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Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's annual event will target risky driving behaviors, particularly speeding.

“It was definitely a strange year for inspectors,” said Kerri Wirachowsky, director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s roadside inspection program. “In the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of agencies just stopped doing inspections completely, only stopping vehicles if they saw an imminent issue,” she said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a proposed rule amending federal safety regulations to specifically add rear impact guards as a required item on the list of annual inspections for motor carriers and roadside inspectors.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s three-day International Roadcheck event resulted in an overall vehicle out-of-service rate of 20.9% in North America. That marks an increase from 17.9% recorded last year.

Accident risk lessened as the pandemic eased highway traffic this year. Fleets, however, remain subject to increased litigation and nuclear verdicts. Experts suggest that the wider adaption of advanced technology - including onboard safety systems, in-cab video, and telematics - could not only improve safety but also preserve relevant information in the case of an accident.

Technical issues that have been causing problems with the transfer of data from electronic logging devices to equipment used by roadside inspectors to check drivers’ hours-of-service records are the subject of a bulletin issued by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and are being studied by a pair of industry vendors.

Commercial vehicle inspectors put 12% of the 43,565 inspected commercial motor vehicles out-of-service for brake-related violations during Brake Safety Week Aug. 23-29, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said Oct. 27.

Law enforcement officers and inspectors nabbed more than 66,000 drivers engaging in unsafe behavior on U.S. and Canadian roadways as part of Operation Safe Driver Week, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced Sept. 2.

The postponed International Roadcheck event has been rescheduled for Sept. 9-11, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced Aug. 10.

From decontamination of their uniforms daily to keeping their distance from truck cabs and drivers, roadside inspectors face increasingly challenging conditions in keeping the nation’s highways safe in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.