Out-of-Service Rates Lowest on Record During 2011 Roadcheck Safety Event, CVSA Says

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said overall out-of-service rates during Roadcheck 2011 were the lowest on record.

CVSA said the vehicle compliance rate was 80.7%, up from 80% in 2010, while the driver compliance rate was 95.8% compared with 95.6% a year ago.

“Although overall out-of-service rates are at record lows, there is room for improvement until the roads are free from vehicle and driver violations,” Stephen Keppler, executive director of CVSA, said in a statement.

CVSA said an average of 16 trucks or buses were inspected every minute during the 72-hour safety blitz, which took place June 7-9 at more than 2,500 locations across North America.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration co-sponsors the event with CVSA, along with the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada and Mexico’s Secretary of Communications and Transportation. The event has taken place each year since 1988.

“Roadcheck is about law enforcement partners throughout North America working together for greater truck and bus safety,” FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro said in a statement.

“ATA commends CVSA for completing another successful Roadcheck event,” said Sean McNally, spokesman for American Trucking Associations. “The program provides an excellent reminder about the importance of enforcement and highway safety. We’d also like to note that this year’s record low out-of-service rate highlights the efforts made by the trucking industry to continue to build on our ever-improving safety record.”

CVSA data showed that the compliance rate for the most thorough inspections — Level I — was 77.2% for vehicles, up from 76.7% in 2010, and 96.3% for drivers, unchanged from 2010.

Seat belt violations by drivers also fell to 863, down from 1,159 in 2010, CVSA said.

“It’s a combination of things behind the decline,” CVSA’s Keppler told Transport Topics. “The fleets that are responsible are taking better care of both their equipment and their drivers. Increased inspection activity has a direct impact on crash reduction.”

Keppler, a captain in the California Highway Patrol’s enforcement services division, added that “The decline in [out-of-service] rates are more related to high-visibility enforcement and the public awareness we do surrounding the event.”

Despite trucking’s strong performance during Roadcheck, CVSA noted a couple particular areas of concern.

For example, the group said the percentage of vehicles taken out of service for braking systems problems was 29.2% in 2011, up from 27.1% last year and 26.9% in 2009.

“We’ve seen a decline in brake adjustment-related OOS defects, but an increase in brake system-related defects,” Keppler said. “Carriers need to ensure they are taking a systems-based approach to ensure that they are not just focused on brake adjustment but the entire brake system.”

CVSA also noted that hours-of-service logbook problems were cited in just over half of all violations among drivers during Roadcheck.

“On the driver side, what jumped out this year, even though the total out-of-service rate declined, were defects in areas of concern such as false logs, driving with a suspended license or driving while disqualified,” Keppler said. “Those are pretty significant problems and have a higher weighting on the CSA score typically.”

He was referring to FMCSA’s new Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, instituted in December.

CVSA said that 14.9% of drivers taken out of service during this year’s Roadcheck were for false logs, up from 13.3% last year and 10.4% in 2009.

The organization also said that 5.3% of drivers were taken out of service for suspended licenses, up from 4.3% last year.

The group also said that 97.5% of vehicles hauling hazardous materials passed inspections, while 2.5% were placed out of service, the same rates as a year ago. Among hazmat drivers, 82.1% of vehicles passed, and 17.9% were placed out of service, up from 16.3% in 2010.