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Safety Inspections

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A primary mission of the division is the enforcement of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations using the North American Standard Inspection and CVSA out of service guidelines. All enforcement personnel assigned to the division are certified in all levels of inspection pertaining to safety, hazardous material, and cargo tanks.

Permanent scale locations utilize “inspection barns” at most locations to process inspections quickly and efficiently. With ample parking area, if the need arises, vehicles and/or drivers can be placed out of service without being a hindrance to the scale facility operation.

Units assigned to portable operations conduct “road side” inspections at the most convenient and safest locations possible, utilizing such areas as rest areas, interstate on/off ramps, etc. to conduct inspections and if need be, place vehicle and/or driver out of service in a location, not hazardous to the motoring public.

If a vehicle passes a Level 1 or Level 5 inspection without any defect in a critical inspection item (a defect that could lead to an out of service condition, i.e. one inoperative brake light out of two) then a CVSA decal is issued to the vehicle(s)

The Traffic Enforcement Program is used to reduce CMV crashes and moving violations. This program utilizes troopers trained in Level 3 (driver only) inspections to patrol the roadways and identify moving violations that tend to cause CMV crashes, i.e. DUI, speeding, reckless driving, driver fatigue, and following too close, and take enforcement action.

View a demonstration of a full Level 1 Inspection using a Performance Based Brake Tester:

For further information contact:

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
400 Seventh Street SW
Washington,DC 20590
Phone: (202) 366-2519
www.fmcsa.dot.gov

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
5430 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 130
Bethesda, MD 20814
Phone: (301) 564-1623
Fax: (301) 564-0588

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