CVSA Finds Fewer Violations During Annual Roadcheck

This story appears in the July 7 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said 23.9% of the 52,345 vehicles that underwent comprehensive inspections during Roadcheck last month were placed out of service, the lowest percentage in the program’s 21-year history.

Overall, 20.8% of the 67,931 vehicles inspected June 3-5 were placed out of service, the lowest percentage since 1997. In the highest-ever total number of inspections, brake defects continued to be the most common violation, CVSA said.

Data also showed the percentage of drivers placed out of service dropped to 5.3% from 6.2% in 2007, as the number of hours-of-service violations fell dramatically but seat-belt violations increased.

“It is clear the safety message is being heard and that the increased enforcement presence is making a difference,” Stephen Campbell, CVSA’s executive director, said in a statement. “We appreciate the industry’s continued commitment to make safety its top priority, not just during Roadcheck but throughout the entire year.”

“The numbers bear out that education and enforcement are having a positive impact on safety,” said Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations. “ATA supports this annual safety inspection blitz and the removal of unsafe trucks from the road.”

CVSA said 9,148 inspectors were set up at 1,683 inspection sites throughout North America during the three-day safety event. The 67,931 inspections surpassed the record total last year by more than 5,000.

The number of Level I inspections was also a record, surpassing the 2007 total by nearly 3,000. These comprehensive, 37-step inspections check numerous components of the vehicle, as well as a driver’s license and log book.

The 23.9% vehicle out-of-service rate in these inspections was down from 24.3% in 2007 and well below the 34.8% rate recorded in 1991.

An out-of-service truck must be repaired immediately after the inspection, or it could be impounded. Drivers face fines, and fleets may need to find a replacement driver to deliver a load, depending on the violation.

“Even though the economy is down and operating costs for fleets are way up, the results demonstrate that the trucking industry continues to put safety first,” said Dave Osiecki, ATA’s vice president of safety, security and operations.

Brakes remained the dominant problem, 52.6% of the total vehicle defects, CVSA said, but a decrease from a high of 56.6% in 2004.

On the driver side, CVSA said 3,599 were placed out of service from the 67,931 Roadcheck inspections. Despite about 5,000 fewer inspections a year ago, 3,881 drivers — or 6.2% — were placed out of service then, the highest rate since 1999.

The percentage of drivers placed out of service following Level I inspections this year also fell, to 4.9%, from 5.4% in 2007.

CVSA said much of this improvement could be attributed to more familiarity with the HOS rules, which had been tied up in litigation in recent years.

With less uncertainty about HOS, these violations accounted for 55.6% of the total driver infractions, compared with 66.3% last year.

However, the agency said safety-belt violations rose to 1,226 this year from 829 in 2007.

Steve Keppler, CVSA’s director of policy and programs, attributed the increase in violations to tightened enforcement.

“This year we took a hard line,” he said.

He noted that 63,527 safety-belt citations were issued to commercial drivers in 2007, making it one of the most frequent violations.

The percentage of drug and alcohol violations among commercial drivers also declined, to 0.8% from 1.6% in 2007, which had been a 0.7 percentage point gain from the year earlier.

The number of drivers hauling hazardous materials and placed out-of-service declined to 2.4% from 3.5% in 2007, and hazmat vehicles taken out-of-service declined by 0.1% to 17.6%.

“The annual Roadcheck event provides a great focus on commercial vehicle safety,” said John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. “It is also important that the public do its part by driving safely in the vicinity of large trucks and buses.”

CVSA said central to Roadcheck’s message is that safety compliance pays for fleets.

ATA has projected the industry’s fuel costs will surpass $168 billion this year, and Keppler said being safety conscious helps fleets save on maintenance costs and lost time.

“There’s an economic benefit to having safe vehicles,” he said. “It’s exponentially more [expensive] to fix problems out on the road . . . . The average amount of downtime [for being placed out-of-service] is 8.7 hours, and that’s real money to fleets.”