There’s a three day period in June where truckers know that if they’re on the road, they’re probably going to get an inspection. This year, Roadcheck 2013 fell on June 4th, 5th, and 6th and netted 47,771 vehicle inspections and 71,630 driver inspections. This year’s Roadcheck was carried out by approximately 10,000 CVSA and FMCSA inspectors at roughly 2,500 different locations nationwide. Only 4.3% of drivers were placed out of service, but the big news is that of the 47,771 vehicles that were inspected, roughly 24% of them were placed out of service.
At the beginning of the Roadcheck 2013 campaign, Mark Savage, a major with the Colorado State Patrol and the president of the CVSA gave a speech where he outlined the purpose of the nation’s largest commercial vehicle safety blitz.
“Motor carrier safety enforcement is ultimately about improving the safety of our nations’ roadways for all drivers and passengers,” he said. “Ultimately, we want to reduce crashes and save lives. Inspectors are looking for the bad actors—a minority of operators on the road—whose vehicles are not well maintained or whose drivers are fatigued or otherwise operating in an unsafe manner. Our ultimate goal is to take unsafe drivers and vehicles off the road.”
The numbers are worse than last year’s Roadcheck which saw 22.4% of vehicles placed out of service and 3.9% of drivers placed out of service.
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Source: overdrive
No doubt companies worried less and less about maintenance and repair. This should concern people more then tired truckers. Bad brakes, worn out parts can be dangerous to the motoring public. I see a lot of tread on the road these days. Also a increase in broke down trucks. Seems preventive maintenance has gone out the window. Maybe its because companies are not willing to give up road time for repairs or they simply are fixing only what is broke to save money? I think with service intervals being extended it is also having a affect on other items that are not being checked as frequently an also drivers are not doing proper inspections. Again, that goes back to the lack of professionalism that has hit the trucking industry.
“Only 4.3% of drivers were placed out of service, but the big news is that of the 47,771 vehicles that were inspected, roughly 24% of them were placed out of service.”
It is ridiculous how these figures are manipulated to make the trucking industry appear unsafe.
Inspectors do not conduct complete inspections on every truck that passes through an Roadcheck site. As CVSA President Savage says, they try to concentrate on those vehicles which, when quickly eyeballed, convince the inspector that he should take a closer look. That’s a good thing. We don’t want inspectors wasting time inspecting vehicles which are in good shape. We want them to look for indications that an inspection might identify violations. So, all that this means is that the inspectors were correct to inspect 24% of the time.
According to this article, there were about 50.000 vehicles inspected over a three day period by 10.000 inspectors. From experience we know that more than 9 out of 10 trucks which roll through and inspection site are waved through. But nobody counts them and nobody reports that number. In a three day period of concentrated inspection activity, at 2,500 inspection sites, it is easy to guess that at least 500,000 trucks were pulled in. Of them, 50,000 were inspected and 12,500 were put out of service. That’s an out of service rate of 2.5%! In other words of all the vehicles pulled in during this concentrated period, 97.5% were fine. That’s a high A and far from the middle C implied by this article.
The last sentence of really bugs me. It implies that a 24% OOS rate this year is worse than a 22% rate last year. It’s not. It’s better. It means that the inspectors improved their ability to identify that small universe of vehicles with defects. I would like to see a 100% rate, based on fair inspections, because it would show that our professional and skilled inspectors are concentrating on the “bad actors” and not tying up commerce with unnecessary delays caused by inspections.
Keep up the good work CVSA. What you do is important. But, please be fair in characterizing the results of Roadcheck.
Excellent points, Mike.
Good points, They say 50 thousand trucks inspected nation wide by ten thousand inspectors.. that’s 5 trucks per inspector in 3 days??? sound s like a pretty easy job,,, How many trucks operate in the U.S.?
