August 1998

Report on 1996 Roadside Truck Inspections
Conducted by the NYS Department of Transportation and the NYS State Police
Anne T. McCartt, Sandra Z. Fuller, Mark C. Hammer, and Yalew Meherka

This study was supported by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) with funding provided by the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, Office of Motor Carriers, Federal Highway Administration.

NYSDOT has responsibility for the state's Commercial Vehicle Safety Program, which includes monitoring compliance with regulations related to motor carrier safety and hazardous materials. An important part of regulatory enforcement is the conduct of roadside safety inspections of commercial vehicles and drivers by inspection staff from the NYSDOT and troopers from the New York State Police. An emphasis is placed on identifying unsafe vehicles, and criteria are provided for identifying violations severe enough to place a vehicle or driver out-of-service until the defect or condition is corrected.

Three levels of commercial vehicle inspections are conducted at roadside inspections. Level I inspections include an examination of the driver's license and other driver records and a full examination of the vehicle, including tests of the brake system, inspection of the load and any hazardous materials, and examination of the underside of the vehicle. Level 2 inspections involve a check of the driver's license and other driver records and a walk-around to determine defects in the vehicle without examining underneath the vehicle. Level 3 inspections focus solely on the driver.

Data were examined for 42,709 roadside inspections conducted in 1996 of trucks, truck drivers, and hazardous materials shipments. The data were obtained from the NYSNET system maintained by NYSDOT. From these data, the following profile of the statewide program emerges.

• 78.4% of the inspections were Level I inspections (driver and total vehicle), 17. 1 % were Level 2 (driver and top of vehicle), and 4.5% were Level 3 (driver only).

• 89.7% of the inspections were conducted 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. and 10.2% were conducted 4 p.m. 7 a.m.

• NYSDOT inspectors conducted 60.2% of the inspections and State Police troopers conducted 39.8%.

• About half the vehicles inspected (46.2%) were single units, and the power units of the vehicles inspected were almost equally divided between straight trucks (47.9%) and tractors (52.1%).

• 61.6% of the drivers were licensed by New York and 58.4% of the power units were registered by New York.

The study also provides information on the magnitude and nature of violations (failure to comply with state and federal Motor Carrier Safety Standards). Not all violations require a driver or vehicle to be placed out-of-service. The criteria for placing a driver or vehicle out-of-service are established by the North American Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, a public/private partnership between commercial vehicle safety enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and the motor carrier industry.

• In 40.6% of the inspections, the driver and/or vehicle was placed out-of-service for at least one violation. The driver out-of-service rate was 7.0%, and the vehicle out-of-service rate (based on Level I and Level 2 inspections) was 38.7%.

• 22.0% of the drivers had at least one driver violation, and 72.5% of the inspections resulted in at least one vehicle violation. In 77.5% of the inspections, at least one vehicle or driver violation was found.

• Of the 99,437 total violations issued, the two most frequent violations were inspection repair/maintenance, accounting for II. 8% of the violations, and brake out-of-adjustment, accounting for 9.4% of the violations.

• 8.7% of the vehicles were carrying at least one hazardous material. Additional regulations pertain to drivers and vehicles involved in the transportation of hazardous materials. Of the inspections involving vehicles transporting hazardous materials, the overall out-of-service rate for vehicles/drivers was 46.0%. The driver out-of-service rate for drivers transporting hazardous materials was 6. 1 %, and the vehicle out-of-service rate was 45.0% for vehicles transporting hazardous materials.

• 74.9% of the inspections involved an interstate carrier. The vehicles of intrastate carriers were placed out-of-service more frequently than the vehicles of interstate carriers (48. 1 % versus 35.0%), and the drivers employed by intrastate carriers were placed out-of-service more frequently than the drivers employed by interstate carriers (8.2% and 6.5%). Thus, the overall out-of-service rate for intrastate carriers (50.8%) was greater than the overall out-of service rate for interstate carriers (36.8%).

Data from this study and others recently completed by the Institute for Traffic Safety will be used by NYSDOT and the New York State Police program managers to improve future enforcement efforts.