Stacking of Brake Violations - CSA Impacts of the 20% Rule

A carrier is stopped and receives a roadside inspection. The vehicle in question is a 5 axle combination with cracked brake linings on both the left and right steering axle that meet the Out-of-Service requirements in that they contain cracks that exceed 1-1/2 “ in length. The inspector lists each brake individually on the inspection report as a violation utilizing 393.47(a) as the violation code and indicates each as an out-of-service violation. Up to this point in my opinion the officer has done everything correctly. The problem occurs in that the officer will then list an additional violation of 396.3(a)(1) for 20% of the service bakes on the vehicle being defective again indicating this as an out-of-service violation. While this may be in line with current CVSA policy this does rsult in the carrier being penalized twice for the same violation. As a result carriers are penalized with additional CSA points for the 396.3(a)(1) violation for what is really the 2 steering axle brakes which have already been listed on the inspection report.

Carriers are receiving additional CSA violation and out-of-service points for violations already documented which is negatively impacting their CSA score.

My solution would be to include guidance in either Operational Policy 14 or Operational Policy 15 that would instruct inspectors when violations are found on the steering axle of a CMV that render it oos with no other brake violations contributing to the 20% the inspector should not be listing an additional violation of 396.3(a)(1) for 20% of the brakes defective.