Official data, computed here
Carrier safety: how do roadside inspections of small fleets turn out?
Across 28,900 active carriers with 5 to 15 trucks and at least 5 inspections in the last 24 months, 24 of every 100 vehicle inspections found a violation serious enough to take the truck off the road until fixed. The typical (median) carrier sits at 22%. About 16% had none. This page shows the spread so you can see where you stand.
SnapshotFMCSA SMS joined to Company CensusData period: inspections in the 24 months to the SMS file of Sep 13, 2026Retrieved Oct 9, 2026, 09:59 UTCretrieved Oct 9, 2026
What this is not
It is not a safety rating, a score, or a ranking of any carrier. FMCSA does not publish BASIC percentiles for property carriers in this file, so we show raw out-of-service rates from the counts. The rate is how often an inspection ended in an out-of-service order. It is a roadside outcome, not a verdict on a company. No carrier is named on this page.
Out-of-service rate by home state
Pooled across 5-to-15-truck carriers based in each state. States with fewer than 30 such carriers in the file show no data. The state is where the carrier is registered, not where it was inspected.
- 11.7% to 21.2% (10 states)
- 21.2% to 24.3% (10 states)
- 24.3% to 26.4% (10 states)
- 26.5% to 27.9% (10 states)
- 28.6% to 32.3% (9 states)
- No data
| State | Active carriers of this size (census) | Carriers with 5+ inspections | Vehicle inspections | Vehicle out-of-service rate | Driver out-of-service rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 2,986 | 425 | 4,784 | 26.6% | 6.4% |
| Alaska | 863 | 35 | 439 | 26.7% | 4.5% |
| Arizona | 2,899 | 392 | 7,364 | 25.4% | 7.0% |
| Arkansas | 1,120 | 224 | 2,435 | 27.8% | 4.7% |
| California | 15,944 | 4,212 | 90,897 | 21.0% | 6.6% |
| Colorado | 4,679 | 283 | 2,936 | 19.0% | 6.1% |
| Connecticut | 2,058 | 175 | 1,673 | 24.1% | 9.1% |
| Delaware | 516 | 122 | 1,407 | 21.3% | 7.2% |
| District of Columbia | 60 | 11 | 164 | no data | no data |
| Florida | 8,572 | 867 | 10,290 | 27.9% | 10.1% |
| Georgia | 7,366 | 648 | 6,548 | 27.7% | 8.7% |
| Hawaii | 705 | 26 | 274 | no data | no data |
| Idaho | 1,531 | 164 | 1,746 | 30.3% | 8.1% |
| Illinois | 6,390 | 1,665 | 20,691 | 25.9% | 6.0% |
| Indiana | 5,041 | 653 | 6,731 | 29.0% | 8.6% |
| Iowa | 2,772 | 323 | 2,830 | 27.2% | 6.2% |
| Kansas | 2,612 | 335 | 3,409 | 19.6% | 4.8% |
| Kentucky | 3,375 | 388 | 4,552 | 20.9% | 5.5% |
| Louisiana | 1,123 | 289 | 3,217 | 24.3% | 5.5% |
| Maine | 1,473 | 119 | 1,143 | 19.8% | 2.9% |
| Maryland | 3,732 | 1,138 | 16,633 | 18.2% | 8.2% |
| Massachusetts | 4,542 | 385 | 4,035 | 21.7% | 8.1% |
| Michigan | 7,471 | 492 | 5,250 | 29.7% | 6.1% |
| Minnesota | 6,712 | 535 | 4,980 | 29.1% | 4.9% |
| Mississippi | 1,144 | 286 | 3,158 | 27.0% | 7.3% |
| Missouri | 3,112 | 582 | 6,100 | 26.5% | 5.7% |
| Montana | 954 | 130 | 1,259 | 22.8% | 5.3% |
| Nebraska | 2,498 | 195 | 1,616 | 26.4% | 5.1% |
| Nevada | 903 | 197 | 2,721 | 23.2% | 5.9% |
| New Hampshire | 825 | 109 | 909 | 19.9% | 5.4% |
| New Jersey | 4,803 | 1,062 | 15,709 | 21.2% | 9.8% |
| New Mexico | 1,147 | 142 | 1,819 | 24.5% | 8.4% |
| New York | 10,608 | 1,083 | 12,281 | 17.7% | 7.9% |
| North Carolina | 4,954 | 874 | 9,537 | 26.3% | 6.5% |
| North Dakota | 1,028 | 115 | 1,050 | 30.8% | 4.8% |
| Ohio | 6,347 | 1,166 | 12,951 | 26.1% | 6.2% |
| Oklahoma | 2,682 | 341 | 3,451 | 25.8% | 6.2% |
| Oregon | 2,709 | 352 | 4,000 | 25.4% | 5.7% |
| Pennsylvania | 9,143 | 1,371 | 15,397 | 21.4% | 6.3% |
| Rhode Island | 487 | 50 | 451 | 23.1% | 10.3% |
| South Carolina | 1,900 | 289 | 2,913 | 32.3% | 6.8% |
| South Dakota | 846 | 114 | 959 | 27.3% | 5.2% |
| Tennessee | 2,606 | 514 | 5,427 | 28.8% | 7.3% |
| Texas | 14,006 | 3,725 | 61,012 | 27.8% | 8.7% |
| Utah | 2,512 | 261 | 2,786 | 30.2% | 6.9% |
| Vermont | 394 | 90 | 860 | 21.2% | 4.8% |
| Virginia | 2,380 | 358 | 3,617 | 22.3% | 9.0% |
| Washington | 4,875 | 763 | 9,707 | 28.6% | 6.0% |
| West Virginia | 1,099 | 265 | 3,403 | 11.7% | 4.8% |
| Wisconsin | 6,045 | 433 | 3,720 | 24.3% | 5.7% |
| Wyoming | 858 | 80 | 806 | 24.7% | 6.2% |
Active carriers means status active in the FMCSA Company Census with 5 to 15 power units reported on their last registration update. Only carriers that appear in the SMS file with at least 5 vehicle inspections are counted in the rates.
