Much confusion surrounds the role and relation of traffic tickts to CSA scores. Let’s start with the basics.
Only traffic tickets in conjunction with a roadside inspection result in CSA points. A ticket in your car does not count. A ticket in your commercial mv without a roadside inspection does not count. If it is not written up on the roadside, it does not count.
Think of this way–tickets are reported to the state motor vehicle department. They are applied to a driver’s mvr. Roadside inspections are ultimately reported to the federal government. These reports are the basis for your CSA score. If a roadside inspection report also includes a violation for which a ticket was issued, CSA points will result.
Tickets are challenged through the judicial process. If you are found not guilty or the ticket is dismissed, it comes off of your mvr.
However, for a ticket issued in conjunction with a roadside, the outcome of the hearing will NOT remove the points from your CSA score. You must submit a challenge via Data-Q to remove the CSA points. This is done by going to https://dataqs.fmcsa.gov/.
Data-Q is the appeal process for CSA points. Drivers or companies may submit challenges to any roadside violation via Data-Q, whether or not a ticket was issued.
Further, just because you won on the ticket does not, by itself, mean that you will be sucessful on the subsequent Data-Q. You must independently support your Data-Q appeal, regardless of the outcome of the ticket. In fact, you do not need to challenge and win the ticket to succeed in the Data-Q. They are separate and distinct.
State your support for your Data-Q challenge. Set out the basis why the roadside violation should be removed in a way that a person reviewing the request can understand and be persuaded by the correctness of your challenge. Just because you say it does not make it so–support your position with facts and information.
Each state has an office that reviews the Data-Q challenges. Each may have its own rules. For example, in Pennsylvania, a driver must submit a Data-Q appeal within 30 days of the roadside while a company has a year.
