Safety Information and Updates

The Annual Road Check 72 hour inspection blitz on Commercial Vehicles is set to take place this year from June 2-4. 

The CVSA inspects an average of 17-18 Commercial Vehicles PER MINUTE during the 3 day period, so it's important to make sure you and your truck are prepared. The purpose of the annual blitz is to ensure the safety of the public traveling on highways, but it also serves to protect drivers themselves by reminding us to be vigilant checking on all possible safety issues on our vehicles and stick with best practices to ensure everyone is as safe as reasonably possible. 

The top categories for violations are: Brakes, Lights, Tires, and Cargo Securement. 

Quick steps to make sure you pass:

• Make sure youre wearing your seatbelt! It sounds silly but this is actually the most commonly cited violation on inspection, and its the easiest one to correct.
• Make sure your brakes are working properly and dont show excessive wear, corrosion, or air leakage
• Make sure coupling devices are present in proper number and are in acceptable condition - no excessive wear, missing parts, or cracks. 
• Make sure all your lights are working properly
• Make sure your tires are in proper condition - acceptable tread depth, proper inflation, no obvious visible damage
• Make sure your cargo is secured properly! This is the 4th most common reason for being put out of service, and really should be something we are all on top of every day. 

The above points are critical for the annual inspection, but they're also things you should really be checking in your pre and post trip vehicle inspections daily as well. It takes very little time to give your truck a once over and make sure everything is as it should be, and the payoff for doing so is enormous. 

We pulled the information for the above points from the CVSA's published "The Inspectors Seat" chart, which you can read in full here: The Inspector's Seat . There is also a lot of excellent information about the Road Check program, prior year results, and general safety info at the CVSA's website, which is www.cvsa.org 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us in the comments section. Good luck everyone!!

Road Check is upon us again! The dates for the 72 hour inspection period for 2014 will be June 3rd through 5th. According to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CSVA), one of the programs sponsors:

" Since its inception in 1988, roadside inspections conducted during Roadcheck have numbered over 1 million, resulting in more than 220 lives saved and 4,045 injuries avoided. It also provides an opportunity to educate the industry and general public about the importance of safe commercial vehicle operations and the roadside inspection program" (excerpt from CSVA's website, which is an excellent source for commercial vehicle operators:  http://www.cvsa.org/programs/int_roadcheck.php )

So what are they looking for and how can you make sure your truck is ready? Last year saw over 73 thousand inspections of trucks and buses (thats 17 PER MINUTE on average!) with 22% of trucks, and less than 4% of drivers placed out of service. 

The inspections all come down to ensuring that drivers are operating safely and doing so in a safe, properly maintained vehicle. Most of the prep is just a matter of paying extra attention to the simple every day safety measures we all take - making sure you have your license, medical card, hours of service paperwork/elog, and any cargo documentation you need in your truck - and it sounds silly but make sure you fasten your seatbelt! The craziest part of last years inspection numbers was that almost 900 drivers were cited for seatbelt violations!

Last year the inspections primarily focused on load securement, and this is always a critical part of the test since its a huge safety concern, so make sure your straps, chains, tailgates are in good shape and proper working order. In terms of the overall vehicle inspection, what you have the most control over as a driver is making sure you have proper documentation for what you're carrying, especially hazmat drivers. Making sure your vehicle is properly placarded, you have the right paperwork, and if youre in a city like Boston, you know what routes you can and cannot travel with hazardous cargo. This years focus is HazMat compliance, so all of us fuel folks have to keep that in mind and be extra vigilant. 

We all work hard to do our jobs as safely as possible every day, so just make sure you're a little extra vigilant next week, and it'll all be over soon!