISS as a single-number risk indicator because it synthesizes multiple BASIC dimensions. CarrierOk serves ISS scores via the iss_value API field.
OOS Rate (Out-of-Service Rate)
The percentage of a carrier's roadside inspections that result in an out-of-service order, meaning the driver or vehicle is prohibited from operating until the violation is corrected. National average vehicle OOS rate is approximately 21%. CarrierOk provides both driver and vehicle OOS rates and flags carriers exceeding national averages.
SMS (Safety Measurement System)
FMCSA's quantitative system for measuring motor carrier safety performance using inspection, crash, and investigation data. SMS produces the BASIC percentile scores that underpin the CSA enforcement program. CarrierOk computes all 7 BASIC percentiles from SMS source data and updates more frequently than FMCSA's monthly cycle.
Start verifying carriers with the full data picture.
All 7 BASICs, ISS scores, 50+ fraud signals, and same-day monitoring alerts — from $149/mo for one user.