Roadcheck 2011: Overall OOS rates lowest since 1991

The Trucker News Services

7/8/2011

WASHINGTON — Results are in from Roadcheck 2011, the three-day, commercial vehicle safety enforcement and education campaign organized annually by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), and overall out-of-service rates were the lowest since Roadcheck began in 1991.

Once again, Hours of Service logbook violations lead overwhelmingly as a percentage of all driver violations cited (50.6 percent of all driver OOS violations).

Inspectors also queried drivers on their use of electronic logging devices: 14 percent were using them.

“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,” CVSA’s Executive Director Stephen A. Keppler said. “Events that focus on ensuring vehicles and drivers are complying with the law, like Roadcheck and all roadside inspections, draw critical attention to out-of-service rates and are shown to also impact crash reductions.”

Nearly 8,000 CVSA and FMCSA certified inspectors at 2,550 locations across North America performed 70,712 truck and bus inspections in 72 hours. Inspectors focused on the North American Standard (NAS) Level I inspection, motorcoach inspections, HOS logbooks, and household goods (HHG) carriers.

An additional emphasis was placed on identifying carriers of household goods (HHG) operating under the radar by using improperly marked rental vehicles and/or operating as a for-hire property carrier rather than HHG carrier. The 12 states that participated in the HHG focus activity identified 32 carriers that required enforcement action.

During Roadcheck 2011 approximately 16 trucks or buses were inspected, on average, every minute for the 72 hours of the event, from June 7-9, occurring from Canada to Mexico.

Drivers were pulled over or directed into weigh stations or other inspection locations and asked to show their CDLs, medical examiner’s certificate and record-of-duty status. Brakes, tires, lights and every major safety component of the truck or bus, plus proper load securement, were also examined during Roadcheck. While Roadcheck has taken place every year since 1988, roadside inspections occur every day across North America, to the tune of more than 3.9 million in 2010.

CVSA sponsors Roadcheck each year with FMCSA, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation in Mexico.

Roadcheck data from 2011 show the overall vehicle compliance rate at 80.7 percent (80.0 percent in 2010), with an overall driver compliance rate of 95.8 percent, compared to 95.6 percent last year. For NAS Level I inspections, the compliance rates were up to 77.2 percent for vehicles (76.7 percent in 2010) and 96.3 percent for drivers (unchanged from 2010). In addition, there were 296 fewer safety belt violations in 2011 (863 vs. 1,159 in 2010).

Inspections of passenger carrying vehicles found a vehicle compliance rate of 91.3 percent in 2011 vs. 91.0 percent in 2010. The motor coach driver compliance rate was 97.4 percent, compared with 96.4 percent in 2010. Hazardous materials inspections resulted in a vehicle compliance rate of 82.1 percent (83.7 percent in 2010) and the driver compliance rate of 97.5 percent remained unchanged from the previous year.

There were 29,609 CVSA Decals issued to vehicles that passed the inspection, up from the number issued in 2010 (26,605).

Here are other highlights of the three-day event:

Driver results:

• All inspections: 96.0 percent of drivers passed, and 4.0 percent were placed OOS, compared with 4.4 percent OOS in 2010

• All Level I inspections: 96.3 percent of drivers passed, with 3.7 percent placed OOS compared with the same percentage last year

• Hazmat: 97.5 percent of drivers passed, and 2.5 percent were placed out of service, the same percentage as in 2010

• Passenger carrying vehicles: 97.4 percent of drivers passed, and 2.6 percent were placed out of service, with 3.6 percent OOS in 2010

Vehicle results:

• All inspections: 81.7 percent of vehicles passed, and 18.3 percent were placed out of service compared with 20.0 percent in 2010

• All Level I inspections: 77.4 percent of vehicles passed, and 22.8 percent were placed out of service compared with 23.3 percent in 2010

• Hazmat: 83.7 percent of vehicles passed the inspection, and 17.9 percent were placed out of service, compared with16.3 percent placed out of service in 2010

• Passenger-carrying vehicles: 91.3 percent of vehicles passed the inspection, and 8.7 percent were placed out of service, less than the 9.0 percent placed OOS last year

Other observations:

• The motor coach emphasis for 2011 resulted in the second highest number of inspections — 1,217 conducted on buses.

• Drivers were surveyed on logbook type. Eighty-six percent of drivers use paper logbooks in the U.S. in 2011, and

• Vehicle OOS rates from Level I inspections were the second lowest on record for Roadcheck, at 22.8 percent.