The spread across small fleets
Share of carriers by their own vehicle out-of-service rate (cohort of 28,900).
| Rate band | Carriers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 0% | 4,617 | 16% |
| up to 10% | 1,815 | 6% |
| 10-20% | 5,714 | 20% |
| 20-30% | 6,079 | 21% |
| 30-40% | 3,724 | 13% |
| 40-50% | 2,982 | 10% |
| 50-75% | 3,361 | 12% |
| 75-100% | 608 | 2% |
Which kind of violation shows up
| Category | What it covers | Carriers with any violation | Carriers with an investigation flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | Violations such as speeding, following too closely, improper lane change and reckless driving found at inspections. | 71% | 17 |
| Hours-of-Service Compliance | Hours-of-service violations: driving over the limits or falsifying or missing logs. | 58% | 125 |
| Driver Fitness | Driver qualification: a valid commercial license, medical card and endorsements. | 46% | 155 |
| Controlled Substances and Alcohol | Drug and alcohol violations found at an inspection. | 5% | 158 |
| Vehicle Maintenance | Equipment defects: brakes, tires, lights, load securement and the like. | 97% | 51 |
Categories follow the FMCSA Safety Measurement System groupings. The descriptions are our plain wording. The last column counts carriers with an acute or critical indicator from an investigation within 12 months, as defined in the file. The FMCSA methodology pages return an access error to our server, so confirm the category definitions on the FMCSA site.
What this number means
- Out-of-service means an inspector found a defect or a driver issue serious enough that the truck or driver could not continue until it was fixed. The vehicle rate is vehicle out-of-service inspections divided by vehicle inspections. It uses inspections in the last 24 months.
- For 5-to-15-truck carriers the middle is 22%. A fleet at 11% or lower is in the better quarter of this group. A fleet above 38% is in the worse quarter.
- Drivers: the middle carrier is at 4.2% and the pooled rate is 7.1%. Driver out-of-service orders are mostly hours-of-service or license issues.
- Small numbers swing. With five inspections one event moves your rate by 20 points. Judge a rate with at least 10 to 15 inspections behind it.
What to do about it
- Pull your own inspection counts from your FMCSA SMS login or your inspection reports and enter them in the calculator.
- If the vehicle rate is above the middle, the cheapest fix is a short pre-trip routine on brakes, tires and lights, and a documented repair log.
- If a violation on your record is wrong, FMCSA has a process to challenge it (DataQs). Do it early, the data ages out after 24 months.
- Do not use this page to judge another company. A rate is a roadside outcome for a mix of routes and equipment.
Where do your numbers sit?
Enter your last 24 months of inspections. Nothing leaves your browser.
Your vehicle out-of-service rate
enter numbers
- Your driver rate
- Cost of out-of-service events
Comparison group: active carriers with 5 to 15 power units and 5 or more inspections in the FMCSA files. The example numbers are invented placeholders.
Where the numbers come from
What we could not get
- BASIC percentiles for property carriers. The passenger-carrier file says it includes "percentile and alert status not found in other downloads". The property file has none.
- FMCSA pages and the SMS download page. They return 403 to our server, so methodology wording is not copied here.
- Per-carrier lookup. We do not show or list carriers by name. That avoids looking like a rating service.
Related: lane scorecard, state trucking profiles, open data atlas.
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