Speed, dirt and other ‘red flags’ can increase odds of roadside inspections

Editor's note: International Roadcheck is May 4-6. This is the final part of a three-part series on how fleets can prepare for and pass roadside inspections — not just during the 72-hour International Roadcheck but all year. Read part one and part two.

Beyond weigh station checks, any time an officer stops a commercial driver, he or she is susceptible to a vehicle inspection. It’s truck drivers in a hurry who can get themselves and their fleets in the most trouble.

Speed is the No. 1 reason a truck driver will be pulled over by law enforcement, Fred Fakkema, vice president of safety and compliance for Zonar Systems, told FleetOwner.

Speed is also the top cause of highway collisions, he noted. Traffic enforcement officers are also looking for trucks following too closely behind other vehicles and for distracted drivers. “It’s amazing how many trucks get pulled over because the driver is using a cell phone while driving an 18-wheeler weighing 80,000 lbs. and not paying attention to the roadway,” Fakkema said. 

This summer, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Operation Safe Driver Week will focus on speeding trucks. The nonprofit CVSA is focused on creating uniform inspection and enforcement systems across North America.

The group chose speed enforcement for this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, July 11-17, because of the spike in traffic fatalities during pandemic-plagued 2020. While traffic on U.S. roadways decreased last year — the National Safety Council (NSC) estimates a 13% drop in miles driven in 2020 compared to 2019 — death rates rose 24%, according to preliminary estimates. That was the biggest year-over-year increase since 1924.

That spike led to more than 42,000 deaths from motor vehicle crashes last year at a rate of 12.8 road deaths per 100,000 population, an increase from 11.9 per 100,000 in 2019. Another 4.8 million were seriously injured in road crashes in 2020, according to NSC.

“It is tragic that in the U.S., we took cars off the roads and didn’t reap any safety benefits,” Lorraine Martin, NSC president, said earlier this year. “These data expose our lack of an effective roadway safety culture. It is past time to address roadway safety holistically and effectively, and NSC stands ready to assist all stakeholders, including the federal government.”

Along with speeding, other violations that can get commercial drivers pulled over and subject to roadside inspections include failure to signal before lane changes and inadequate securement. “It could be anything from scrap not being completely tied down to a hammer sitting on the backend that’s going to fall off,” Fakkema said. “It’s amazing what can come off a vehicle on the roadway.”

This comes back to maintenance, according to Gino Fontana, a vice president of operations for Transervice’s Berkeley Division. “A good preventive maintenance program is absolutely essential,” he told FleetOwner. “You don’t want that truck breaking down. You want that piece of equipment to be able to perform. And you also don’t want to have anything that catches the eye of a state trooper or is going to lead to a failed inspection.”

Loose items on the back of trucks are warning signals to troopers that a driver didn’t perform a pre-trip inspection of the vehicle. “It’s a serious situation if they don’t do a pre-trip and you see lug nuts missing or not tightened so that a vehicle could lose a tire,” Fakkema said. “Now you’re getting into the accident threshold where it’s going to cause a collision and lawsuits are going to follow, especially if a tire comes off. Then it just expands from there.”

That initial pre-trip is one of the most important things a driver can do, he said. “While they do it, it also puts them in a safety mindset. They’re thinking about safety before leaving the yard. They’re making sure their equipment is safe, and that thought process continues with them in the cab.”

A dirty truck on a beautiful summer day can also catch an officer’s attention on the highway. Fakkema said this isn’t as much of a problem during the winter, but a dirty truck can be a “red flag” other times of the year. “It’s indicative of somebody not paying attention to details,” he said. “If your kids don’t clean their room or they don’t bathe or maintain their hygiene, don’t you think there’s something wrong?”

The truck is a driver’s office, he continued. “If they’re not taking care of their office, then that’s a sign of a potential issue — and an enforcement officer is going to look for that issue.”

Law enforcement interaction

Being organized in the cab can be a driver’s quickest way through a roadside inspection. Zonar’s Fakkema said it’s imperative that a driver knows how to operate an ELD and have all paperwork organized and easily accessible.

“Know where your driver’s license is, where your registration is, where your medical card is, where your shipping papers are,” Fakkema said. “It should all be organized in a book to show officers. You shouldn’t have to go digging through something because it just makes the enforcement officer wonder.”

When Transervice is spec’ing trucks, it includes a document holder and place for it in the cab, Fontana said. 

“Each driver is given two things,” he said. “They’re given a hardcover book that stays in the truck and holds all they need in terms of registration, insurance and other required documents. And then each driver is given a plastic folio that holds their manifest and all essential paperwork.”

“Compliance leads to safety, and safety leads to compliance,” Fakkema said. “If you’re a safe operator and a safe carrier, you’re going to be compliant. You don’t want to have things to worry about when you do go through inspections. Safety and compliance go hand in hand.”     

This is part three of a three-part series on how fleets can prepare for roadside inspections. Read part one and part two.