Original article published by CVSA
Photo: Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
Today is the first day of International Roadcheck, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 72-hour commercial motor vehicle and driver inspection and enforcement initiative. International Roadcheck is an annual high-volume, high-visibility vehicle and driver safety compliance campaign that aims to:
- Highlight the importance of driver pre- and post-trip inspections.
- Remind motor carriers of the importance of proactive vehicle maintenance.
- Affix the CVSA decal to commercial motor vehicles that successfully pass a Level I or Level V Inspection.
- Remove commercial motor vehicles and drivers with out-of-service conditions from our roadways until the out-of-service condition is resolved.
- Advance CVSA’s efforts to ensure uniformity, consistency and reciprocity of commercial motor vehicle inspections.
- Educate industry and the general public about the importance of safe commercial motor vehicle operations and the roadside inspection program.
- Gather data to be reported publicly later this year.
- Provide a snapshot of the out-of-service rate during a fixed period of time.
- Work toward our goal of preventing commercial motor vehicle crashes, injuries and fatalities.
Each year, CVSA highlights certain aspects of the roadside inspection. This year, inspectors will focus on anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and cargo securement to emphasize the importance of those aspects of vehicle safety.
Over the three days of International Roadcheck, inspectors primarily conduct the North American Standard Level I Inspection, which is a thorough 37-step procedure to check the driver’s operating credentials/requirements and the vehicle’s regulatory compliance.
Inspectors may instead opt to conduct an alternative inspection-procedure level, such as a Level II Walk-Around Driver/Vehicle Inspection, Level III Driver/Credential/Administrative Inspection or Level V Vehicle-Only Inspection. Read about the inspection levels and inspection procedures.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) latest Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts, from 2019 to 2020, which are the most recent years recorded:
- The number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes decreased 4%.
- The number of large trucks involved in injury crashes decreased by 10%.
- The number of large trucks involved in property-damage only crashes decreased 21%.
- The number of buses involved in fatal crashes declined from 235 to 156.
“Although it’s good to see those numbers tracking down, we are still not satisfied, because lives are still being lost,” said CVSA President Maj. Chris Nordloh with the Texas Department of Public Safety. “Until the number of fatalities on our roadways is zero, we will not rest.”
Maj. Nordloh added, “International Roadcheck, along with routine everyday commercial motor vehicle inspections, is one of the ways CVSA members are doing their part to make our roadways safe for the traveling public.”
International Roadcheck is the largest targeted enforcement outreach program on commercial motor vehicles in the world, with nearly 15 trucks and motorcoaches inspected, on average, every minute across North America during a 72-hour period. Since its inception in 1988, nearly 2 million roadside inspections have been conducted during International Roadcheck.
Every year, CVSA’s member jurisdictions throughout North America voluntarily take part in International Roadcheck with participation from FMCSA, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and Mexico’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation.
View last year’s International Roadcheck results.
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