CVSA announces dates for annual Brake Safety Week

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has announced dates for the 2024 Brake Safety Week.

This year’s campaign is scheduled to take place from Aug. 25-31. The Alliance said the focus of this year’s inspections would be “the condition of brake linings and pads.”

During the week, commercial motor vehicle inspectors will be out in force conducting their usual inspections. In addition to reporting inspections and brake-related out-of-service violations to CVSA, inspectors will also capture and provide data on brake lining/pad violations.

Vehicles found with brake equipment violations can be put out of service. Some tips from CVSA to help drivers pass their inspections include:

• Inspect visible portions of the brake lining and pads as part of your pre- and post-trip inspections.
• Look for signs of missing lining, such as grooves in the drum from rivet contact.
• Look at the shoe-to-drum clearance and ensure there is adequate lining on the shoe.
• Look for any signs of leaks from the hub or other components that may be contaminating the lining/pad surface.
• Ensure there are no missing lining blocks/pads.
• Check for visible cracks or voids in the lining block.
• Check for any exposed rivets or lining blocks that look loose on the shoe.
• On disc brakes, pay particular attention to the condition of the rotor, such as heavily rusted rotors across the entire friction surface on either side or metal-to-metal contact.
• Make sure all repairs are consistent with the brake manufacturer’s requirements and guidelines.
• Note any issues in your driver vehicle inspection reports and report them to the motor carrier to have the defective linings/pads repaired.

Last year, 18,875 commercial vehicles were inspected during Brake Safety Week, with nearly 90% of those vehicles passing their inspections with no brake-related critical violations.

The annual weeklong inspection and enforcement blitz is organized by CVSA – a nonprofit organization of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal commercial motor vehicle safety officials and industry representatives from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Brake Safety Week is a commercial motor vehicle and driver inspection and regulatory compliance enforcement initiative, a brake-safety awareness and outreach opportunity, and a brake-related inspection and violation data-collection project,” the agency said.

In addition to Brake Safety Week, the agency also coordinates Operation Safe Driver Week – a “safe-driving awareness and outreach initiative aimed at improving the driving behaviors of passenger vehicle drivers and commercial motor vehicle drivers through educational and traffic enforcement strategies and interactions with law enforcement.”

This year’s Operation Safe Driver Week is scheduled to take place from July 7-13. LL