GREENBELT, Md. — Of the total inspections conducted this past June 5-7 by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) as part of its annual International Roadcheck, only 3.9 percent of drivers were placed out-of-service (OOS), CVSA reported today.
HOS violations represented 43.7 percent of all driver OOS conditions; however, of the total number of inspections conducted, less than 2 percent of drivers were placed OOS for HOS violations.
Commercial motor vehicle enforcement personnel throughout Canada and the United States conducted 67,502 roadside inspections on large trucks and buses as part of the Alliance’s inspection and enforcement initiative.
From all inspections, inspectors identified 11,897 vehicles with OOS conditions and 2,664 drivers with OOS conditions. Of the North American Standard (NAS) Level I Inspections conducted, 21.6 percent of commercial motor vehicles were placed OOS.
Of all NAS Level I, II and III Inspections, 3.9 percent of drivers inspected were placed OOS.
During an inspection, if an inspector identifies critical inspection items on a vehicle with specific violations, he or she will render the vehicle OOS, which means mechanical defects must be corrected in order for the vehicle to be permitted to proceed. A driver found to be in violation of the conditions in the OOS criteria, will be placed OOS until the condition can be rectified.
International Roadcheck is a three-day enforcement event when CVSA-certified inspectors conduct large-scale, high-visibility roadside inspections of commercial trucks and buses and their drivers. These inspections occurred at inspection sites, weigh stations and roving patrol locations along roadways throughout the 72-hour event.
Each year, special emphasis is placed on a certain category of violations. This year’s focus was on HOS compliance. Since the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate went into effect on December 18, 2017, throughout the United States, with CVSA’s NAS OOS criteria effective April 1, 2018, this year’s International Roadcheck, held two months after OOS enforcement began, served as the perfect opportunity to highlight the importance of HOS regulations and compliance, a CVSA news release said.
CVSA pulled and analyzed data from the three days of International Roadcheck from the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) and pooled that data with data collected and submitted by CVSA’s Canadian jurisdictions to report overall statistics from Canada and the United States for 2018 International Roadcheck.
- A total of 67,502 Level I, II and III Inspections were conducted.
- 21.6 percent of commercial motor vehicles that received Level I Inspections were placed OOS; 3.9 percent of drivers who received a Level I, II or III Inspection were placed OOS.
- There were 15,981 vehicle OOS conditions; 3,035 driver OOS conditions; and 211 hazardous materials/dangerous goods (HM/DG) OOS conditions.
- The majority of inspections (45,400) were NAS Level I Inspections. A Level I Inspection is a 37-step procedure that includes examination of driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness. Other inspections conducted included the NAS Level II walk-around inspection (11,458) and the NAS Level III driver-only inspection (10,644).
- The top vehicle OOS conditions were for brake systems (4,536), tires and wheels (3,058) and brake adjustment (2,612). The top driver OOS conditions were for HOS (1,326), wrong class license (648) and false record-of-duty status (308).
- 736 motor coaches were inspected.
- 60,321 inspections were conducted in the United States; 7,181 inspections were conducted in Canada.
- 21.6 percent (9,819) of vehicles that had a Level I Inspection conducted (45,400) were placed OOS for vehicle-related violations.
- The top three OOS vehicle violations were for brake systems (28.4 percent), tires and wheels (19.1 percent) and brake adjustment (16.3 percent).
- Of the vehicles carrying HM/DG that had a Level I or II Inspection conducted, the vehicle out-of-service rate was 13.1 percent.
- Of all HM/DG out-of-service vehicle violations, the top three were for loading (25.6 percent), other HM (21.3 percent) and shipping papers (19.9 percent).
- Brake adjustment and brake system violations combined to represent 44.7 percent (7,148) of all out-of-service vehicle violations.
- 9.4 percent of the motor coaches that received a Level I Inspection were placed out of service for vehicle violations.
Of all driver violations, driver-related results are as follows:
- 3.9 percent (2,664) of drivers who received a Level I, II or III Inspection were placed out of service for driver-related violations.
- Of the drivers operating vehicles carrying HM/DG who were inspected, 1.7 percent were placed out of service for driver violations.
- 1.4 percent of the motor coach/bus drivers who received a Level I, II or III Inspection were placed out of service for driver violations.
- Of all driver out-of-service conditions, the top three were for hours of service (43.7 percent), wrong class license (21.4 percent) and false record of duty status (10.1 percent), and
- There were 729 safety belt violations.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