Estimates of 15.5 million trucks operate in the U.S.. Of this figure 2 million are tractor trailers so 2 million tractor trailers not counting expeditors hot shots etc…so they inspected less than 4 percent of the trucks on the road.. How many trucks get put out of service because they HAVE to qualify their Safety Blitz that the would normally let slide….I was in wheeler ridge california scale getting a inspection when a Mexican driver pulled in and sat there with his truck running, The inspector yelled hey turn your truck off but the driver just sat there. So he jumped up on his running board and said you speak English and the guy says NO…. the inspector told him then get out of here… I said your not going to inspect him because he doesn’t speak English and he said hell no Im not getting under that truck and have him run me over…. go figure…
Some very good points here, but let’s not overlook that the inspections may or may not be fair. I was with my husband in SD and we were pulled in for an inspection. When the officer did a walk around, he claimed the lights on our trailer weren’t working properly. I got out, (as I knew they had been just a couple of miles up the road.) WHILE I was standing next to him, he checked the lights again, and THEY ALL worked! I thought all was good until we received the level II inspection paper showing an OOS for the lights! He had even put on there that the wipers didn’t work (which he hadn’t even asked to check!!) and they worked fine! That was a crock, but I sure didn’t want to sit there and argue with him, so we took it and left. NOT a good experience let me tell ya……
I think it might be a bit of flawed logic to claim that every truck that was bypassed for inspection was “fine”. Either mechanically or that the driver was within legal hours of operations. Anyone who’s driven a truck for any length of time (particularly before the CSA scoring) has held the breath more than once going through a scale house because they were cutting their time too close, or had a minor mechanical issue (lights, missing mudflap, etc) that would be easier to fix at the company shop than pile into the line at the T/A .
In 15 years on the road I’ve received less than 10 full-on inspections, and probably another half dozen “paper-work” inspections. I haven’t been inspected in any fashion at all since the CSA scoring came into effect, and with the PrePass+ on the windshield I don’t even enter most scales these days.
yes but remember if this were a national total that wouldn’t be a bad %age I know if they shut down 24% of all truck in my state that would be just about every one. I agree with your figure of 97.5% being fine. I usually go on vacation the first two weeks of June just so I won’t have to deal with those people anyway.
The government needs to go away the rates are so cheap it’s hard to keep trucks in top condition, a lot of times it’s buy a tire or eat that week, I do most of the regular maintenance on my truck so I know every nut bolt and if a grease fitting wont take grease I fix the problem, but oo money is tight the rates are low I have to run my tires down to nothing before I replace them. My truck looks good because I polish the aluminum and wax the cab and frame. The CVSA should go away spend that money to fix the s—-y roads. Every Driver out there would like to run new tires and have their trucks in top condition, it’s simply a matter of economics but the lower the rates the worse condition of the equipment. There needs to be a minimum Rate that allows enough profit to maintain your vehicle. I see so much government waste every day and every chance they get they want deeper in you pocket. These roadside checks are a perfect example of hoe the CVSA shows how they are “needed” it’s not day to day reality of the 24% oos there were probably half B/S violations that never actually threatened anyone’s safety. CVSA is just another gov agency trying so hard to prove they are needed to keep their agency growing. Close them down no one will miss them. Say bye bye to big government. Trucker are still the Heartbeat of America, keep on.
WRONG. You need to select better paying loads so you can afford to run your truck AND eat. Good freight is out there, you simply need to learn how to get it. I’m an OO, I book my own freight and I’m not complaining.
I am an O/O, a one truck company and I have a policy that if the load does not make ME a profit you DO NOT put it on MY truck! I don’t have a problem maintaining my truck & trailer.
you are right, I drive 95000 mpy and the com. truck I drive goes through I ‘d say almost 3 sets of tires due to road conditions.
brokers are making it harder and harder…YES we all want top notch equipment.(Tires,Brakes etc0..But how? When brokers are telling me “NO”…I give them the rate I NEED to prof it fairly in the lane I need..Yet they always say …”I move it for” or “Thats all its paying”…..
What? Get my own customers then? Tried…..Too many businesses rely solely on brokers to move their products
Most of the Time I get a fair rate…….But not fair enough, their needs to be a break in this so called ‘Free Market” that brokers use as excuses……regulate rates again like it was in the 60’s and 70’s..heck yeah….
