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CVSA Roadcheck Blitz Checks for Secure Records and Cargo
Truck Drivers Face Heightened Scrutiny During Roadcheck Week in May and Unannounced Brake Safety Day in April
Key Takeaways:
- CVSA’s International Roadcheck blitz May 12-14 inspected North American trucks, emphasizing ELD tampering and cargo securement.
- DAT data showed spot linehaul rates jumped during the week, including 33.3% for reefers, as enforcement and parked trucks tightened capacity, analysts said.
- CVSA said results are still being finalized and cargo securement ranked high for out-of-service violations; inspectors also held an unannounced Brake Safety Day on April 14.
Motor carriers operating across North America recently faced heightened scrutiny over logging driver hours and cargo securement during the 2026 International Roadcheck safety enforcement blitz.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducted its annual inspection and data-collection initiative May 12-14, with enforcement personnel inspecting commercial vehicles and drivers at weigh stations and pop-up inspection sites. This year’s initiative placed a special emphasis on electronic logging device tampering and cargo securement.
“From the jurisdictions I’ve talked to, I’ve heard pretty positive feedback,” said Jeremy Disbrow, roadside inspection specialist at CVSA. “The cargo securement so far seems to be pretty high up on the list for the out-of-service violations.”
CVSA is still waiting to finalize the results of this year’s Roadcheck initiative. Much of the information that already has come in relates to Canada and Mexico.
FMCSA inspection records show day one of #InternationalRoadcheck involved 1,580 inspections, 2,637 violations and 496 out-of-service orders, for an average of 1.67 violations per inspection - a 31.4% out-of-service rate against total inspection volume.https://t.co/v9PG5K9DzW — CVSA (@CVSA) May 14, 2026
“From the Canadian side, false logbooks, or false records of duty status, tends to be, from all the different provinces, at the top of the list” for driver violations, Disbrow said, adding that “cargo securement, in most of the provinces, seems to be ... No. 2 after brakes” among vehicle violations.
Each year, International Roadcheck places a heavy focus on one driver violation and one vehicle violation, with ELDs and cargo securement receiving the added attention in 2026. CVSA broadcasts these safety enforcement priorities to law enforcement, industry stakeholders, members and the public.
“We put out numerous emails to all of the inspectors every year about that,” Disbrow said. “We have focus-area flyers that we put out, and more importantly, it’s not just for the inspectors, it’s for the industry.”
Freight rates jumped during Roadcheck as inspectors ramped up enforcement and some carriers parked their trucks, tightening industry capacity.
DAT Freight & Analytics data showed that dry van linehaul rates climbed 10.5% during the inspection week to $2.22 a mile. Reefer linehaul rates surged 33.3% to $2.68 a mile. Flatbed linehaul rates inched up 3.7% to $2.80 a mile. These rates remained elevated during the following week, though capacity did return and freight volume normalized.
“That sort of fits into the overall narrative we’ve had for probably six to eight months now, where spot rates have been holding higher year over year,” said Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT. “Not because demand is doing any of the heavy lifting — it’s all supply exiting that’s doing all the work in terms of rates.”
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Croke
Croke pointed out that the entire year to date has seen heightened enforcement because officials have been conducting safety blitzes since January. He has seen these enforcement actions gradually weed capacity out of the market for the past few months, especially around non-domiciled commercial driver licenses. But he noted there were still many drivers that took the week off.
“What we saw during Roadcheck week was pretty much what we thought would happen because so much capacity has been jettisoned from the market,” Croke said. “We saw record week-over-week increases in spot rates.”
Croke views the increased enforcement around immigration status and qualifications as being at the heart of the capacity reductions this year. He also pointed out other reasons that may have motivated some drivers to take the week off, such as if they were temporarily using paper logs since an inspection would require additional steps to explain why.
DAT has hypothesized that Roadcheck week this year could affect the industry in much the same fashion as it did in 2021.
“It caused the market volatility during the week, but then rates stayed high and increased the rest of the year,” Croke said, “and the shape of the 2026 chart looks eerily like 2021.”
A month earlier, CVSA cracked down on brake violations during its Brake Safety Day, held April 14 and not announced publicly in advance.
Inspectors throughout North America conducted 4,021 inspections of CMVs in one day and restricted 574 (14.3%) of those vehicles from travel due to brake-related out-of-service violations. View the full results from CVSA's unannounced Brake Safety Day. https://t.co/neH2cJmw3M pic.twitter.com/yCTKyYcIpm — CVSA (@CVSA) May 19, 2026
Inspectors throughout North America conducted 4,021 inspections of commercial motor vehicles that day, with 14.3% of those vehicles being restricted from travel due to brake-related out-of-service violations.
