Inspectors Cast Wide Net at Roadcheck Safety Blitz

This story appears in the June 10 print edition of Transport Topics.

LANDOVER, Md. — Driver Paul Miller sat in the cab of his big rig parked in a FedEx Field lot here June 4, chomping on a cigar and looking a little dejected as mechanics feverishly worked to repair his blown trailer wheel seal.

This was the last place Miller wanted to be — a temporary graveyard of sorts for trucks placed out of service in the shadow of a sports stadium. He said it was the first time he’s been in this situation in his 35 years behind the wheel.

“It’s just one of those things,” he said calmly. “It just couldn’t be avoided. It just happens when you’re on the road all the time.”

Miller was among dozens of truckers cited in the early hours of the formal kickoff of Roadcheck 2013, a coordinated three days of stepped-up roadside and on-road inspection efforts by law enforcement throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“We have tightened the net around unsafe operators,” said Anne Ferro, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a co-sponsor of the event along with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. “And today is a phenomenal demonstration of the three days of Roadcheck, a demonstration of the zero tolerance that we as state, local and federal enforcement partners hold to get the bad actors off the road.”

Those potential “bad actors” did not include truckers who are stopped for relatively minor violations or the many truckers who pass the inspections with no problems.

Ron Compton of tank fleet Airgas Carbonic Inc. and Rich Thompson, a driver for Active Crane Rentals Inc., both passed their Level I inspections during the kickoff event.

“We’re pretty much professional all the time,” Compton said. “We have a good shop.”

Likewise, Thompson said he trusts his company and mechanics to take good care of the equipment.

“Preparing is what you’re supposed to do every day before you turn the key,” Thompson said.

Level I inspections are the most comprehensive and include detailed checks of nearly all aspects of the vehicle and driver’s information.

In all, about 150 Maryland state troopers and local police officers were on hand for the kickoff conducted on the mammoth concrete parking lots surrounding FedEx Field, home of the National Football League’s Washington Redskins.

All commercial vehicles passing the FedEx Field exit on Interstate 95/495 were instructed to pull off the road for possible inspections. As they lined up, officers ran their Department of Transportation and license numbers looking for carriers with bad safety measurement scores or those who had never received an inspection, said William Schaefer, director of vehicle programs for CVSA.

“They don’t have enough inspectors to inspect every vehicle, so they have to have some sort of selection process,” Schaefer said.

As a result, many truckers who had good safety measurement scores were waived back onto the interstate without being inspected.

Other truckers were not inspected when truck volumes got too heavy for the number of inspectors available, said Schaefer.

“They may need to say take every third one because they can’t process that many,” Schaefer added. “They want to keep the process moving.”

Schaefer also said there was a plan in place for commercial drivers who failed to exit at FedEx Field, whether because they missed instructions signs, got stuck in an inside lane or just decided not to stop.

Multiple mobile officer units were standing by to catch up to vehicles that continued down the interstate. The officers could then use their discretion to conduct a roadside inspection, Schaefer said.

Out-of-service rates and other results from this year’s Roadcheck event will not be available for several weeks, a CVSA spokeswoman said.

This year, a special focus was placed on load securement and on motor coaches, although very few buses showed up for inspection at the kickoff event.

Ferro said cargo-securement violations represent one of every 10 citations issued by law enforcement, which makes this year’s focus “vitally important.”

“If there’s a loose load traveling on a flatbed, serious consequences can result,” Ferro said.

Last year, of the roughly 500 inspections during the first six hours of Roadcheck at FedEx Field, 133 trucks were placed out of service, said Capt. Norman “Bill” Dofflemyer, division commander of the Maryland State Police.

That’s a little higher than the national out-of-service rate for heavy trucks, according to FMCSA. Of the 3.1 million inspections in 2012, 20.8% of trucks and 4.9% of drivers were placed out of service.

Dofflemyer said that over the event’s 26 years, the most common violations have been issued for brakes, logbooks, commercial driver licenses, load securement and tires.

Dofflemyer said he expected this year’s Roadcheck numbers to be similar to last year’s figures, which were the second-lowest in history. Overall, 95.4% of all truck and bus drivers passed inspections, with only 4.6% placed out of service.

Likewise, the overall out-of-service rate for all vehicle inspections was 20.9%, compared with the record low of 19.3% set in 2011.