About this document

This document provides an explanation of the methodology used to calculate the amounts of civil penalties for violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) and Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs) using the Uniform Fine Assessment (UFA) 4.0 Software

About the Uniform Fine Assessment (UFA) 4.0 Software

The Uniform Fine Assessment (UFA) Software was developed by FMCSA to promote uniformity and consistency in the assessment of civil penalties for violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs), as well as other statutes and regulations enforced by FMCSA. UFA assists FMCSA Staff and its State partners that perform any type of investigation in calculating civil penalties for violations of the federal statutes and regulations. 

By statute, FMCSA is required to consider legislatively mandated factors when assessing a civil penalty for violations of the FMCSRs, and HMRs, as well as other statutes and regulations relating to household goods transportation. Consistent with the statutory language, certain statutory factors are considered for the entity or individual against whom the penalty is proposed and other statutory factors are considered for each violation. UFA also applies the factors applicable to FMCSRs and HMRs to violations for which no penalty factors are otherwise required by statute to be considered. In calculating a civil penalty, 
the UFA software takes into consideration all statutory factors, regulatory requirements, and administrative policies including any administrative minimum penalties. 

UFA use is mandated for all civil penalties processed through FMCSA’s adjudication system. Deviations from UFA must be approved by the Field Administrator. Any fine proposed outside of UFA must consider all applicable statutory penalty factors. 

UFA prepares a report demonstrating the manner in which FMCSA considered the statutory penalty factors, regulatory requirements, and administrative policies. A sample 
UFA report is included as Attachment 1 and is used throughout this Explanation to illustrate the UFA calculations. The sample provided is not intended to represent the penalties assessed for the violations cited. The penalty assessed in any particular case will be based on consideration of the statutory factors, regulatory requirements, and administrative policies.