The Irony of Inspections | Semi Truck Repair

Admittedly, I’m a little late to the party spreading the word about the CVSA’s designation of this years International Roadcheck Blitz.

If you missed it, here’s the scoop: the dates are June 7-9; and this years focus is tire safety.

Woot.

Before I begin, let me first make clear that as a service company that sells tires (as my boss often puts it :)) we will most definitely be publishing multiple posts on tire safety and other ways to prepare your equipment for the upcoming inspections. The most frequently carried out inspection is the Level 1. So, even though the yearly focus is on tires,  they will find and ping you for other things besides just your tires.

You’ll have to excuse my lack of enthusiasm. I’m entering into my third year in the industry (yes, I know, still very green) and the “shine” of the good intentions behind CSA’s roadside inspections has worn off. I’m starting to see where the paint stops and the rust begins.

Don’t get me wrong, our business IS very literally repairing, monitoring, and maintaining commercial vehicles to the standards the CVSA has set. On top of that, we understand the reasoning behind said standards. 80,000 lb vehicles barreling down our thoroughfares at high rates of speed without the ability to stop on a dime, need to be in tip top shape. The drivers of these vehicles need to be within their hours, drug and alcohol free, and road ready and attentive to navigate these rigs. Big ups to the Alphabet Peeps for trying to keep our roads safe.

It. All. Makes. Sense.

But what I personally don’t understand is why the CVSA, FMCSA, DOT, LMNOP, WXYZ, Flamingo, Snow-cone, Whomever, can find the “need” to carry out over 3.3 million inspections on commercial vehicles throughout the course of their “safety blitzes” inside of a single calendar year…… and yet the types of vehicles shown below are driving around EVERY SINGLE DAY and no one bats an eyelash.

Excuse me over here while I look confused and bat my eyelashes.

Currently, only 17 states have inspection laws for passenger vehicles. And, of these, many are only annual. Not every 3 months, for 72 hours straight, or when the wind blows hard from the Northeast direction and your driver looked bored going over that scale.

Sure, the fines for these guys would probably be a lot less and half of them probably wouldn’t even get paid. Their very livelihood doesn’t depend on the forward movement of that vehicle.  But isn’t the premise… ummm well… you know… SAFETY? And aren’t the vast majority of accidents involving heavy duty trucks caused by passenger vehicles?! So wouldn’t it make sense to look equally as hard or (gasp!) hardER at those vehicles?

Cue soapbox.

So while it makes total sense to me that commercial vehicles and their drivers should be under a high level of scrutiny, the fact that the bulk of the population, for the most part, gets to bypass all that… well…. it just seems a bit odd.

End rant.

All that being said, we are a service company that sells tires, and we do have a deluge of information to share with you to prepare you for the upcoming inspections. (Sometimes, like today, you’ll just have to listen while we scratch our heads out loud. :)) In general though, we are here to keep your equipment running efficiently, meeting compliance standards, and moving down the road where it belongs. We’re here for YOU.

Stay tuned in the weeks to come for tips on getting your fleet prepared.