Law enforcement personnel in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. will conduct commercial motor vehicle inspections, educate drivers and motor carriers about the importance of brake safety, and provide brake inspection and violation data to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance for this year’s Brake Safety Week, scheduled for August 24-30.
CVSA-certified inspectors will conduct routine commercial motor vehicle inspections throughout the week, focusing on brake systems and components. As part of this year's brake safety initiative, inspectors will pay particular attention to drums and rotors. Brake drum and rotor issues may affect a vehicle’s brake efficiency. Broken pieces of drums and rotors may become dislodged from the vehicle en route and damage other vehicles or result in injuries.
Commercial motor vehicles found to have brake-related out-of-service violations or any other out-of-service violations will be removed from roadways until those violations are corrected.
During Brake Safety Week, inspectors will capture data about commercial motor vehicle inspections, brake systems and components, and brake-related violations and report that data to CVSA. Some jurisdictions will use performance-based brake testers (PBBTs) to assess the braking performance of vehicles and submit PBBT-specific data to the Alliance. CVSA will collect and analyze all data and report the results publicly later this year.
In addition, brake-safety educational efforts by inspectors, motor carriers, and others in the industry take place during Brake Safety Week. CVSA also offers resources to help drivers, motor carriers, owner-operators, and mechanics prepare for Brake Safety Week.
See also: How to prepare for roadside English enforcement
Previous Brake Safety Week results
Out of service violations
According to CVSA, a vehicle is put out of service when critical vehicle inspection items are identified during an inspection. Here are the OOS results from the past three Brake Safety Weeks:
- 2024: 16,725 CMVs were inspected, and 2,149 were placed OOS for a rate of 12.8%
- 2023: 18,875 CMVs were inspected, and 2,375 were placed OOS for a rate of 12.6%
- 2022: 38,117 CMVs were inspected, and 5,059 were placed OOS for a rate of 13.3%
Lining/pad violations
Data from CVSA is available on brake lining/pad violations for 2024 and 2023, as both years focused heavily on this type of violation. In 2024, there were 654 brake lining/pad violations. In 2023, there were 682 brake lining/pad violations.
Performance-based brake testers
According to CVSA, a performance-based brake tester is a machine that assesses a vehicle’s braking performance through direct measurements of the brake forces at each wheel end, axle, or for the whole vehicle.
- 2024: Eighteen states with PBBTs participated in Brake Safety Week with 452 inspections. There were 26 failures, which is a 5.75% out-of-service rate.
- 2023: Eleven states with PBBTs participated in Brake Safety Week with 397 inspections. There were 18 failures, which is a 4.5% out-of-service rate.
- 2022: Eleven jurisdictions with PBBTs participated in Brake Safety Week with 392 inspections. There were 29 failures, which is a 7% out-of-service rate.
