Just-released data on this year’s International Roadcheck results add to other indications that drivers in 2024 were more likely to stay home during the three-day compliance crackdown than they were in 2023.
The evidence that the annual Roadcheck “vacation” may have had a bigger impact this year than in recent years first came in data from the Outbound Tender Rejection Index (OTRI) in SONAR during May, which showed a clear increase in that benchmark. OTRI reflects freight that is tendered under contract in a routing guide but is rejected by a carrier.
The rise in the OTRI from about 2.2% early in May to about 4.4% by the end of the month suggested that more freight was being rejected starting in mid-May than earlier in the month, moving up and down over the course of the three days of Roadcheck before then climbing significantly higher afterward, possibly because drivers who had shut down during Roadcheck did not immediately return to the roads.
Now, data released by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which administers Roadcheck, supports the view that there was a significant slowdown by carriers during those three days.
The CVSA has reported that during the three days of Roadcheck, May 14-16, it made 48,761 inspections across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Last year, the total was 59,429 vehicles, also in a three-day period. That is a decline of almost 18%.
At FreightWaves’ State of Freight webinar for September, CEO Craig Fuller noted that the OTRI data during Roadcheck could be seen as a sign of a market shift.
Referring to various indications that the trucking market was returning to more “normal” seasonality, Fuller said, “I think Roadcheck week was the first time we noticed it in two years that it moved the freight market.”
As far as safety data – the key goal of Roadcheck – CVSA reported that in 2024, inspections found 77% of all vehicles and 95.2% of all drivers did not have any violations that would have led an inspector to issue an out-of-service (OOS) order. In 2023, the corresponding numbers were 81% and 94.5%, respectively.
The flip side of that is that in 2024, inspectors found 13,567 vehicle OOS violations, 2,714 driver OOS violations and 163 hazardous material/dangerous goods violations. The inspectors put 9,345 motor vehicles out of service and did the same for 2,290 drivers. The OOS rate for vehicles was 23%; for drivers, it was 4.8%.
A year earlier, inspectors found an OOS violation on 19% of the vehicles inspected and took 11,270 vehicles off the road. Inspectors in 2023 issued OOS orders to 5.5% of drivers, or 5,326.
Across the three countries, the biggest violations that resulted in OOS orders for vehicles were in descending order defective service brakes; tires; a category listed as “other brake violations’; lights; and cargo securement.
A year earlier, the list was similar but in a slightly different order: brake systems, tires, defective service brakes, cargo securement and lights.
The top five OOS violations that took drivers off the road in 2024 were hours of service, no CDL, no medical card, false logs and a suspended license.
Hours of service topped the list of violations that took drivers off the road in 2023 as well. That was followed by false logs, a general “other” category, a canceled/revoked license and no medical card.
The HOS violations accounted for 32.1% of all OOS orders against drivers in 2024. A year earlier, that number was 41.1%.
Other data points in the CVSA’s release of Roadcheck results:
- Vehicles without any violations after a Level I or Level V inspection are granted a sticker that is good for the month they are issued plus two additional months. The decals don’t guarantee there will be no reinspection during that time but serve as a likely deterrent to another one. The number of decals issued this year was 17,395. The figure for 2023 was 20,151.
- CVSA said the Level I inspection is the most common. It’s a 37-step process. Level II involves a walkaround of the vehicle; Level III checks credentials and HOS records; and Level V just looks at the vehicle.
- Roadcheck each year focuses on a particular area. For drivers this year, it was drugs and alcohol. Sixty-three drivers were placed OOS because they were listed in the federal Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse. A driver can exit the Clearinghouse but only after meeting certain requirements. The vehicle focus this year was tractor protection systems, which includes the tractor protection valve, trailer supply valve and anti-bleed-back valve. That system protects air brakes in the trailer in case of a separation between the tractor and a trailer.
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