While regular safety inspections may seem like a giant pain to go through: there’s all these regulations, standards you have to meet, paperwork to fill out and so on. For any one is a professional truck driver, or who owns a company where you deliver goods to customers, you have likely been involved in the process of a road check before but you may not know exactly what these inspections are in place. Here’s a little more information on why there are regular road checks for any commercial vehicle.
Who does the inspections?
Every year, usually in June, there is a three day long event where inspectors who are certified the by CVSA conduct inspections to ensure all drivers, and their trucks, are following safety regulations and are compliant with the processes in place.
It’s not just to give out fines
While there are drivers and trucks that are pulled from the road due to a variety of compliance violations, that doesn’t mean the CVSA is just looking to hand out fines and pull trucks. This three day event is also aimed at education for the general public on issues surrounding safe commercial vehicle operations and what the roadside inspection program is designed for.
Helpful hints and reminders
Even those companies who try to stay on top of all the maintenance can sometimes overlook certain things, or forget when maintenance needs to be done. The road check inspections are designed to help ensure trucks are safe to be on the road. Your truck inspection may not have any critical violations, which means you can keep driving it and continue on to your destination, but the inspector may have some reminders about certain areas you could improve on so that your truck is always running as safe as possible.
Why do I need to pass this check?
When you pass the road check, the inspector will give you a decal to put on your truck identifying you have passed the inspection. This means anyone on the road can see your truck is running safely and you’re in compliance with all regulations. If you don’t pass the safety check then your truck or driver, or maybe both, cannot be on the road. If they can’t be on the road then you could be losing time and money until you fix the violations. You could also be looking at fines, depending on the situation and which violations you’re facing.
While ensuring your truck is safe for the road, and your driver has the proper credentials, might seem like a lot of red tape to sift through the inspections and regulations are put in place for everyone’s safety. A truck carrying a big haul that isn’t secured properly is a danger to anyone on the same road, or if a large truck is having brake issues then the driver may not be able to completely stop in time and that is definitely an issue for people on the road. All commercial vehicles must follow the compliance rules and initiatives for the safety of everyone.
