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Are Your Brakes Ready for CVSA's Brake Safety Week? [Video]

CVSA’s Will Schaefer and HDT’s Jim Park dig into the reasons for the fairly consistent brake out-of-service rates and how inspectors manage to uncover brake defects that seem to elude drivers and technicians.

August 25, 2022

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducts two major brake inspection initiatives each year, and year over year, the brake defect out-of-service rate remains about the same. Why aren’t we making progress in bringing that rate down? 

This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.

Will Schaefer is the director of safety programs at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, and he has some thoughts on why the OOS rate isn’t improving. It’s got little to do with the brakes themselves. Schaefer and HDT’s Jim Park dig into some of the reasons behind the seemingly immovable brake defect out-of-service rate, including: 

  • Cursory equipment inspections.

  • Technicians who don’t understand the brake safety regulations.

  • Poor driver training related to equipment inspections.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

  • What is Brake Safety Week all about?

  • How does CVSA pick of the focus area of Brake Safety Week?

  • Statistics on the types of brake violations

  • Photos of brake violations

  • Why do out of service rates constantly hover around 20-30%?

  • Why aren't drivers and fleet technicians catching brake issues?

  • What can drivers do to up their brake inspection game?

More About Brake Safety Week and Brake Inspection Tips


🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast!