Roadcheck Results Show Decrease in Truck Driver Violations
The results of the 2014 International Roadcheck show a decreasing trend of violations in a number of areas for trucks and buses during the 72-hour inspection period conducted June 3-5, 2014 by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).
The CVSA conducted 73,475 inspections during the 2014 Roadchck of which the majority, 67.6 percent or 49,656, were the comprehensive Level 1 inspections. The 37-step process examines a driver’s record of duty status along with other required documents and the safety of the vehicle is also closely inspected.
Of the Level 1 inspections, 96 percent of drivers had no Out-of-Service (OOS) violations with 4 percent of drivers placed out of service, a drop from 4.3 percent in 2013. In the overall 73,475 inspections, 95.2 percent of drivers had no OOS violations.
The Hours-of-Service (HOS) category is one area to show a significant decline in driver violations from previous years. The OOS violations in the HOS category dropped to 46.5 percent in 2014 compared to 50.3 percent in 2013. In addition, violations for False Logs dropped to 13.7 percent in 2014 from 14.8 percent in 2013.
“My sense is that what we’re seeing results from [is] the greater adoption of ELDs [electronic logging devices]; that’s impacting the typical HOS violation rates we’ve seen in the past,” CVSA Executive Director Steve Keppler told Fleet Owner Magazine. “I think it’s an indicator the industry is getting used to the new [HOS] rules and related technology.”
According to the FMCSA, roadside safety violations that may cause a carrier to rank poorly on Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scores include HOS-related issues such as drivers operating more hours than allowed under HOS regulations and falsification of records of duty status (RODS).
As the trucking industry contends with more emphasis on HOS regulations and enforcement, drivers and fleets are faced with additional scrutiny during inspections. And ahead of the pending mandate for the industry to switch to electronic logging devices, known as ELDs or Elogs, many drivers and fleets are already beginning to use the devices.
We’ve seen where the use of an Elog can potentially save hours of time for a driver in comparison to updating a traditional paper log. It’s also been reported that Elogs can save an average of 10 to 20 minutes per inspection.
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