Inspectors Focus on Brakes, Hours of Service in 72-Hour ‘Roadcheck’ Enforcement Sweep

LANDOVER, Md. — Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspectors spent 72 hours in stepped-up trucking safety enforcement last week, pulling over trucks and buses on highways and at inspection locations throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

This year’s “Roadcheck” safety emphasis was on brakes and hours-of-service compliance, CVSA said.

In a June 5 kickoff speech for Roadcheck 2012, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Anne Ferro warned unsafe drivers and carriers that last week the risk of getting caught was greater.

“During Roadcheck, drivers will be pulled over, and they’ll be asked to show their record-of-duty status,” Ferro said. “They’ll be asked to show their DOT medical qualification certificate, and they’ll be asked for their CDL. Sure hope they’re current. Sure hope they’re rested. Sure hope they’ve got it all in shape.”

Brake violations represent 21% of all vehicle violations cited in the past year, Ferro said.

The June 5-8 event was kicked off last week in the parking lots at FedEx Field here, home of the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

A total of 147 Maryland State Police inspectors pulled hundreds of trucks of all shapes and sizes off the Interstate 95 corridor near Interstate 495 for comprehensive inspections all morning on June 5.

In addition to common brake and tail-light violations, inspectors put trucks out of service for more serious equipment violations, caught one driver who admitted to smoking a marijuana cigarette an hour before the inspection and arrested another driver on an outstanding warrant, said Capt. Norman Dofflemyer, a division commander for the Maryland State Police.

Inspectors also had a canine unit on hand to check for drugs and explosives, said Sgt. Darrell Thomas of the Maryland State Patrol.

CVSA won’t announce the total numbers and types of violations cited during the 72-hour blitz until early August, a CVSA spokeswoman said.

In addition to keeping truckers on their toes, the event helps law enforcement gather additional data to spot trends and call attention to safety issues, said CVSA President David Palmer, an assistant chief with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“Consistently every year we are seeing hours-of-service logbook violations leading by an overwhelming percentage of all the violations cited,” Palmer said.

Brake system-related violations also have consistently been at the top of the list in past Roadcheck events, accounting for more than half of the total out-of-service violations, Palmer said.

Palmer said that during pre-trip inspections drivers should check for missing, nonfunctioning, loose, contaminated or cracked parts on the brake system; listen for audible air leaks around brake components and air lines; and check brake adjustment.

Don Osterberg, senior vice president of safety and security for Schneider National Inc., said the inspection process is essential to ensure broad-based compliance in the industry.

“People in organizations do best what gets inspected the most,” Osterberg said.

Osterberg said CVSA’s emphasis on hours-of-service inspections was a good one.

“We are a classic example of an enterprise that has a human in the loop,” Osterberg said. “And maybe the individual didn’t sleep well last night.

“If you can imagine sleeping at a truck stop with trucks coming in and out all night, you can begin to imagine how from time to time drivers don’t sleep well,” Osterberg added.

Osterberg said that carriers needed to treat a driver as the “captain of the ship” and possess the courage to trust the driver’s decision on whether he felt safe to drive.

“When they make the decision to shut down we recognize that that disappoints a customer,” Osterberg said. “I would much rather disappoint a customer for a late delivery than to have another truck-involved fatality.”