Here’s What Students in Dispatcher Training Need to Know About CVSA’s Annual International Roadcheck

Every year, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducts inspections of thousands of commercial vehicles and drivers across North America in a 72-hour event known as the International Roadcheck. It’s an opportunity to verify the safety and efficiency of a massive portion of the continent’s transportation fleet, as well as to highlight key areas of industry concern each year.

Want to learn a little more about this important event? Here’s what future dispatching pros ought to known about how the event works, and what its findings mean for drivers, dispatchers, and the industry as a whole.

The Roadcheck Uses Different Levels of Inspection for Trucks & Drivers

The CSVA has several levels of inspection that it makes use of to verify the suitability of trucks and drivers for the road. During the Roadcheck, the three strictest levels of the CSVA’s inspection are used:

Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1. Here’s a quick look at what these levels entail:

• Level 3: Includes inspections of the driver’s license, Medical Examiner’s Certificate, Skill Performance Evaluation, record of duty status, hours of service, seat belt, and vehicle inspection reports.
• Level 2: Includes sobriety tests, brake systems, cargo security, multiple other vehicle systems, and all items included in Level 3 evaluation. It also includes a brief “walk-around” inspection.
• Level 1: Involves a detailed and hands-on inspection of many of a truck’s most important systems, as well as items included in Levels 3 and 2.

These tests offer a thorough look at some of the most important details relating to the safety of a truck and its driver, and failure can result in a driver or vehicle being removed from active service pending further action. For professionals with dispatcher training, the inspection criteria of the CSVA are a useful guideline for maintaining and self-inspecting a fleet on an ongoing basis.

Auto Industry Professionals Should Take Note of the Results of the Inspections

Any failure of a truck or driver inspection is cause for concern for professionals in careers in the auto industry. Unfortunately, the results from the latest International Roadcheck demonstrated that there’s plenty of work to be done. A total of 40,944 Level 1 inspections were conducted, with 23 per cent—12,030 or nearly 1 in 4—of vehicles failing and being placed out of service. Across the 62,013 driver inspections (Levels 3, 2, and 1), 4.7 per cent (2,940) of drivers were placed out of service for violations.

These are huge numbers, and speak to the importance of having well trained and dedicated dispatching professionals taking the reins and ensuring greater safety within the industry. After graduating and entering a dispatching career, understand that the actions you take to improve safety and compliance at your place of work are part of a much larger, and very important, effort to improve safety within the transportation industry.

Pros in Careers in the Auto Industry Can Expect the Event to Have Important Annual Themes

Every year, the CSVA’s Roadcheck emphasizes a particular theme relating to truck and driver safety, highlighting findings relating to that element in its official Roadcheck report. The theme for the 2017 iteration of the event was “cargo securement.” Approximately 15.7 per cent of violations found throughout the inspections related to this category, with the number one issue in the category being “No or improper load securement.”

Professionals in transportation and dispatching know that improper securement is highly unsafe, causing issues both for the stability of the vehicle and, potentially, for other drivers around a moving truck. When working with drivers in your future dispatching career, make sure to highlight the importance of this element of safety.

Are you interested in improving the safety of the international trucking industry?

Prepare for the challenge at Automotive Training Centre’s dispatch school in Cambridge!