24% of all drivers inspected failed to do a proper pretrip is what I see on this report. How safe would you feel flying if 24% of pilots failed to do a proper preflight inspections? Pilot to the Passengers, “I just inspected the plane and we have two tires that may blow when we land but since we have lost money in this business we can not afford to replace tires, hope you understand and enjoy the flight.” Or “We are running late and I just don’t feel like doing a preflight inspection at this time, if you see anything wrong let me know and I will write it up, enjoy your flight”. The driver is captain of the ship and if that ship is unsafe then it is the captain’s fault. Stop blaming your company, rates, dispatch, or the government for your failing to do your job as a professional driver. It cost nothing to do a pretrip inspection.
they do fail to fill them out. not all but a choice few .Just like a truck driver.
If you do not have the money or time to maintain the truck, you shouldn’t be in trucking.
AMEN!!
I’ve failed a road side check Cuz I didn’t have white sheet’s on my bed .wtf is up with that..one time I was NYC and a BMW was double parked on a corner NYPD told me to drive over it..and I did!!another time dot was giving me a hard time and the Marshall’s flew in and brought me clean white sheets and they told dot to leave me alone..what is the deal with white sheets?and one time I rolled on to the scale a couldn’t see the red light Cuz of all the trash on my dash and my oiley hair was over my eyes and the dot cop gave my a trash bag,helped me clean my truck and gave me a haircut that was amazing!
Lol, good one!
white sheets are supposed to be bandages if the need for them ever occurs . the thing is you can spot crud on white easier than on colors and you wouldn’t want someone putting a greasy rag on a gash on your arm would you? this is what white sheets are all about. I say use any color you want.
Let me tell you the story of when i got a full level 1 inspection coming into PA from WV on 79. I was pulling a flatbed for a small outfit. I just delivered my load of stone to a Lowe’s. Was headed over to get a load of wallboard. I was probably the first truck this guy saw all day at that rest area/weiigh station when you first enter the state of PA from WV. Well this PA hilljack state trooper spent an hour and a half looking over every nut and bolt onmy truck and trailer. Found a slight rub on a concealed air line on the tractor towards the rear of the chassis, and he found a rub on an airline on the trailer buried in a place no one would have ever looked. He put the truck OOS. Well that was a first for me, so I asked what do i do. Do I get a wrecker, do I call for a road truck, can I leave and go to my terminal, which was right down the street from the wallboard plant I was headed to anyways. His answer was,I don’t care I don;t have time to babysit you. I’m going to the restroom and if I come out and you aren’t here, oh well. Best part was hilljack couldn’t even print me out a citation for the equipment because his printer in his car wasn’t working. So my safety guy had to call the PA SHP to get the citation sent to us. I left, limped to my terminal, had them fix my trailer which i dropped in the wallboard plant drop yard and fix my tractor.
No one cares, it’s all revenue. Nothing else.
Another time I had an Ohio State Trooper, give me a level 3 after he almost flipped his suv over to chase me down because I was doing 55 in a section that was 50 about to turn 55. Mr’ military swat team special forces ohio state trooper came up all demanding respect for his authority. It was like dealing with a black Cartman. I was doing 55 in a 50, just wasn’t paying attention to the sign on the road. Honest mistake, I never made again. but this jackass about rolled his suv over to chase the big bad law breaking truck driver down.
Those guys are going to be pissed off when their wives are out of tampons because a truck full of tampons and toothpaste is stuck at a scale waiting on a bogus repais, because the scale guys brother owns a road service truck. Glad I work local and drive between 3 locations over a 2 miles distance. Screw this crap, it was fun the first few years. Too many rules, too many expectations put out by people who have never even sat in the seat of a truck.
Do your 2, get a local job, be home every night.
So what does all this mean? It means truck drivers are the only unsafe drivers on the road. It means trucks and trailers are the only unsafe equipment on the road. Get real !!! It’s all about money!!! Look at the size of the fines we have to pay. You think John or Jane Doe would stand for a high school educated person with a badge tell them when they’re tired or they’re 1978 chevette has a drop of oil on the side of the oil pan? How about Mr. and Mrs. Doe having to sit in an inspection station till somebody 2 hours away can come out and wipe off said drop of oil !!! Think Mr. and Mrs. Doe will be happy to pay an excessive fine for the same drop of oil ?
This is a money making scheme some asinine politician thought up !!! Don’t believe it? Let them keep getting by with more and more crap like CSA and pretty soon you’ll be lucky if you can drive a fork lift !!!