In The News

CVSA Roadcheck June 8-10, so what about Mexico?

A top CVSA official says Mexico will indeed be participating in the annual Roadcheck inspection blitz scheduled to take place June 8-10 throughout North America.

“As far as we know, all of our members are participating,” said Steve Keppler, interim executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

Mexico did not participate in the 2009 Roadcheck because of the H1N1 virus, officials said at the time. Later that summer, transportation officials from Mexico reported that the Mexican Federal Police who had been conducting commercial vehicle inspections had been re-assigned and were focusing on organized crime instead.

But during the most recent CVSA meeting in San Antonio, senior government officials from Mexico reiterated their commitment to CVSA programs including the Roadcheck inspection blitz, Keppler said.

“We’ve had a series of conversations with them. They’re committed to having a good truck and bus program,” Keppler told Land Line Magazine.

The participation level remains unknown.

“We generally don’t know until the results come in,” Keppler said.

In previous years, the release of Roadcheck data from Mexico took weeks or months longer than data released by the U.S. and Canada. Even then, Mexico showed a fraction of inspections and out-of-service orders compared with the other two countries.

During the 22nd Roadcheck event in June 2009, CMV enforcement performed a record 72,782 inspections, including more than 57,000 Level I inspections, on trucks and buses at 2,100 locations. Vehicle compliance rates during the 2009 event were about 80.4 percent, the highest rate since 1996. Driver compliance rates also set a record in 2009 at 95.7 percent.

The primary reasons cited by inspectors for placing vehicles and drivers out of service continue to be brakes and logbooks, respectively.

Last year, during 7,800 inspections in Canada, 97 percent of drivers earned a passing grade, up from 95 percent a year ago, while 82 percent of vehicles passed with a similar rate to 2008.

Learn more about the program at www.cvsa.org .

[email protected]

www.LandLineMag.com