CVSA announces dates for this year’s three-day International Roadcheck

Truckers News

You’ve got 90 days or so to either plan to take time off or get yourself and your truck ready for the annual three-day inspection blitz planned by law enforcement in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

From May 12 to 14, enforcement personnel throughout North America will inspect commercial motor vehicles and commercial motor vehicle drivers for compliance with vehicle, cargo and driver regulatory requirements as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s 72-hour inspection, enforcement and data-collection initiative, International Roadcheck.

During International Roadcheck, inspectors at weigh/inspection stations and pop-up inspection sites primarily conduct the North American Standard Level I Inspection. This 37-step procedure includes two major parts – an examination of the driver’s operating requirements and an assessment of the vehicle’s mechanical fitness.

For the driver portion of the inspection, inspectors check the driver’s qualifications, license, record of duty status, medical examiner’s certificate, seat belt usage, skill performance evaluation certificate (if applicable), and status in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (in the U.S.). Inspectors also look for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. If an inspector identifies driver out-of-service violations, they will place the driver out of service, restricting that driver from operating their vehicle.

For the vehicle portion of the inspection, inspectors assess the vehicle’s brake systems, cargo securement, coupling devices, driveline/driveshaft components, driver’s seat, fuel and exhaust systems, frames, lighting devices, steering mechanisms, suspensions, tires, wheels, rims, hubs, and windshield wipers. Inspections of motorcoaches/buses and other passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicles also include examination of emergency exits, seating, and electrical cables and systems in the engine and battery compartments. If out-of-service violations are found during an inspection, the vehicle will be placed out of service and restricted from movement until all out-of-service violations have been properly addressed.

A vehicle that successfully passes a Level I or V Inspection without any critical vehicle inspection item violations may receive a CVSA decal, which is valid for up to three months. A valid decal signals to commercial motor vehicle enforcement personnel that the vehicle was recently inspected and did not have out-of-service violations.

Each year, International Roadcheck places special emphasis on a driver violation category and a vehicle violation category to highlight those aspects of an inspection.

The driver focus for this year’s International Roadcheck is on electronic logging device (ELD) tampering, falsification or manipulation. During an inspection, the inspector will review the driver’s record of duty status as usual and check for false or manipulated entries, with a focus on ELD tampering.

Inaccurate ELD entries may result from a driver’s lack of understanding of the federal regulations and exemptions. However, in some cases, inaccurate entries are purposefully used to conceal hours-of-service violations, and some records are manipulated to conceal driving time (with no indication the record was edited as required by federal regulations).

Last year, falsification of record of duty status was the second most-cited driver violation, at 58,382 violations. And five out of the top 10 driver violations were related to hours of service or ELDs.

This year’s International Roadcheck vehicle focus is cargo securement. Improper or inadequate cargo securement poses a serious risk to the driver and other motorists by adversely affecting the vehicle’s maneuverability and/or causing unsecured loads to fall or become dislodged, resulting in roadway hazards and/or crashes.

In 2025, 18,108 violations were issued because cargo was not secured to prevent leaking/spilling/blowing/falling and 16,054 violations were issued for vehicle components or dunnage not being secured.

Getting Ready for the USDOT Registration System

‘Brokers could do more’: SCOTUS hears oral arguments in cornerstone liability case

Jason Cannon

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a high-stakes legal battle that could determine whether freight brokers can be held liable for selecting unsafe trucking companies.

The case, Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, centers on the scope of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA). The outcome could reshape the liability landscape for the multibillion-dollar logistics industry and affect the rights of victims injured in commercial truck accidents. A decision is expected by the end of the term in June.

Life-altering collision

The dispute stems from a Dec. 7, 2017, crash on Interstate 70 in Illinois. Missouri truck driver Shawn Montgomery had pulled his truck onto the shoulder for mechanical repairs when he was struck by a tractor-trailer driven by Yosniel Varela-Mojena, a driver for Indiana-based Caribe Transport II. Montgomery suffered permanent disfigurement and the loss of a leg in the collision.

Montgomery filed a state negligence lawsuit against the driver, the carrier, and C.H. Robinson, the freight broker that coordinated the shipment. He alleged that C.H. Robinson was negligent in hiring an unsafe motor carrier.

Legal tug-of-war

C.H. Robinson argues that the FAAAA’s Section 14501(c)(1) preempts such claims because they interfere with a broker’s “price, route, or service.” While a district court initially ruled that the claims fell under a “safety exception” for state regulatory authority over motor vehicles, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, shielding the broker from the lawsuit.

Before the justices, Montgomery’s counsel argued that the FAAAA was intended to stop states from enacting economic regulations, not to dismantle long-standing, safety-based tort laws.

Plaintiff attorney Paul Clement argued that while Congress sought to deregulate the economics of the transportation industry, it specifically preserved state authority over safety and contended that negligent hiring claims fall squarely within a “safety exception” for state regulations with respect to motor vehicles.

“The whole point of the tort is to keep dangerous motor vehicles off of the road,” Clement told the justices . He argued that brokers should not be “scot-free” when they hire carriers they know are poorly maintained or underinsured

C.H. Robinson counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. noted before the court Wednesday that brokers are merely middlemen who do not own or operate vehicles, adding that the role of the broker is to match “federally approved carriers with shippers,” and there is no duty on the part of the broker to ensure they match a load with a safe carrier.

Boutrous contended that the fault of failing to provide a safe driver lies with the fleet and the driver. “The broker doesn’t know all that,” Boutrous argued, adding that brokers do not have the ability to control or inspect a motor vehicle. “Brokers aren’t safety experts.”

“Brokers don’t know the safety record of the driver. That’s confidential,” added Sopan Joshi, Assistant to the Solicitor General for the Department of Justice.

