DOT speeding violations: what 49 CFR 392.2 says and how a speeding cite counts on your CSA score

A roadside speeding violation is cited under 49 CFR 392.2, the rule that ties a commercial motor vehicle to the traffic laws of the place it is driving. In FMCSA’s current SMS input data there are 207,735 rows for the four speeding codes (6–10, 11–14 and 15 or more mph over, and work zones), all in the Unsafe Driving BASIC of your CSA record. This guide quotes the rule, shows how much each speed range weighs, explains what a ticket and a court result change, and sets out what a DataQs challenge can and cannot fix.

The rule, word for word

49 CFR 392.2: “Every commercial motor vehicle must be operated in accordance with the laws, ordinances, and regulations of the jurisdiction in which it is being operated. However, if a regulation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration imposes a higher standard of care than that law, ordinance or regulation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulation must be complied with.”

So the speed limit itself comes from the state or local law where the stop happened. The federal rule makes breaking it a violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, and the inspection report records it with a code for the speed range.

There is a second, carrier-side rule. 49 CFR 392.6: “No motor carrier shall schedule a run nor permit nor require the operation of any commercial motor vehicle between points in such period of time as would necessitate the commercial motor vehicle being operated at speeds greater than those prescribed by the jurisdictions in or through which the commercial motor vehicle is being operated.”

How much each speeding code weighs

From FMCSA’s SMS input data (read 6 November 2026), all in the Unsafe Driving BASIC:

• 3922SLLS2, speeding 6–10 mph over the limit: severity 4 (98,741 rows).
• 3922SLLS3, speeding 11–14 mph over: severity 7 (54,960 rows).
• 3922SLLS4, speeding 15 or more mph over: severity 10 (37,762 rows).
• 3922SLLSWZ, speeding in a work or construction zone: severity 10 (16,272 rows).
• 3926MC, the carrier scheduling a run that needs speeds over the limit (392.6): severity 5.

Here the speed range decides the weight. A cite coded one range too high costs real points: 11–14 over weighs 7 where 6–10 over weighs 4.

What does not count

• 1 to 5 mph over. FMCSA’s SMS Methodology says speeding violations in the 1 to 5 mph over range (392.2-SLLS1) “were removed from the SMS, regardless of when the inspection occurred.” The reason given is the speedometer rule, 49 CFR 393.82: “The speedometer must be accurate to within plus or minus 8 km/hr (5 mph) at a speed of 80 km/hr (50 mph).” If a 1–5 mph cite is counting on your record, ask why.
• Generic speeding. A general speeding cite (392.2S) that does not give the range carries a severity of 1 for inspections on or after 1 January 2011, under the same Methodology appendix.

How a speeding violation counts on your CSA score

• Which inspections. The Unsafe Driving BASIC uses violations recorded in driver inspections (Levels 1, 2, 3 and 6) in the past 24 months. The same violation cited more than once on one inspection is used once.
• Ticket or no ticket. The Methodology is direct: violations reported during a traffic enforcement stop “do not always result in issuing a citation/ticket to the driver, but are used in the SMS whether or not a citation/ticket is issued.”
• No out-of-service weight. “Out-of-service (OOS) weights are not assigned for Unsafe Driving violations.” The severity weights on one inspection in one BASIC are capped at 30.
• Time weight. The severity is multiplied by 3 for a violation in the last 6 months, 2 from 6 to 12 months, and 1 from 12 to 24 months. After 24 months it no longer counts.
• Carrier size, not inspection count. The Unsafe Driving measure divides the weighted points by your average power units times a utilization factor based on miles driven, not by your number of inspections. A percentile needs at least three inspections with an Unsafe Driving violation, and the intervention threshold for a general property carrier is 65% (60% for hazardous materials carriers, 50% for passenger carriers). More on the levers: how to lower your CSA score.

Worked example (a hypothetical inspection, arithmetic on the rules above). Two months ago a driver is cited 3922SLLS3, 11–14 mph over: 7 × a time weight of 3 = 21 toward your Unsafe Driving measure. If the same report records the posted limit and the measured speed and they differ by 9 mph, the code contradicts the report’s own numbers. Corrected to 3922SLLS2, the same violation counts 4 × 3 = 12.

The ticket and the court

If the officer also wrote a ticket and it went to court, the court result can change the violation. FMCSA’s SMS Methodology (Table 2-1): a citation that is dismissed or found not guilty removes the violation; a conviction of a different charge sets it to severity 1 with no out-of-service weight. A conviction on the original charge leaves it as it is. Nothing happens automatically: the carrier or driver files a Request for Data Review in DataQs with certified documentation of the court result. The full process: your ticket was dismissed in court.

A speeding violation with no ticket has no court case behind it, so there is no court result to file.

Before you challenge: what a reviewer can act on

1. Check the driver, the unit and the carrier are yours. Match the driver, VIN, plate and unit number on the report against your records and leases. If the inspection belongs to another carrier, that is a different request: an inspection on your record that isn’t yours.
2. Check the code against the report’s own numbers. Where the report records the posted limit and the speed, subtract. A range that does not match the code is a correction the reviewer can see from the report itself.
3. Do not argue from what the report leaves out. A report that does not print the measured speed, or how it was measured, is not by itself a reason to remove the violation: the reviewing agency can ask the officer, and the officer can supply it. A challenge works when a document contradicts the report, not when the report is brief.
4. Use the court result if there is one. A dismissal, a not guilty finding or a conviction on a different charge, with the certified court document attached.
5. Check for a 1–5 mph cite. It should not be counting in the SMS at all.
6. File it properly. One request, its proof attached on the first submission: how to dispute a DOT violation and file a DataQ.

If none of these applies and the report is accurate, a challenge will not remove the violation. It loses weight at 6 and 12 months and stops counting at 24.

Sources

• 49 CFR 392.2, Applicable operating rules and 49 CFR 392.6, Schedules to conform with speed limits (eCFR, current to 4 November 2026), quoted above.
• 49 CFR 393.82, Speedometer (eCFR, current to 4 November 2026).
• FMCSA, Safety Measurement System (SMS) Methodology, Version 3.21 (methodology revised May 2026): Table 2-1 (court results); Unsafe Driving BASIC, pp. 3-1 to 3-6 (driver inspection Levels 1, 2, 3 and 6, one cite per inspection, used with or without a ticket, no OOS weight, cap of 30, time weights, power units and utilization factor, safety event groups, thresholds); Appendix B, p. B-10 (1–5 mph and generic speeding).
• FMCSA, “SMS Input – Violation” dataset, data.transportation.gov: the speeding codes beginning 3922SLLS and 3926, their descriptions, BASIC, violation group and severity weight, read 6 November 2026.