The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) checked brakes on 6,337 commercial motor vehicles during its annual unannounced brake check day: May 6, 2015. The enforcement group announced this week it had inspected 6337 trucks and 14.2% percent or approximately 900 trucks were placed out-of-service. Last year’s out-of-service rate for the unannounced brake inspection day was: 15.2%.
FMCSA
Other results from that unannounced brake check day include:
9 percent or approximately 570 trucks had brake adjustment violations. Down slightly from last year’s: 9.5%
7.7% of vehicles inspected were put out-of-service for brake component violations. Down from 2014’s 8.5 percent.
The one day event caused more than 50,000 individual wheels to be checked throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The CVSA reported brakes with manual adjusters were 2.5 times more likely to be out of adjustment than those equipped with self-adjusting brake adjusters. Commercial vehicles with air brakes manufactured after October 20th, 1994 are required to have Self-adjusting brakes equipped with automatic slack adjusters.
Brake Safety Week 2015:
The CVSA announced this year’s Brake Safety Week inspection spree will be held the week of September 6-12, 2015.
This annual event, which is sponsored by the CVSA and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) includes the inspection of tens of thousands of commercial vehicles. The inspections are performed by state and federal inspectors, with an emphasis placed on air brake components.
According to CVSA, inspectors will look for “brake-system components to identify loose or missing parts, air or hydraulic fluid leaks, worn linings, pads, drums or rotors, and other faulty brake-system components.” The inspection process also checks antilock braking system (ABS) malfunction indicator lamps and measures pushrod stroke where applicable, CVSA says.
Defective or out-of-adjustment brakes will cause the vehicle to be taken out of service.
During the 2014 inspection spree, inspectors from participating agencies inspected 13,305 vehicles, and placed 2,162 trucks out-of-service for brake violations, just over 16%.
CVSA is an international not-for-profit organization comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal motor carrier safety officials and industry representatives from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The organization is based in Greenbelt Maryland.