This week in Overdrive Radio, a sitdown with Tennessee Highway Patrol Lieutenant Christopher Brooks I recorded during the first day of Roadcheck in May. You may have heard parts of the conversation in the video two weeks back that centered on one of Roadcheck's primary focus areas in remote electronic-logging-device manipulation, chameleon carriers and all that’s happening at federal and state levels to target bad actors in that regard.
Or lack thereof. In our accounting with Overdrive’s RigDig sister company tracking enforcement trends in the violation data, as of today Tennessee’s still only issued a few violations for out-of-service ELD tampering, unlike some other jurisdictions.
But as Brooks notes in the podcast, they’re at least learning. With federal investigatory efforts in partnership, he’s hopeful the wide fraud problem can ultimately be eliminated to keep unfair competition from truly bad-actor chameleons out of the market.
Also, perhaps more importantly for many of you, hear plenty from the Lieutenant about ways you might prep for the next blitz, the Operation Safe Driver Week traffic enforcement initiative happening July 12-18 nationwide.
Last week, we published rankings of state truck enforcement departments looking at moving violations issued as a percent of the total. Tennessee sits pretty high on that list.
[Related: Traffic enforcement blitz kicks off July 12]
That's no accident, according to Lt. Brooks, as the state’s moved to prioritize traffic stops and Level 3 driver-credentials inspections increasingly over the years, certifying virtually the entire state highway patrol's road trooper force. The talk could help owner-ops get ready for the July roadside effort; Brooks emphasizes ways to prep throughout. At once, the week's not quite what it used to be when it comes enforcement intensity overall, if CVSA-published numbers are any indication.
The number of warnings/citations issued as a result of stepped-up efforts targeting both passenger-vehicle drivers and commercial truckers are way down from highs in 2020, as shown in the chart below. CVSA, contacted about the dramatic numbers shifts, did not respond to Overdrive questions in time for publication.
Emphasis clearly shifted across jurisdictions, however, back to the commercial-trucker side of the equation since 2023.
In places like Tennessee, where a large majority of troopers are certified to complete Level 3s, expect credentials/hours checks to accompany most traffic stops during the week, yet full driver/truck inspections are always a possibility.
[Related: How troopers tackle remote ELD manipulation, 'chameleon' operations]
Lt. Brooks emphasized the importance of preparation for these kinds of all-hands-on-deck enforcement efforts, starting the talk with reference to the equipment focus of Roadcheck this year -- load securement. That’s a category where Tennessee’s truly something of outlier.
In our enforcement rankings for 2025, the state ranked No. 1 on the list of states with the highest percentage of overall load securement violations among states nationwide, likewise tops for tires. For the moving violations in focus during Operation Safe Driver Week, Tennessee's at No. 11 nationwide -- darker-shaded states in the chart put more focus overall on those.
You've got roughly two weeks to prep.
"If you're waiting until the last minute" before any enforcement initiative to get everything in order, "to look at these things, too look at your truck," Lt. Brooks said, "then you're already too late. A lot of the things we're looking at is documentation, and credentialing, so ... do the homework beforehand. [Small fleet owners should] train on good pretrip inspections, make sure you're checking the credentials of your drivers. ...
"It really makes a world of difference. ... A little planning ahead of time can make things so much smoother and better. You're helping the trooper get their job done," but also it will help them "get you back on the road, get the wheels back moving and reduce the time it takes" to complete the inspection. Much more in the podcast:
As also mentioned in the podcast:
- Contact THP's Motor Carrier Plus specialized unit as a resource for questions about regulations and more, as Brooks emphasized.
- Overdrive's recent accounting of English language proficiency out-of-service violations nationwide in the year since the OOS change.
[Related: 21M miles on the road to true trucking elite status]
