Methodology & Data Sources

Transparency · Data Provenance · Methodology

Every number on WeighStation cites its FMCSA source dataset, discloses its methodology, and acknowledges known limitations. No black-box scoring. No assumptions. This page documents exactly how the WeighStation Score is computed, what data it draws from, and where the model has known gaps.

Contents

1. Data Sources
2. Scoring Model
3. Score Components
4. Risk Tiers
5. Known Limitations
6. Data Refresh Cadence
7. Disclaimer

Section 1

Data Sources

All WeighStation data is sourced exclusively from the FMCSA Open Data Program via the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Open Data Catalog at data.transportation.gov. All datasets are publicly available at no cost. WeighStation does not collect or use any proprietary or non-public data.

Dataset	API ID	Records	Refresh	Used for
Company Census File	`az4n-8mr2`	4.4M	Daily	Carrier registry, identity, authority status, fleet size
SMS AB PassProperty	`4y6x-dmck`	714K	Monthly	Five BASIC performance measures, OOS rates, inspection counts
Crash File	`aayw-vxb3`	4.85M	Daily	Individual crash events, severity, fatalities, injury counts
InsHist All With History	File download	33,454	Daily	Complete insurance cancellation history per carrier
AuthHist All With History	File download	4.9M	Daily	Full operating authority grant and revocation history
Carrier All With History	Daily diff	—	Daily	Current authority status per carrier
Revocation All With History	Daily diff	—	Daily	Authority revocation records

Note: FMCSA has indicated the Open Data Program will undergo schema changes as the agency modernizes for the MOTUS system launch in 2026. WeighStation monitors for schema changes and updates its ingest pipeline accordingly.

Section 2

Scoring Model

The WeighStation Score is a composite 0–100 score where higher = safer carrier. It is computed monthly when SMS data refreshes and uses percentile ranking within the SMS dataset to normalize raw measure values across carriers of different sizes and operation types.

The score is composed of four weighted components:

// WeighStation Score formula
WeighStation Score =
  Safety Score × 0.40
  + Insurance Stability Score × 0.25
  + Crash Risk Score × 0.20
  + Authority Integrity Score × 0.15

// All component scores are 0–100. Final score is 0–100.

Percentile ranks are not published in the FMCSA bulk download. WeighStation computes them using a PERCENT_RANK() window function over the full SMS dataset at each monthly refresh. A carrier at the 90th percentile on Vehicle Maintenance has better performance than 90% of all rated carriers in the dataset.

Section 3

Score Components

Safety Score (40% weight)
Computed from percentile ranks on five SMS BASIC measures. Each measure is inverted so that a higher percentile rank = better score (lower violation rate relative to peers). Weights within the Safety Score:

Safety Score =
  (1 − Unsafe Driving percentile) × 25%
  + (1 − Vehicle Maintenance percentile) × 25%
  + (1 − HOS Compliance percentile) × 20%
  + (1 − Driver Fitness percentile) × 15%
  + (1 − Controlled Substances percentile) × 15%

// Result scaled 0–100. Carriers with no SMS data score 0 on this component.

Insurance Stability Score (25% weight)
Penalizes carriers with documented insurance cancellations and authority revocations. Source: FMCSA InsHist All With History.

Insurance Stability Score =
  100
  − (cancellation_count × 15)
  − (has_revocation_flag × 20)
  Minimum: 0

// cancellation_method = 'Cancelled' (case-insensitive) from InsHist
// has_revocation_flag = 1 if any revocation record exists in AuthHist

Crash Risk Score (20% weight)
Penalizes carriers based on crash severity and frequency. Source: FMCSA Crash File (aayw-vxb3).

Crash Risk Score =
  100
  − (fatal_crashes_all × 25)
  − (injury_crashes_all × 5)
  − (total_crashes_all × 2)
  Minimum: 0

// Crash counts are all-time from FMCSA Crash File, not limited to 24-month window

Authority Integrity Score (15% weight)
Penalizes carriers with revocation history or active out-of-service orders. Source: FMCSA AuthHist All With History, OOS Orders.

