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.
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