With this year’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Roadcheck coming up on May 4-6, now is the time to make sure your fleet and drivers are ready for inspection.
The CVSA conducts an annual international roadcheck across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The three-day event is an enforcement initiative to promote commercial motor vehicle (CMV) safety, as CMV inspectors emphasize proper vehicle lighting and hours of service compliance.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), “lamps inoperable” violations constituted over 12% of all vehicle violations in 2020. Additionally, nearly 35% of driver out-of-service designations found in last year’s roadcheck were due to hours of service violations.
While inspectors are prioritizing scrutiny on lighting and hours of service violations, all inspection criteria within the North American Standard Level I Inspection are eligible to potentially put a vehicle out of service until issues are fixed. After last year’s roadcheck, over 12,000 vehicles were taken off the road by violations.
As the international roadcheck approaches, it’s a good time to assess your fleet’s readiness for inspection and emphasize proper procedure with your drivers to ensure that your vehicles stay on the road and in service.
How to Prepare for the Roadcheck
1. Establish a preventative maintenance schedule
The best way to get ready is to stay ready. Using a fleet management software to automate an all-encompassing maintenance schedule allows fleet managers to service vehicles preemptively and predictably, maximizing vehicles’ time on the road and minimizing the impact of downtime for service. Many fleet management softwares offer vehicle maintenance tracking that allow you to receive service reminders, collaborate with your team in real time and manage recall notices for each vehicle in your fleet.
If you find yourself testing a fleet tracking or fleet management app, that is a stripped-down version of the web-based software, best to keep searching.
2. Utilize digital inspections
Because paper inspections are hard for drivers to keep up with, they can be inefficient, error-prone and inaccessible. Managing Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs) through a fleet management software means that inspections can be completed straight from a driver’s smartphone and uploaded for immediate visibility.
Having a consistently updated repository for historical inspection data means proven compliance over time, and your drivers will always have inspection records ready to go for CMV inspectors.
3. Make driver safety and compliance a priority
While maintaining safe and compliant vehicles is important to fleet management, driver violations can have just as much of an impact on operations as an out-of-service vehicle. Creating a culture around driver preparedness is vital to a successful fleet operation , and having systems in place to promote safety and compliance can be the difference between a passed inspection and an out-of-service driver.
Fleet management software can help drivers stay organized with all necessary documents stored right on their phones. With this year’s focus on hours of service, having a system that can integrate with FCMSA-required electronic logging devices (ELDs) can help keep driver behavior and productivity visible and well documented.
4. Start tracking your mobile assets more closely
Visibility is more than just a vehicle’s pinpoint on a map – collecting real-time data on driver safety and vehicle performance can help you stay on top of issues as they arise, no matter where your assets may be. Integrating telematics devices’ data into your fleet management system gives you a complete picture of your fleet maintenance process, as well as a comprehensive look into driver behavior as it happens.
Coupling telematics capabilities with fleet management software eliminates the wait time between inspection reporting and actionable maintenance steps that keep your fleet functioning at its peak levels.
Getting ready for the 2021 CVSA Roadcheck means taking the time to evaluate your fleet management systems and identify areas for improvement. A good fleet management software can help you elevate and automate your current processes, maximizing your safety and compliance efforts as well as prolonging the lifespan of your fleet.
Want to learn more about how Fleetio can streamline your fleet management? Start your free trial or request a demo today!
