Brake woes were once again the top out of service violation discovered during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 72-hour International Roadcheck inspection and enforcement initiative May 16-18.
In the U.S. 4,041 trucks (25.4%) were parked with Brake System violations and another 2,236 (14%) with Defective Service Brakes. Brake problems were two of the top three reasons cited during the campaign with tires (19%) ringing in spot No. 2.
Cargo Securement (12.4%) and Lights (11.4%) round out the top 5.
The focus of this year's campaign was anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and cargo securement. There were 2,975 cargo securement violations and 4,127 ABS violations – four were discovered on motorcoaches, 1,426 on power units and 2,697 on trailers.
Nearly 60,000 commercial motor vehicles were inspected in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. as part of the enforcement blitz and 81% of the commercial motor vehicles and 94.5% of the commercial motor vehicle drivers inspected did not have any out of service violations.
Of the 19% of the vehicles CVSA-certified inspectors inspected and discovered at least one out of service violation, those 11,270 commercial motor vehicles were removed from roadways until the violations were corrected. There were 17,479 vehicle out-of-service violations in total.
Inspectors also restricted 5.5% (3,256) of the commercial motor vehicle drivers inspected who were found to have at least one OOS driver violation. There were 5,280 driver out-of-service violations in total.
The top driver violation by a wide margin was Hours of Service (39.4%) followed by False Logs (27.4%), Other (9.5%), Canceled/Revoked License (8.2%) and No Medical Card (4.8%). A total of 949 safety belt violations were issued during this year’s International Roadcheck. Meaning, 1.6% of commercial motor vehicle drivers inspected were not wearing their safety belt.
A total of 116,669 violations were identified throughout the effort, which included all driver and vehicle out-of-service violations and violations that were not out of service, combined.
Inspectors also checked commercial motor vehicles carrying hazardous materials/dangerous goods (HM/DG) to ensure they were being transported safely and compliant with federal regulations. During International Roadcheck, 2,853 HM/DG inspections were performed, and inspectors discovered 236 HM/DG-related out-of-service violations.