As insurance brokers who work closely with trucking and hazmat carriers, we strive to ensure our clients are aware of important updates in the industry and the potential impact on their insurance costs. The upcoming major Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) changes will significantly affect your operation’s safety profile and insurance costs. Here’s what you need to know.

What’s Changing?

The FMCSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) is being overhauled to improve fairness, accuracy, and clarity. These changes will affect how violations are categorized, scored, and prioritized. It’s crucial that carriers understand the changes and adapt accordingly to protect your business.

Restructuring violation categories

Vehicle Maintenance—one of the FMCSA’s Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs)—is now two separate categories for driver-observed issues and mechanical violations typically found during routine maintenance. Drug and alcohol violations and Operating While Out-of-Service (OOS) are now included under the Unsafe Driving category. This shift puts more weight on behaviors that pose immediate risks to public safety—and increases how these violations affect your scores.

Simplifying grouping and scoring

FMCSA introduced “violation groups” to prevent multiple citations for the same issue from stacking during inspections. Additionally, they replaced the 1–10 severity scale with a simpler system: a violation now carries either a weight of 1 point (standard) or 2 points (OOS or disqualifying). This makes the system more transparent but also highlights serious safety concerns more sharply in your profile.

Heightened Stakes for Hazmat

Hazmat carriers should be especially alert. These operations are already under increased scrutiny, and with the new structure, even small infractions may carry more weight in your overall score. Between new grouping logic and more heavily weighted violations, a few missed details could lead to a higher Inspection Selection System (ISS) score and greater insurance risk exposure. Staying proactive is essential to protect your Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) scores and your credibility. 

Here are the top five metrics we believe most significantly impact hazmat haulers under the FMCSA’s new SMS guidelines. These indicators represent the areas with the greatest potential for risk and operational impact. Proactive compliance and risk management strategies in these areas will be essential for hazmat haulers.

Hazmat Compliance Scrutiny 

• Change: Hazmat compliance violations (placards, emergency response documents, packaging) will experience significantly increased FMCSA scrutiny. 
• Impact: Violations previously considered minor (e.g., missing placards, paperwork errors) may now heavily impact scores. 
• Action: Proactively audit hazmat compliance and verify documentation. 

Increased Severity of Out-of-Service (OOS) Violations 

• Change: Simplified severity scoring—OOS violations carry double the weight of standard violations. 
• Impact: Hazmat OOS violations (placarding errors, improper securement, vehicle defects) can now sharply increase BASIC and ISS scores. 
• Action: Implement pre-trip inspections and immediate corrective actions to avoid OOS conditions. 

Crash Indicator Weighting 

• Change: FMCSA prioritizes crash rates more heavily, increasing weight given to past crashes. 
• Impact: Even a small increase in crash frequency significantly escalates inspection prioritization, especially for hazmat haulers. 
• Action: Use telematics, dashcams, and ongoing defensive driving training to minimize crash incidents. 

Vehicle Maintenance (Driver-Observed vs. Mechanic-Level) 

• Change: FMCSA distinguishes “driver-observable” maintenance violations from general maintenance issues, placing higher accountability on drivers. 
• Impact: Issues such as visibly worn tires, lights, brakes, and leaks become especially critical and impactful to BASIC scores. 
• Action: Require photographic documentation for daily driver inspections to ensure compliance. 

Transparency & Public Accessibility of Safety Data 

• Change: FMCSA’s enhanced data transparency means shippers and insurers have greater visibility into carrier compliance scores. 
• Impact: Elevated BASIC scores may directly impact insurance premiums, contract negotiations, and business opportunities. 
• Action: Regularly review BASIC data, proactively manage compliance trends, and prepare clear safety data for stakeholders. 

Insurance companies are watching this closely. Carriers that understand and respond to these changes are more likely to maintain favorable rates and avoid added scrutiny during underwriting. On the flip side, those who ignore the changes may find themselves paying more or struggling to secure competitive coverage. Your safety profile now speaks louder and clearer than ever. 

Reduce Your Risk

Now is the time to take action. Review your recent violations, retrain your drivers and maintenance staff, and strengthen your documentation and inspection procedures. We recommend utilizing the Prioritization Preview resource on the FMCSA website to learn more about the enhanced SMS.

Getting ahead of these changes now will set you up for safer operations and stronger coverage in the long run. If you need help making sense of how this affects your insurance program or risk strategy, let’s talk.