The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's Roadcheck 2011 produced the lowest out-of-service rates recorded in its history.

Results from the CVSA's Roadcheck 2011, the three-day, commercial vehicle safety enforcement and education campaign, reveal that the commercial motor carrier and motor coach industries continue to improve the maintenance and safety of their operations, with overall out-of-service rates being the lowest since Roadcheck began in 1991.

"Although overall out-of-service rates are at record lows, there is room for improvement until the roads are free from vehicle and driver violations," said CVSA's Executive Director Stephen A. Keppler. "Events that focus on ensuring vehicles and drivers are complying with the law, like Roadcheck and all roadside inspections, draw critical attention to out-of-service rates and are shown to also impact crash reductions."

Nearly 8,000 CVSA and FMCSA certified inspectors at 2,550 locations across North America performed 70,712 truck and bus inspections in 72 hours. Inspectors focused on the North American Standard Level I inspection, motorcoach inspections, hours of service logbooks, and household goods carriers.

Once again, hours of service logbook violations lead overwhelmingly as a percentage of all driver violations cited (50.6 percent of all driver out-of-service violations). The hours of service rules are designed to reduce driver fatigue, which may be a contributing factor in large truck and bus crashes. Inspectors also queried drivers of their use of electronic logging devices; 14 percent were using them.

An additional emphasis was placed on identifying carriers of household goods operating 'under-the-radar' by using improperly marked rental vehicles and/or operating as a for-hire property carrier rather than HHG carrier. The twelve states that participated in the HHG focus activity identified 32 carriers that required enforcement action.

During Roadcheck 2011 approximately 16 trucks or buses were inspected, on average, every minute for the 72 hours of the event, from June 7-9, occurring from Canada to Mexico.

Drivers were pulled over or directed into weigh stations or other inspection locations and asked to show their commercial driver's license, medical examiner's certificate and record of duty status. Brakes, tires, lights and every major safety component of the truck or bus, plus proper load securement were also examined during Roadcheck.

CVSA sponsors Roadcheck each year with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation in Mexico.

Roadcheck data from 2011 show the overall vehicle compliance rate at 80.7 percent (80.0 percent in 2010), with an overall driver compliance rate of 95.8 percent (95.6 percent from last year). For NAS Level I inspections, the compliance rates were up to 77.2 percent for vehicles (76.7 percent in 2010) and 96.3 percent for drivers (unchanged from 2010). In addition, there were 296 fewer safety belt violations in 2011 (863 vs. 1,159 in 2010).