Roadside Inspections and Traffic Enforcement Initiatives

Commercial vehicle enforcement activities typically fall into two categories: 1) Roadside inspections of vehicles and drivers, and 2) traffic enforcement actions consisting of a traffic stop (as a result of a moving violation) and a subsequent roadside inspection. FMCSA research shows that the latter is a much more effective enforcement tool. Enforcement agencies conduct varying mixes of these activities under the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, but most focus very heavily on roadside inspections alone. On a national level, the percentage of these activities comprised of traffic enforcement has dropped consistently and dramatically over the past several years.

Research has consistently found that the vast majority of crashes result from driver behavior. For instance, FMCSA’s Large Truck Crash Causation Study found that driver errors were the critical reason behind 87% of crashes studied. Also, the CSA Unsafe Driving BASIC (based mostly on moving violations) is the measurement category with the strongest relationship to crash risk. Not surprisingly, FMCSA’s April 2013 publication “Safety Program Effectiveness Measurement: Intervention Model Fiscal Year 2009” confirmed that traffic enforcement actions (which focus on such driver behavior) are four times more effective at preventing crashes and saving lives. However, the number of traffic enforcement actions performed under MCSAP has dropped 48% since 2007. This raises significant questions about the number of lives lost as a result in this decline and the opportunity to prevent crashes, injuries and fatalities by promoting traffic enforcement in the future.

Given its greater efficacy, CVSA should call on FMCSA to require that a minimum percentage of activities conducted under state commercial motor vehicle programs be comprised of traffic enforcement activity. Further, this percentage should be progressively increased until a desirable balance between roadside inspections and traffic enforcement inspections is established and achieved.