CVSA Brake Safety Week Starts August 21st
It seems as though it were just last year that the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) had a Brake Safety Week. Likely, this year will be very much the same. With that in mind, we can look at last year’s results to infer what your truck might need looking at to avoid an out-of-service violation.
Brake Safety Week 2021 Results
The statistics for 2021 Brake Safety Week make a good contrast to the results on Surprise Brake Inspection Day. By being given approximately one month to prepare, the out-of-service rate for trucks went from 12.6% to 12%, a decrease of five percent.
In contrast with Surprise Brake Inspection Day, trucks inspected in the United States had a lower failure rate than Canada. For both days, Mexico still reigned supreme. Brake Safety Week failure percentages for Canada, United States, and Mexico were 15.4%, 13.5%, and 2.6%, respectively.
A trucker with an eye for detail may notice that getting inspected in Mexico gives a much better chance of success, but unless you are planning to perform work across the Southern Border for the week of August 21st, you are simply better off checking and maintaining your brakes.
Even in cases that did not warrant an out-of-service order, inspectors found brake hose chafing concerns in 5,667 out of 35,674 commercial motor vehicles. Most of these (84%) cases did not warrant an emergency as the reinforcement ply was still intact, but did raise cause for concern in the future. If you had one of the lower categories of brake hose chafing last year, it would be a good idea to get it checked now, as the wear has not gotten any better and may have pushed your truck into a higher category, and possibly even broken through the reinforcement ply.
Conclusion
As the miles a truck drives approaches infinity, the odds that the truck’s brakes will come across issues approach one. Aside from the driver behind the wheel itself, the brake system is arguably the most important system the truck has. While not driving during the week of August 21st is an easy way to avoid an out-of-service violation, it does not resolve the underlying issue. Get your brakes checked as soon as possible and apply repairs where necessary to make sure that, should you be inspected, the inspection goes as smoothly as possible.
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