Roadcheck 2011 Shows CDL Driver Safety Continues to Improve
CVSA’s annual 72 hour enforcement campaign, Roadcheck, was conducted June 7-9. The results from the effort were recently announced, and the numbers look better than they have for years. The data reveals that the commercial motor carrier and motor coach industries continue to improve the maintenance and safety of their operations, with overall out-of-service (OOS) rates being the lowest since Roadcheck began.
Nearly 8,000 CVSA and FMCSA certified inspectors across North America performed 70,712 truck and bus inspections during the three-day event. Inspectors focused on the North American Standard (NAS) Level I inspection, motorcoach inspections, hours of service logbooks, and household goods (HHG) carriers.
Drivers were pulled over or directed into weigh stations or other inspection locations and asked to show their commercial driver's license, 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.
Once again, hours of service (HOS) logbook violations lead overwhelmingly as a percentage of all driver violations cited, as over 50% of drivers placed OOS because of HOS violations. With CSA’s Fatigued Driving BASIC, these HOS violations affect both the driver’s and the carrier’s CSA scores. Only 14% of those drivers inspected indicated they were using electronic logs.
This year’s data shows the overall vehicle compliance rate at 80.7% (80.0% in 2010), with an overall driver compliance rate of 95.8% (95.6% from last year). For Level I inspections, the compliance rates were up to 77.2% for vehicles (76.7% in 2010) and 96.3% for drivers (unchanged from 2010). In addition, there were 296 fewer safety belt violations in 2011 (863 vs. 1,159 in 2010).
"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," said CVSA's Executive Director Stephen A. Keppler. "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."
This is especially true with as we ALL look to improve our CSA scores.
If you are a driver who was inspected during Roadcheck 2011, please share your experience by commenting on this post. Were you cited for anything, warned for anything, or did you get a clean inspection?
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