The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has set May 4-6 as the dates for this year’s International Roadcheck. Over that 72-hour period, commercial motor vehicle inspectors in jurisdictions throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will conduct inspections on commercial motor vehicles and drivers.

Each year, CVSA asks its member jurisdictions to capture and report data focusing on a certain category of violations during International Roadcheck. This helps bring awareness to certain aspects of a roadside inspection. This year, inspectors will capture data on two categories, corresponding to the two main inspection categories of the North American Standard Level I Inspection – driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness. For the driver category, hours of service will be highlighted this year, and for the vehicle category, inspectors will be paying special attention to lighting.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the lighting violation “lamps inoperable” (Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations 393.9) was the number one vehicle violation in fiscal 2020, accounting for approximately 12.24% of all vehicle violations discovered that year. And during last year’s International Roadcheck, the top driver out-of-service violation category in North America was hours of service, accounting for 34.7% of all driver out-of-service conditions.

Learn more about International Roadcheck.

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Driver Tip Sheet

CVSA published this tip sheet for carriers and drivers in preparation for this year’s Roadcheck that you can print off as a handout for your drivers.

Question of the Week
My driver has gone through a roadside inspection, how long do I have to keep this documentation on file?
Answer: Copies of all roadside inspections are to be kept by the motor carrier for 12 months. The driver is required to turn in the inspection to the motor carrier within 24 hours. If they are not going to return to the terminal they are to mail in the inspection. If the inspection resulted in violations they are to be corrected or repaired and the inspection form is to be signed and certified that the repairs were completed and sent back to the state of inspection within 15 days.