Authority Integrity Score =
  100
  − (has_revocation × 30)
  − (oos_order_flag × 20)
  Minimum: 0

Section 4

Risk Tiers

Carriers are assigned to one of five risk tiers based on their WeighStation Score and data availability.

Tier	Score range	Definition	April 2026 count
GREEN	80–100	Low risk. Carrier has strong safety metrics, stable insurance history, and no revocation record.	103,500
YELLOW	50–79	Moderate risk. One or more elevated signals warrant monitoring.	108,733
RED	0–49	High risk. Significant safety, insurance, or authority signals. Requires careful review before engagement.	829
INSUFFICIENT DATA	—	Carrier has SMS data but fewer than 3 inspections on record. Not scored. Not GREEN by default.	466,064
UNRATED	—	Carrier has no SMS data. Typically intrastate or private carriers. Zero inspections ≠ zero risk.	1,509,911

Tier counts are updated monthly when SMS data refreshes. Counts above are from April 2026 · Source: FMCSA SMS AB PassProperty (4y6x-dmck) · WeighStation analysis.

Section 5

Known Limitations

WeighStation is committed to disclosing all known limitations of the scoring model and data. The following limitations are documented and acknowledged in every Intelligence Report.

HazMat & Crash Indicator BASICs excluded

The HazMat Compliance BASIC and Crash Indicator BASIC are not published in the FMCSA SMS bulk download — they are computed internally by FMCSA only. These two measures are excluded from the WeighStation Safety Score. Carriers with significant HazMat exposure may be under-penalized.

Revocation penalties are not time-decayed

A revocation from 2008 currently penalizes the Authority Integrity Score identically to a revocation from 2025. WeighStation is evaluating a time-decay curve for future scoring model updates.

Low inspection volume scoring behavior

Carriers barely above the 3-inspection threshold with high OOS rates may score in YELLOW due to percentile-rank weighting dominating raw-rate penalty. WeighStation is investigating minimum inspection thresholds and absolute-rate caps for future model updates.

UNRATED carriers are not scored GREEN

Carriers with no SMS data receive UNRATED status, not GREEN. The absence of inspection data does not indicate the absence of risk — it indicates insufficient data to score. WeighStation intentionally does not assign favorable scores in the absence of data.

Insurance cancellation deduplication

A small number of carriers (<1% of scored carriers) have structural duplicate records in the FMCSA InsHist dataset. WeighStation applies deduplication at ingest but may over-count cancellation events for affected carriers. Investigation ongoing.

SMS snapshot — no trend history

The FMCSA SMS bulk download contains only the current refresh month. WeighStation currently shows peer percentile distribution rather than 12-month trend lines. Trend history will become available as WeighStation accumulates monthly SMS snapshots over time.

Section 6

Data Refresh Cadence

WeighStation ingests from FMCSA Open Data Program datasets targeted to update daily by 9:30AM US Eastern Time. Score recomputation occurs monthly following the SMS data refresh.

Data layer	Source refresh	WeighStation ingest
Carrier registry (identity, authority status)	Daily	Daily
Insurance history (cancellations)	Daily	Daily
Authority history (revocations)	Daily	Daily
Crash file	Daily	Daily
SMS BASIC scores	Monthly	Monthly
WeighStation Score recomputation	—	Monthly (post-SMS refresh)

Section 7

Disclaimer

Each dataset used by WeighStation is provided as a public service by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to enhance public access to information. This information is constantly changing. The datasets are only a snapshot of the data at the time the datasets were generated.

All information provided by WeighStation is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a legal contract between WeighStation and any person or entity unless otherwise specified. The information provided by WeighStation is not intended as, nor offered as, legal advice.

WeighStation scores and flags are derived from FMCSA open data using a disclosed methodology. They are not endorsements, certifications, or regulatory determinations. Users are responsible for their own carrier qualification decisions.

In no event shall WeighStation, nor any of its principals or employees, be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused, or alleged to be caused, by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any WeighStation data, scores, or reports.

Source: FMCSA Open Data Program · data.transportation.gov · FMCSA Content Disclaimer applies to all underlying datasets.