The latest Brake Safety Day blitz inspections had good results, but just “good” isn’t good enough when it comes to brake safety.
In her recent IdeaXchnage blog, Jane Clark, Vice President of Member Services for NationaLease discussed the latest Brake Safety Day results.
The good news: 79 percent of vehicles inspected during this past May’s Brake Safety Day showed no major vehicle violations. The bad news: That still leaves 21 percent of vehicles inspected placed out-of-service. Twelve percent of the total violations were brake-related. This was an unannounced inspection, covering 33 U.S. states and ten Canadian provinces, for a total of 9,524 inspections, so the results are relatively positive.
However, as the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) notes, “Brake-related violations comprise the largest percentage of all out-of-service violations cited during roadside inspections. Improperly installed or poorly maintained brake systems can reduce the braking capability and increase stopping distances of trucks and buses, which pose a serious risk to driver and public safety.”
The inspection also addressed ABS compliance and found that of the nearly 4,700 air-braked trucks and tractors requiring ABS, 8 per cent had ABS violations, while of the 3,220 trailers identified as requiring ABS, 15 percent had ABS violations.
Jane suggests that fleet owners and managers review their brake maintenance procedures with their teams, making sure to find out what, if any issues, their technicians are finding on a regular basis. She notes that maintenance teams have a great deal of data that’s available to them through their DVIR and PMI reports, as well as repair orders. This information will help to find and fix brake-related problems throughout the entire fleet.
This is something that fleets should take note of and look at closely and quickly because the next Brake Safety Day isn’t unannounced. It’s coming and it’s coming quickly. On September 7, 2017 Brake Safety Day inspections will take place in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
For more information on this and other fleet-related issues, visit Jane’s IdeaXchange blog page.
