Commercial enforcement conducted 48,761 inspections during this year’s International Roadcheck. 77% of commercial trucks and 95.2% of commercial drivers had no out-of-service violations.
Commercial enforcement personnel in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. conducted 48,761 inspections during this year’s International Roadcheck, which took place May 14-16. The good news is that 77% of commercial trucks and 95.2% of commercial drivers had no out-of-service violations.
On the other hand, inspectors discovered 13,567 vehicle, 2,714 driver and 163 hazardous materials/dangerous goods out-of-service (OOS) violations, and placed 9,345 commercial vehicle combinations and 2,290 drivers out of service. The total overall vehicle OOS rate was 23%, and the driver OOS rate was 4.8%. The largest category of vehicle violations was defective brakes which were 25% of OOS actions. Hours of Services violations led the driver OOS at 32.1%.
Each year, International Roadcheck places special emphasis on a category of vehicle violations and a category of driver violations. The vehicle emphasis area this year was on tractor protection systems (TPS), including:
Inspectors identified 564 TPS-related violations on commercial motor vehicle combinations. Tractor protection systems safeguard the tractor’s air supply and prevent air loss when the tractor is not connected to a trailer or if the trailer breaks away.
International Roadcheck is a three-day commercial motor vehicle and driver inspection, enforcement and data-gathering initiative. Law enforcement jurisdictions throughout North America voluntarily participate in International Roadcheck with support from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and Mexico’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation.
Every year, TAT (formerly called Truckers Against Trafficking) honors a member of the trucking, bus or energy industry, whose direct actions help save or improve the lives of those exploited or prevent human trafficking from taking place, with the Harriet Tubman Award
Bob Costello has indicated that the freight market has improved – but very slowly – since January. It must be said that ATA’s indices are dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot rates.
Now, however, with Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House (and, some say, the Supreme Court) I am optimistic that trucking will get a fairer shake than it has during Biden’s term in office.