Which trucking companies have best CSA rating?

So much time he's made a whopping 126 posts in one year. I've made a lot more posts than that sitting in the bunk of my truck and I only hook up to the internet once a week in the truck.

 

Here is an updated 'the good, bad, and the ugly'. The updated CSA scores for November 2012 in the vehicle maintenance and condition category. The lower the better.


THE BEST:

12.2% Heartland Express

THE GOOD:

12.2% Heartland Express
21.0% Armellini
22.1% Marten
31.7% Maverick
31.9% Roehl
32.7% Con-way
33.6% Covenant
34.6% Central Refrigerated
36.0% Poly Trucking
38.0% Prime
45.6% Boyd Bros (fatigued driving at 70.5 yikes)
38.9% Crete Carrier
39.5% Celadon
41.6% CR England
42.1% Calex Express
43.3% Stevens
49.6% Decker
43.4% Smith Transport (fatigued driving at 89.7!)
45.8% Averitt Express

THE BAD:

48.8% Transport America
46.3% JB Hunt
50.5% Landair
51.7% Knight
52.0% US Xpress
52.4% Furniture Row
52.8% Werner
56.0% Swift
58.1% Quality Carriers

THE UGLY:

60.6% Schneider National
63.6% Pam Transport
64.6% National Freight
65.7% FFE
65.3% USA Truck
67.2% KLLM (unsafe driving 70.6!)
80.9% Dart

 

OOPS, I had a couple out of order. Here is the corrected order.

Here is an updated 'the good, bad, and the ugly'. The updated CSA scores for November 2012 in the vehicle maintenance and condition category. The lower the better.


THE BEST:

12.2% Heartland Express

THE GOOD:

12.2% Heartland Express
21.0% Armellini
22.1% Marten
31.7% Maverick
31.9% Roehl
32.7% Con-way
33.6% Covenant
34.6% Central Refrigerated
36.0% Poly Trucking
38.0% Prime
38.9% Crete Carrier
39.5% Celadon
41.6% CR England
42.1% Calex Express
43.3% Stevens

THE BAD:

43.4% Smith Transport (fatigued driving at 89.7!)
45.6% Boyd Bros (fatigued driving at 70.5 yikes)
45.8% Averitt Express
46.3% JB Hunt
48.8% Transport America
49.6% Decker
50.5% Landair
51.7% Knight
52.0% US Xpress
52.4% Furniture Row
52.8% Werner
56.0% Swift
58.1% Quality Carriers

THE UGLY:

60.6% Schneider National
63.6% Pam Transport
64.6% National Freight
65.3% USA Truck
65.7% FFE
67.2% KLLM (unsafe driving 70.6!)
80.9% Dart

 

Wal-Mart 5.2% 6142 power units, 703+ million VMT(Vehicle Miles Traveled) Based on 2011 results
UPS 15.2% 97642 power units, 2.3+ billion
FedEx 18.3% 30964 power units, 854+ million

Crap, should have posted number of inspections too.

 

Its interesting to look at a carrier and the violations and see what is in a basic pretrip and what is something a mechanic would notice over your common driver. Drivers aren't doing themselves any favors.

 

The real question is, does CSA have any valid correllation to safety in the real world? Those numbers are nice, but really don't always match up with real statistics... like DOT reportable crashes per millions of miles driven.

 

IMHO, I think most crashes are driver error, whether it be you or somebody crashing into you. Mechanically,I think tires and brakes would be most important when considering accidents. I do understand what you are saying. A missing mudflap, missing reflective material on cab, or faulty fire extingusher is not going to keep accidents down. However, they are still important componets in the grand scheme of it all.

Cargo securement would be an important one too. Safety has many different angles.

 

I always find it interesting when other people say CSA is a joke or is not relevant to anything (I'm not saying you are saying that). People might not like it, but it is the only public measurement of these things. I'm not saying CSA is good, but it is the law of the land and it is what we have to live with. The numbers are not random. One could argue that the DOT HOS rules are good or bad, but CSA just measures the compliance with those rules as they are. One could argue that the equipment rules are good or bad, but the CSA just measures the compliance with those rules. There is a correlation between the actions of the company and the drivers and the CSA scores. Heartland has brand new equipment and they get that equipment through the shops often and work them over like crazy. It's no mistake that their CSA score is the best. Look at someone on the worst end of the list - its not a mistake that their CSA scores are bad. The question is if there is a correlation between CSA scores and accidents. I'm not smart enough to know that answer. But doesn't common sense tell you that if you are bad in all the categories - HOS, unsafe driving, drug and alcohol, vehicle maintenance, etc. that you are probably more likely to not be a safe carrier and to have more accidents over the long-term, or to put yourself more at risk of having a big one, even if you haven't had that big accident yet? How could it not. If you don't operate in a disciplined manner than you might get lucky for awhile, but you can only roll the dice so long as a company. Accidents are just that - accidents. Never know when they are going to happen and can happen to the best carrier. But there is such a thing as putting yourself in a better position to lower the odds that you will be in that accident. I do question though the discretion that law enforcement has to write you up for CSA points. You get a warning for something and not a ticket and it still counts against you on your CSA.

Even if you don't like or agree with CSA, it is relevant to a driver. If you are with a company that gets good CSA scores you in turn will benefit. If you are with a company that has bad CSA scores it will hurt you.

 

How does Epes and Millis CSA scores compare?