GREENBELT, Md. — The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s 30th annual International Roadcheck will take place early next month.
Over a 72-hour period, CVSA-certified commercial motor vehicle inspectors in jurisdictions throughout North America will conduct inspections of commercial motor vehicles and their drivers.
Each year, International Roadcheck places special emphasis on a category of violations. This year’s focus is cargo securement.
While checking for compliance with safe cargo securement regulations is always part of roadside inspections, CVSA is highlighting cargo securement safety this year as a reminder of its importance to highway safety.
Inspectors will primarily be conducting the North American Standard Level I inspection, which is the most thorough roadside inspection. It is a 37-step procedure that includes an examination of both driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness.
Drivers are required to provide items such as their driver’s license, hours-of-service documentation, motor carrier registration and shipping documentation, and inspectors will be checking drivers for seatbelt usage and the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
The vehicle inspection includes checking items such as the brake systems, cargo securement, coupling devices, driveline/driveshaft, exhaust systems, frames, fuel systems, lighting devices (required lamps), steering mechanisms, suspensions, tires, van and open-top trailer bodies, wheels, rims and hubs, windshield wipers and emergency exits (on buses).
Last year’s Roadcheck resulted in the lowest out-of-service rate for motorcoaches in at least 16 years. The rate for motorcoach drivers, however, increased from 2015.
Of the 734 motorcoaches inspected during last years’ sweep in the U.S. and Canada, 45 vehicles, or 6.1 percent, were placed out of service.
Twenty-one bus drivers, or 2.9 percent of those inspected, were placed out of service in 2016, up from 1.9 percent during the 2015 Roadcheck.
International Roadcheck is the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial motor vehicles in the world, with nearly 17 trucks or buses inspected, on average, every minute in Canada, the United States and Mexico during a 72-hour period. Since its inception, more than 1.5 million roadside inspections have been conducted during International Roadcheck campaigns.
International Roadcheck is a CVSA program with participation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation in Mexico.
