Annual unannounced brake safety blitz sees decline in total inspections

May 30, 2023

Ryan Witkowski

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Nearly 800 commercial vehicles were placed out of service during a recent unannounced brake safety blitz conducted by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

On April 19, CVSA held its unannounced inspection blitz across North America. The agency says the annual event provides a “one-day snapshot of the state of brake systems on the commercial motor vehicles traversing our roadways every day.”

During this year’s blitz, 6,829 commercial motor vehicles were inspected throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States. According to CVSA, inspectors found “brake-related critical vehicle inspection items” on just over 11% of the vehicles inspected. As a result, inspectors declared 773 vehicles “unfit and unsafe for roadways” and placed them out of service until the violations were fixed.

According to data from CVSA, these were the top three out-of-service conditions:

  • Brake violations – 479 – When 20% or more of a vehicles service brakes have an out-of-service condition resulting in a defective brake, such as a brake out of adjustment, an audible air leak at the chamber, defective linings or pads, a missing brake where brakes are required, etc.
  • Other violations – 368 – Examples of violations include worn brake lines, broken brake drums, inoperative tractor protection system, inoperative low air warning device, air leaks, hydraulic fluid leaks, etc.
  • Steering brake violations – 81 – Examples of violations include inoperative brakes, mismatched brake chambers, mismatched slack adjuster length, defective linings, etc.

This year’s event included 56 jurisdictions across North America. The majority of the inspections, 5,901, were conducted in the U.S. From those, inspectors found critical violations on 679 vehicles, 11.5%.

In Canada, a total of 894 vehicles were inspected, with 10% of those being placed out of service. Inspectors in Mexico, which did not participate in the 2022 event, discovered violations with 18% of the 34 inspections conducted, placing 6 vehicles out of service.

Both the total number of inspections conducted and the percentage of vehicles placed out-of-service, saw a decline from the previous year. In 2022, 9,132 trucks were inspected during the one-day blitz. Of those, 14.1% were found to have critical violations, with 1,290 vehicles being placed out of service.  

Through the Operation Airbrake program, the agency hosts two safety events – one announced and one unannounced – each year. The announced event, Brake Safety Week, is scheduled this year for Aug. 20-26. CVSA reports that over 3.4 million brakes have been inspected since the program began in 1998. LL

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