When thinking about safety, it’s important to focus on all facets of your fleet … starting with your drivers and company culture. From there, you can move to the vehicle – engine, tires, mirrors, wipers, brakes, etc. Like a house of cards, no one item is more important than the other. Without ensuring each is working to its maximum performance, you put your vehicle (and driver) at risk.

This is Brake Safety Week.  During this annual event, enforcement officials inspect commercial motor vehicles for critical out-of-service brake violations, as well as other critical vehicle out-of-service violations, and will restrict them from use until the violations have been corrected. Vehicles that pass eligible inspections receive a passed-inspection CVSA decal.

“Safety is always our top priority and it’s our mission to ensure the vehicles on our roadways have met all safety standards and regulations,” said CVSA President Sgt. John Samis with the Delaware State Police. “This is especially important as we rally behind truck drivers as they transport essential goods during this public health crisis. We need to do everything we can to ensure that the vehicles truck drivers are driving are as safe as possible.”

While checking brake system components is always part of roadside inspections, inspectors will be paying special attention to brake hoses/tubing during this year’s Brake Safety Week to highlight the importance of those components to vehicle safety. Brake hoses/tubing must be properly attached, undamaged, without leaks, and appropriately flexible.

During last year’s International Roadcheck inspection and enforcement initiative, brake system and brake adjustment violations accounted for 45.1% of all vehicle out-of-service conditions, more than any other category. Last year’s Brake Safety Week resulted in 13.5% of the commercial motor vehicles inspected placed out of service due to brake-related vehicle inspection item violations.

While you may be focusing on brakes this week, don’t forget to focus on your drivers. What can you do to help ensure they have all the tools necessary to stay safe and prevent collisions? A video-based safety program with a managed service and a coaching workflow is the proven method that hundreds of fleets rely on. Not just this week, but every week.