Beginning May 4th – May 6th, the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) held the 2021 International Roadcheck. During this 3-day road blitz, over 40,000 commercial vehicles were inspected. The CVSA inspectors removed over 6,700 vehicles and 2,000 drivers off the road who were in violation.

CVSA HOS Roadcheck Overview

Every year, the CVSA focuses on a category during the International Roadcheck to help bring awareness to areas of concern. The CVSA inspectors focused on two categories – Hours of Service (HOS) and lighting this year.

The vice president of safety and compliance at Zonar Systems and a former state patrol officer Fred Fakkema shared thoughts regarding the Roadcheck results and what drivers can do in the future to prepare themselves better.

“With any luck, drivers will see the CVSA report and note that the top vehicle violations during 2021 International Roadcheck were brake systems, tires, and lighting. These types of violations are usually due to the driver failing to do a proper pre-and post-trip inspection. Tires and lighting are easy violations to correct with that inspection.” Fakkema went on to say, “Brakes, in particular, take a bit more time and include checking the brake lines, chamber, clamps, pushrod, slack adjuster, shoes, and drums. Without going through a proper list that guides drivers through these steps, it is easy to overlook some or all of them. Or, unfortunately, tempting to skip the step altogether so that you can get on the road.”

HOS Roadcheck Results

When breaking down the results, it was found that 1,367 out-of-service lighting violations were about 14.1% of the total out-of-service violations. This was the third most cited violation following brake systems and tires. Lighting consisted of headlamps, tail lamps, stop lamps, turn signals, and lamps on projecting loads.

On May 26th, the CVSA held an unannounced Brake Safety Day in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. During this unannounced blitz, inspected 10,091 vehicles where 1,273 vehicles were placed out of service due to brake-related issues.

Below you will find the top five violations for brake systems, tires, lights, brake adjustments, and cargo securement.

Top Five Out-of-Service Vehicle Violations

Top Five Out-of-Service Driver Violations

The next area of focus was hours-of-service which was the most cited violation – accounting for 41.5% of all out-of-service violations. This is about 1,203 violations. From the 2,898 violations issued, the top five included HOS, wrong class license, other, false logs, and suspended license.

You can find these results below.

Overall, there were a lot of violations issued in areas that could have been prevented. One way to prevent these violations is to do a pre-and post-inspection before hitting the road again. While, at the time, you may feel these inspections slow you down, but when you receive an out-of-service violation citation – you will be off the road much longer.

Be better prepared and complete your truck inspection properly.