The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) annual Brake Safety Week is scheduled for Sunday, August 22nd through Saturday, August 28th, 2021. Throughout that week, officials across North America will conduct standard inspections on commercial vehicles focusing on brake systems and components with an extra emphasis on brake hoses/tubing. Any vehicles inspected with a brake-related violation will be placed out-of-service until its noted violation(s) are resolved, potentially causing delivery delays. There will also be an unannounced one-day brake safety check sometime during the remainder of the year. 

Each year, CVSA releases its brake safety week dates in advance to remind motor carriers to proactively check and service their vehicles to ensure safe roadways. Research has shown that announcing these dates ahead of time has improved overall compliance, and prepares drivers for the unannounced one-day inspection, but there are still many brake violations that occur. Just last year, CVSA reported the following: 

• Brake system and brake adjustment violations accounted for more vehicle violations than any other vehicle violation category, accounting for 38.6% of all vehicle out-of-service conditions, during last year’s three-day International Roadcheck inspection and enforcement initiative.
• “Brake system” was the third most cited vehicle-related factor in fatal commercial motor vehicle and passenger vehicle crashes, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) latest “Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts” report.
• Brake-related violations accounted for eight out of the top 20 vehicle violations in 2020, according to FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System.
• During last year’s Brake Safety Week, 12% of the 43,565 commercial motor vehicles inspected were placed out of service for brake-related violations.

CVSA’s annual brake inspection goal is to emphasize the importance of brake systems and the critical safety reasons for routine inspections. 

Odyssey Logistics & Technology is committed to developing a safe work environment and logistics network for its employees and customers and will continue to bring you the latest updates and results of these safety checks.

For more information regarding this roadcheck, visit: CVSA.