CSA Driver-Fitness Citations Declining
The trucking industry vendor studied violations written by truck safety inspectors from the start of 2011 through Jan. 31 of this year. The citations are processed as part of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Most violations in the driver-fitness category usually do not hit the out-of-service level, the Vigillo report said. Usually, 80% or more of the violations were at the non-OOS level.
In 2011, the total monthly number of driver-fitness violations peaked at more than 600,000. By 2014, though, the monthly peaks were down to the 550,000 level.
The Vigillo report also noticed a seasonal fluctuation to the issuing of citations, with winters being the low points and summers the highs. Law enforcement officers have said that truck inspections are difficult in the winter if snow is plowed into drifts that fill up the shoulders of highways. If the shoulders are full, officers say, it is difficult to pull over a truck safely.
The Vigillo report looked at the 10 most frequently written violations in the driver-fitness category and found “non-English speaking driver” was No. 1 , with 366,337 total citations written, each a four-point CSA violation.
No medical certificate came in second with 287,297 violations over the four-year period. No certificate is a one-point violation.
Operating a commercial vehicle without a valid medical certificate also is a one-point violation, and that was written up 114,339 times.
Of the seven other violations in the top 10, none of them cracked the 100,000 level of citations written.
