The results are in: Just over 13% of truckers would fail an inspection.
That number may seem ludicrously high (or low, depending on who you drive for), but that was the ratio of drivers placed out of service during “Operation Southern Shield.” At the end of February, the Arizona Department of Public Safety teamed up with the enforcement and compliance division of the AZDOT for an inspection blitz that resulted in 826 inspections and a total of 109 drivers being placed out of service.
The blitz took place on I-10 over the Arizona/New Mexico border between Maricopa and Pinal counties. The vast majority of drivers were cited for log violations, with only 11 drivers being cited for driving with a suspended license or for being otherwise disqualified from operating commercial vehicles.
In addition to the 109 drivers, 44 trucks were placed out of service. Now obviously, this is a relatively small sample size, but if these numbers held true for the rest of the country, that would translate to 5.3% of commercial trucks being unsafe to drive on our nation’s roadways.
The Arizona DPS also set up booths at a truck stop and a Wal-Mart to hand out education materials, answer questions, and promote public awareness of safety issues. The safety issues included the dangers of driving in blind spots or driving too close to trucks, seatbelt usage, the “Move Over” law, and log book and equipment-related issues.
13% of truckers failed, and 5.3% of trucks failed. There is almost certainly some overlap there, but that is still a frightening percentage of drivers and vehicles that should not have been on the road.
It’s not always easy to stand up for yourself and demand that technical issues be fixed, or put your foot down and tell the dispatcher that you need to pull over and rest, but we as truckers need to be more careful and take more pride in our work if we’re ever going to be known as Knights of the Road again.
Next Story: Police Ride Shotgun With Truckers To Nab Aggressive Drivers
Source: overdriveonline
Image Source: providencejournal
John Peterson says
And 90% of the violations are out of the drivers hands.
vic says
mostly the result of the big companies trying to keep all the $ they can in their pocket..several times i pulled into a weigh station and asked them to inspect my ”company truck” as the only way to get repairs/tires/etc was if i got a ticket for it….then you go to the owner operators, many of whom are paid just barely enough to buy fuel and keep up insurances on their truck and subsist on crackers, much less be able to afford to do things like buy tires/brakes/etc…RAISE THE RATES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Terry Andersen says
Most drivers I have met over 30 yrs do take pride in their work. More pride than the people that are doing inspection anyways. If a driver were to load 826 loads and only tie 109 of these load down right they would not have jobs for long. And if they were to do it that way the driver would not be bragging about how out of 826 loads he or she only load 109 right how can I get a job like CVSA were I can be wrong as much as they are they are trained to do their job are they not.
J. Carter says
AZ DPS setup in ONE truck stop and at ONE Walmart, to hand out educational literature.
Yeah, THAT’s making an effort, isn’t it.
Paint me as totally unimpressed.
KM says
I was lucky to find a job working for TransAm because when it came to saftey and compliance, they are the best in the nation. If I ever inspected equipment and found anything wrong, they would fix it right then, even before I would leave a drop yyard, they have sent repair mechanics to me. Two times I was out of hours and couldn’t make. It to a repair shop before I ran out of hours, being in the middle of no where when I discovered a problem, and Transam told me to start my 10 hour break, then they sent a mechanic to me. Two times I picked up trailers that should’ve never been loaded. One time, about 3:00 a.m., I founf a broken spring on a trailer preloaded. I didn’t even hook to it. Transam had the shipper put the trailer to the dock and unload it. Shipper had to reload shipment onto another trailer. Shipper wasn’t too happy about it, they had to reprint the bols, had to reschedule the “hot” load onto an
ye olde dave says
I don’t blame the shipper for being unhappy. It was the slug of a driver that dropped the trailer in that shape without telling anyone that should be disciplined. Shipper was perfectly within his rights to be PO’ed.
Sidney Beane says
I too have driven for Trans Am…wish I had never resigned and drove for Arnold Transport…They were bought out by US Xpress…as for vehicle maintenance, they are on top of things…looking to buy a truck in the future…Trans Am might be the one I sign with…keep up the good work Trans Am…
KM says
It had taken two shifts to complete reload, but I didn’t care, I went back to bed, had a nice breakfast that morning. Transam is a good company. How problems happen is when drivers don’t inspect equipment and take time to have repairs done as they happen. Shippers are not responsible for equipment, but they should notice if the trailer is sitting on top of the tires and leaning, next time this shipper will.
marcel says
This is the equivelant of saying %1oo percent of shippers take forever to load and dont care about a drivers time. Simply because the past 2 ive been to were very slow….
Kevin says
Picking one truck stop and one WalMart is 100% better than the rest of the country is doing! All these new laws and rules on the drivers will do very little to reduce crashes if the general public continues to be ignorant about how a big truck performs on the road. Just this past weekend on I-495 in DC I watched a 4-wheeler shoot across 3 lanes so as to not miss their exit onto I-270. She got to the 3rd lane and jamed on the brakes 2 feet in front of a big truck. (I swear 2 feet) of course the big truck rear ended the car. She would have done this any vehicle because she oblviously busy w/make up, phone,etc. My point is “The public needs to be educated!” My hat is off to the AZ DPS! It’s a start.
milton says
well first off it does not say what the log violations were could be form and manner so i do not take these blitz to be a accurate sign because when they do these they are picker than normal and there is a big difference between not dotting your I s and crossing your Ts and being 2 or 3 days behind and as for the vehicle out of services what was wrong once again no detail to know why except for the suspended licences that could be from lack of regeristing medical card or other reasons that the driver was not notified for . so explain your violations before you jump to conclusions . just as when accidents happen first thing out of there mouth HE MUST OF FELL ASLEEP DONT JUDGE TIL YOU KNOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!