The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has announced this annual 72-hour blitz of commercial vehicle inspections will take place May 17-19 across North America. This year, enforcement officers will concentrate on inspecting wheel end components, including brakes and slack adjusters.
According to CVSA, violations involving wheel-end components account for about one-fourth of the vehicle out-of-service violations discovered during past Roadcheck activities, and data from these enforcement blitzes identified wheel-end components as a top 10 violation.
The top 20 violations listed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) so far in fiscal 2022 include various wheel-end component violations. FMCSA reported the #3 violation being found at roadside inspections is a clamp or roto-type brake out of adjustment. Other top 20 violations listed by FMCSA include inoperative or defective brakes; chafing or kinking of brake hoses and tubing; and a half-dozen other brake-related violations.
In effect, commercial enforcement officials will be conducting Level 1 and Level 2 inspections depending upon the inspection site(s) in each state. Vehicles that pass a Level 1 will receive a CVSA decal sticker to display, exempting these vehicles from other Level 1 inspections for three months.
To ensure your vehicles have the best chance of earning that CVSA decal or to avoid being placed out of service, do thorough pre-trip inspections that focus on finding and correcting the “low-hanging fruit” that attracts officers’ attention. We’re talking about items like turn signal lights, bald or worn tires or failure to have a fire extinguisher on board (yes, these are among those top 20 violations). And be sure you are wearing your seat belt and not operating any hand-held devices while the truck is moving.
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.