Nearly 800 trucks were placed out of service during an unannounced inspection initiative targeting brakes in April.
On April 19, 6,829 commercial motor vehicles were inspected throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S. as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Brake Safety Day. Inspectors found brake-related critical vehicle inspection items on 11.3% of the vehicles inspected, indicating those vehicles were unfit and unsafe for roadways. As a result, inspectors restricted those 773 commercial motor vehicles from travel until the violations were corrected.
During the one-day unannounced inspection and enforcement campaign, certified CMV inspectors conducted their usual vehicle and driver inspections. They reported brake-related data to CVSA for a one-day snapshot of the state of brake systems on trucks.
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The top three brake-related out-of-service conditions were:
- 20% Brakes Violations – 479. A vehicle or combination of vehicles is declared out of service when 20% or more of its service brakes have an out-of-service condition resulting in a defective brake, such as a brake out of adjustment, an audible air leak at the chamber, defective linings/pads, a missing brake where brakes are required, etc.
- Other Brake Violations – 368. Examples of other out-of-service brake violations are worn brake lines, broken brake drums, inoperative tractor protection system, inoperative low air warning device, air leaks, hydraulic fluid leaks, etc.
- Steering Brake Violations – 81. Examples of automatic standalone out-of-service steering axle brake violations are inoperative brakes, mismatched brake chambers, mismatched slack adjuster length, defective linings, etc.
During this year’s Brake Safety Day, CVSA focused on capturing data on brake lining/pad violations, which can result in violations and affect a motor carrier’s safety rating.
Of the 6,829 commercial motor vehicles inspected, 108 power unit and 87 towed unit lining/pad violations were identified, for a total of 195 combined lining/pad violations.
In addition, eight of the CVSA member jurisdictions with performance-based brake testers (PBBTs) used those machines to assess the braking performance. Those participating jurisdictions conducted 92 inspections with PBBTs, resulting in four failures (4.35%), which meant those four commercial motor vehicles were placed out of service for overall vehicle braking efficiency.
