Brakes-system and tire problems made up the most common out-of-service (OOS) violations during the annual International Roadcheck inspection blitz earlier this year.
For drivers, lacking a medical certification led to the most OOS orders.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Roadcheck, this year held May 12-14, is a three-day inspection and outreach initiative.
[Related: Roadcheck: Inspectors 'behind the curve' on new breed of ELD cheats]
During this year’s event, the vast majority of vehicles (81%) and drivers (94.2%) inspected did not have any OOS violations, and CVSA decals were placed on 17,680 vehicles, indicating an inspection with no critical vehicle inspection item violations.
On the other hand, 10,350 commercial motor vehicles (19%) and 3,184 drivers (5.8%) were placed OOS.
During Roadcheck, inspectors conducted 44,047 Level I, II and V Inspections, which all include vehicle inspections, and placed 10,350 vehicles or combinations (23.5%) out of service after finding 13,924 out-of-service vehicle violations.
The top vehicle out-of-service violation in North America was for brake systems. Inspectors identified 3,379 out-of-service brake system violations -- 24.3% of all vehicle out-of-service violations. In addition, the third most-cited (2,072) vehicle OOS violation was for 20% defective brakes, which is when 20% or more of the vehicle’s (or combination of vehicles’ brakes have an out-of-service condition.
Combined, there were 5,451 brake-related OOS violations, accounting for 39.1% of out-of-service vehicle violations.
A separate inspection initiative, Brake Safety Week with a focus on all manner of brakes system violations, is ongoing this week.
[Related: Brake inspections incoming: Where troopers will focus annual blitz]
Additionally, there were 2,914 OOS violations issued for tires, making up 20.9% of all vehicle OOS violations.
The vehicle violation focus this year was cargo securement, which was ranked fourth out of all vehicle out-of-service violations in North America. Inspectors identified 1,724 cargo securement OOS violations, accounting for 12.4% of vehicle out-of-service orders.
Inspectors also conducted 53,271 Level I, II and III Inspections, which include driver inspections. During these inspections, 3,184 drivers (6%) were placed out of service.
The top reason a driver was issued an out-of-service order was for not having a medical certification, accounting for 27% (1,072) of all driver out-of-service violations.
In RigDig’s accounting, no-valid-med-cert violations were up in 2025 by a significant measure to nearly 80K total recorded nationally. That’s after violation levels hovered around 66K in the two years prior. So far in 2026, totals are on pace to almost match the 2025 numbers.
Hours-of-service violations were the second most-cited with 929 (23.4%), followed by no CDL (620, or 15.6%), English proficiency (361, or 9.1%), and false record of duty status (266, or 6.7%), or false log.
The last of those included this year a new out-of-service code to differentiate between old-school false logs (like using personal conveyance to advance a load) and entire fabrications indicating remote tampering. Such as: calling an overseas office to hack the backend and produce spotless logs.
That kind of log manipulation was the driver focus for this year’s Roadcheck. Inspectors issued 146 out-of-service orders (3.7%) for ELD tampering, making it the seventh most-cited driver OOS violation in North America.
Overdrive found inspectors had mixed results catching such sophisticated cheats, with some success stories out of Arizona and Oregon. Since then, though, there's evidence others are getting better.
Find the top 10 states by volume of ELD-tampering out-of-service violations in a recent accounting with Overdrive sister data company RigDig.
[Related: Revoked ELD maker reveals huge demand for HOS cheat devices]
Inspectors also issued 667 seat belt violations to drivers, which carry regulatory penalties and fines under federal regulations.
Finally, inspectors conducted 2,590 inspections of vehicles transporting hazardous materials/dangerous goods (HM/DG) and identified 368 vehicle out-of-service violations and 63 out-of-service driver violations.
Inspectors found 141 HM/DG out-of-service violations, of which placarding was the top violation, accounting for 28.4% of all HM/DG out-of-service violations.
[Related: Arizona logs 281 ELD-cheat OOS violations from just 115 driver inspections]
