Out of the 15,528 commercial motor vehicle brake inspections conducted in North America for this year’s Brake Safety Week, 84.7% (13,159 vehicles) did not have any brake-related out-of-service (OOS) violations.
That left 2,369 vehicles that were inspected placed out-of-service for brake-related violations -- a 15.3% OOS rate.
Brake Safety Week is the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) seven-day inspection and compliance assessment program focused on identifying brake-system violations and educating commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carriers and other industry stakeholders about the importance of properly functioning brake systems.
At the national level in the U.S., brake violations have become more prominent since the beginning of 2025, as evidenced in the chart below showing Overdrive and sister Fusable company RigDig's analysis of federal data.
During Brake Safety Week, CVSA said, most inspections were North American Standard Level I Inspections, accounting for 91% (14,150 inspections) of all inspections conducted during the campaign.
This year, inspectors provided violation data for drums and rotors, the focus for initiative. There were 141 drum and rotor violations, resulting in 64 vehicles being placed OOS.
Inspectors placed 1,176 (49.6%) vehicles out of service that met the 20% defective brake criterion of the North American Inspection Out-of-Service Criteria in which 20% or more of the vehicle’s, or combination of vehicles’, service brakes had an out-of-service condition.
Other OOS violations included:
- 92 violations for steering axle linings and 119 for other steering axle conditions
- 145 for air loss rate
- 600 for brake hoses/tubes.
- 759 other OOS brake violations, including within the tractor protection system, air tanks, parking/emergency/breakaway brake, low-air warning device, and hydraulic brake or electric brake violations among others.
Twelve U.S. jurisdictions with performance-based brake testers (PBBT) conducted 657 inspections utilizing the PBBT. Twenty-nine (4.41%) vehicles failed to meet the required 43.5% minimum braking efficiency rate and were placed out of service. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and CVSA’s North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria require a minimum braking efficiency of 43.5%.
Next year’s Brake Safety Week is scheduled earlier than normal, April 18-24, 2027, before even the big Roadcheck event in May.
[Related: Roadcheck, brakes-blitz dates set for '27]
