Roadcheck 2011 reveals the commercial motor carrier and motor coach industries produced their lowest out-of-service rates since Roadcheck began in 1991, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said July 7.

“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,” says Stephen Keppler, CVSA executive director. “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 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration certified inspectors at 2,550 locations across North America in the 72-hour period June 7-9. Inspectors focused on the North American Standard Level I inspection, motorcoach inspections, hours-of-service logbooks and household goods carriers.

Once again, logbook violations lead overwhelmingly as a percentage of all driver violations cited (50.6 percent of all driver out-of-service violations). Inspectors also queried drivers of their use of electronic logging devices, which were being used by 14 percent.

An additional emphasis was placed on identifying HHG carriers operating “under-the-radar” by using improperly marked rental vehicles and/or operating as a for-hire property carrier rather than an HHG carrier. The 12 states that participated in the HHG focus activity identified 32 carriers that required enforcement action.

Roadcheck data from 2011 show the overall vehicle compliance rate at 80.7 percent, compared with 80 percent in 2010. The overall driver compliance rate of 95.8 percent compared with 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).