In The News

Roadcheck 2012 finds out-of-service rates near 'historic' lows

The numbers are in for Roadcheck 2012, a commercial vehicle safety enforcement and outreach event that never fails to push the trucking industry to put its best foot forward. Despite a record number of inspections made during the 72-hour campaign, the results clearly showed the continuation of a successful downward trend in out-of-service violations.

During the 25th annual event June 5-7, an average of more than 1,000 trucks or buses were inspected every hour throughout North America. The United States, Canada and Mexico participated with inspections occurring either fixed or temporary inspection locations.

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance member jurisdictions conducted a record 74,072 truck and bus inspections. Of those inspections, 48,815 were North American Standard Level 1 inspections of which 22.4 percent of vehicles and 3.9 percent of drivers were placed out of service.

“These vehicle and driver OOS rates for Level 1 inspections represent the second lowest achieved in 25 years,” said CVSA’s executive director Stephen A. Keppler.

U.S. inspections during the 72-hour blitz numbered 66,947. The OOS rate for U.S. vehicles was 21.2 percent, and for U.S. drivers 4.8 percent. In Canada, inspectors reported 7,125 inspections, resulting in 18 percent of the vehicles placed out-of-service. The OOS rate for Canadian drivers was 2.7 percent.

The overall OOS rates for the entire event in 2012 (includes all inspection levels) were 20.9 percent for vehicles and 4.6 percent for drivers, both of which were higher than last year’s numbers. Despite the positive trend on the Level 1 inspections, this highlights that one in five vehicles selected for inspection was found with a violation serious enough to be considered an imminent safety hazard.

The 74,072 inspections conducted during Roadcheck 2012 included 652 inspections of passenger carrying vehicles and 4,826 inspections of vehicles carrying hazardous materials. Of passenger carrying vehicles inspected, 8.6 percent of vehicles and 2.5 percent of drivers were placed out of service. Of vehicles carrying hazardous materials, 15.6 percent of vehicles and 2.3 percent of drivers were placed out of service. Approximately 27,000 CVSA decals were issued during Roadcheck 2012 to vehicles that were found to be without violations in the critical inspection items.

Also during Roadcheck 2012, 10 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces engaged part of their enforcement activities to focus on vehicles serving oil field and natural gas production sites, where increases in commercial truck traffic have raised significant safety concerns.

CVSA is an international not-for-profit organization comprising local, state, provincial, territorial, and federal motor carrier safety officials and industry representatives from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. It sponsors Roadcheck each year with the support of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (Mexico).

The annual three-day Roadcheck event has resulted in the inspection of over 1.2 million vehicles since it began in 1988.

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