CVSA doles out over 20K safety decals during 2023 International Roadcheck

More than 94% of commercial motor vehicle drivers inspected during this year’s International Roadcheck safety blitz did not have any out-of-service violations.

Conducted annually by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, International Roadcheck is a 72-hour high-visibility, high-volume commercial motor vehicle inspection and enforcement initiative. This year’s event took place May 16-18.

According to CVSA, 59,429 commercial motor vehicles were inspected in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. during this year’s campaign. From those inspections, 81% of the commercial motor vehicles and 94.5% of the commercial motor vehicle drivers inspected did not have any out-of-service violations.

The agency says that CVSA decals – which are given to CMVs without any critical vehicle inspection violations – were applied to 14,032 power units, 5,814 trailers and 305 motorcoaches/buses during International Roadcheck. In total, 20,151 decals were distributed throughout North America during the 72-hour event.

As far as those vehicles and drivers who weren’t so lucky, CVSA said inspectors uncovered at least one out-of-service violation on 19% of the vehicles inspected, 11,270 commercial motor vehicles in total.

Additionally, 3,256 of the commercial motor vehicle drivers inspected, 5.5%, were found to have at least one out-of-service driver violation, as identified in the CVSA North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

According to data from CVSA, the top five vehicle out-of-service violations were for:

• Brake systems – 4,412 violations
• Tires – 3,368 violations
• Defective service brakes – 2,468 violations
• Cargo Securement – 2,171 violations
• Lights – 2,015 violations

Each year, the agency highlights certain aspects of roadside inspections during International Roadcheck. For 2023, inspectors were focusing on anti-lock braking systems and cargo securement. In total, inspectors discovered 2,975 cargo securement violations and 4,127 ABS violations during the 3-day window.

Another overwhelmingly positive came in terms of seat belt usage. During the event just 1.6% of all drivers inspected were not wearing a seat belt, resulting in a total of 949 safety belt violations being issued during this year’s International Roadcheck.

As far as a head-to-head comparison by country, drivers in Canada fared slightly better than their American counterparts:

• S. Inspectors conducted 53,847 Level I, II and III Inspections. The vehicle out-of-service rate was 19.3%, and the driver out-of-service rate was 5.8%.
• Canadian Inspectors conducted 4,247 Level I, II and III Inspections. The vehicle out-of-service rate was 20.5%, and the driver out-of-service rate was 3.2%.

A complete list of this year’s results, along with International Roadcheck results from previous years, can be found here. LL