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You did! This year, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) was greatly surprised about the numbers that were posted for Operation Road Check.

The Operation Road Check 2008 is sponsored annually by the CVSA. The inspection agencies involved this year were the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (Mexico). All together there were 67, 931 inspections carried out in 1,683 locations. Seventy-seven percent of these inspections were Level 1 inspections! According to Steve Campbell, CVSA's executive director, "there was a 23.9 percent vehicle out-of-service rate...the lowest in the 21 year history of Road Check."

The Results

• Overall, the vehicle results were impressive. This year, 20.8 percent were OOS, down from last year's 21.5 percent OOS. The major problems were brakes, at 52.6 percent of all vehicle defects.
• HazMat was 17.6 percent OOS, down from 17.7 percent OOS last year.
• Passenger carrying vehicles OOS was 12.2 percent, down from 12.3 percent OOS last year.
• Driver Inspection Statistics
• Driver OOS was reduced this year to 5.3 percent, down from 6.2% last year. The majority of the OOS infractions continue to be HOS (55.6%).
• HM OOS was also reduced from 3.5 percent in 2007 to 2.4 percent this year. A total of 97.6 percent of the drivers passed HM audits!
• Passenger carrying vehicles increased to 4.5 percent OOS this year from 3.8 percent OOS last year.

FMCSA administrator John Hill said, "The annual Roadcheck event provides a great focus on commercial vehicle safety. It is also important that the public do its part by driving safety in the vicinity of large trucks and buses. It is critical that everyone pulls together to make our highways and roads continually safer. Let's all continue to make safety the highest priority of everyday."

I agree, however, we all should set the driving example as professional drivers. Again, wearing a seat belt is a mandatory part of your driving example.

The Click-It or Ticket program is heating up. I have been able to witness a few drivers getting tickets-car and truck drivers. Television ads have been popping up, too. Those commercials on TV and billboards have focused mainly on car and pick-up drivers.

Seat belt enforcement continues as a primary focus each year. Unfortunately, the seat belt issue in large trucks is deteriorating, up 397 from last year to 1,226 this year. In my pervious article, I stated that seat belts were not being used as needed and that is one thing that could trigger a roadside inspection. Lets get this under control before we lose more drivers to seat belt related deaths or injuries. Please keep the hard earned money that you've worked for. Don't give it away needlessly. Wear your seatbelts!

Each and every product moved in this country depends on you, the truck driver. I for one, realize that our country and our economy will be in sorry shape without you. Drivers, thank you all for continuing to get the job done.

Keep on trucking in a safe and efficient way. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me through this article feedback.