However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that “brokers could do more” to ensure safer highways. “I guess my question is, given the safety implications, why would Congress have wanted to cut it off at carriers and not include brokers when, I think, although they haven’t traditionally done it, brokers could do more to ensure that carriers are hiring safe drivers who don’t have issues with their history or whether they can read the signs or whatever it might be, and that will reduce the number of fatal trucking accidents, which is a huge problem?”

Plaintiff attorney Paul Clement contended that the state tort system could provide a trucking safety backstop. Clement claimed that 94% of motor vehicles on the road have no federal inspection data, adding that there are numerous platforms available that provide brokers with carrier safety records, enabling them to make better carrier choices.

Industry and government response

Lawyers for C.H. Robinson countered that the plain text of the law expressly preempts state tort claims. They argued the safety exception applies only to regulations with a “direct connection” to the operation of motor vehicles—a category they say excludes brokers, who do not own or operate the trucks themselves.

In a notable turn, the U.S. government filed a brief supporting C.H. Robinson. Federal officials reversed their previous stance on the issue, concluding after a fresh review that a broker’s duty to select carriers does not meet the “direct link” requirement to motor vehicles required by the statute.

FMCSA Seeks 18 Drivers to Help Test HOS Pilot Programs

BULLETIN
Monday, March 2, 2026
Contact: fmcsa.publicaffairs@dot.gov

FMCSA Seeks 18 Drivers to Help Test HOS Pilot Programs

FMCSA currently seeks 18 drivers to help the agency test and fine-tune two upcoming hours-of-service pilot programs. Over the course of six weeks, these drivers will help us make sure the study plans, training materials, and data collection tools are clear, practical, and ready for broader rollout.

This short, pre-testing phase is an important step in developing the Flexible Sleeper Berth and Split Duty Period pilot programs. Both efforts are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy’s Pro-Trucker Package and support President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14286, Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers.

The goal of these programs is to test alternatives to the current hours-of-service requirements which have the potential to improve the lives and working conditions of American truck drivers through greater flexibility, while simultaneously maintaining equal or greater levels of safety.

FMCSA is working with researchers at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to develop and carry out these hours-of-service pilot programs. To vet the research designs and identify any issues with data collection tools, FMCSA needs drivers to sign up for the six-week pre-tests with VTTI.

The Agency is seeking nine drivers who currently use “split sleeper berth” options (either “8/2” or “7/3”) and, most importantly, who want to test regularly using one or both of these new split options (“6/4” and “5/5”) for six weeks.

FMCSA also needs nine drivers whose schedules currently and regularly require them to drive up to the end of their 14-hour “driving window” and would also like to test the option to “pause” the window for 30 minutes minimum and up to 3 hours maximum by taking an extra break either:

(a) off-duty or in the sleeper berth in any location, or,
(b) on-duty (not driving) at the location of a pickup or delivery of cargo

If you are a driver and would like to apply to participate in the limited pre-testing, visit FMCSA’s Hours-of-Service webpage or follow the links below.

Flexible Sleeper Berth Online Screening Questionnaire

Split Duty Period Online Screening Questionnaire

Please share this information across your networks.

Thank you,
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation

ELD-tampering out-of-service orders: New for CVSA’s 2026 OOS criteria

Todd Dills

A new inspection bulletin from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance of enforcement and industry outlines changes in procedure for documenting what’s traditionally known as a false-logs violation.

Such a violation is marked when an inspector determines a driver recorded a status on his/her paper log or electronic logging device contrary to the real schedule. Come April 1, when the CVSA’s annual updates to its North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria go into effect, inspectors will now differentiate between:

1. Traditional “false log” violations of 49 CFR 395.8(e)(1), and
2. False-log violations that are the result of the growing issue of ELD tampering, which will be recorded as violations of 49 CFR 395.8(e)(2).

The news comes after Overdrive reporting revealed CVSA at work on the bulletin last year, amid a growing trend of false-log violations clearly in evidence through the end of the year. Overdrive sister company RigDig‘s accounting of such violations in federal data shows inspectors clearly harder at work in 2025 compared to prior years.

When the new OOS criteria go into effect, a key differentiating factor separating the two types of false-log violations and associated OOS orders will be whether or not the inspector can “determine approximately when the actual drive and rest periods occurred,” said CVSA Roadside Inspection Specialist Jeremy Disbrow, speaking Tuesday, February 10, as part of a CVSA primer on OOS criteria changes.

Say a driver utilizes personal conveyance to attempt to cover over the end of an 11-hour drive or 14-hour duty period, yet just continues to advance the load for three more hours. “That driver would be declared out-of-service until the eligibility to drive is re-established,” Disbrow said.

In such a case, a 10-hour OOS order would be most likely, though a variety of false-log scenarios could result in shorter or longer periods.

For violations determined to be tampering-related, inspectors will have no ability to make a determination of just when the last rest or drive period was established. Disbrow gave an example provided by Oregon’s Department of Transportation — it’s also featured in the new inspection bulletin — in which inspectors digging back into a driver’s logs were able to use a fuel receipt from Strafford, Missouri, to show a driver’s ELD had been shifted back at least three days.

At the date and time for the fuel receipt, the log line showed the driver off-duty all day in Arizona, more than 1,000 miles away.

In such cases of ELD tampering, where a false-log violation is clear yet evidence of editing is not preserved in the device (contrary to regulatory requirements for ELD providers’ devices) and it’s impossible to determine the last rest period, the out-of-service order will be automatically 10 hours off.

Why? “Because the entire thing is a work of fiction,” Disbrow said.

New out-of-service criteria go into effect on April 1, and CVSA outlined a variety of other, mostly fairly technical changes upcoming via the document at this link.

Bill to reform DataQs process reintroduced

Legislation introduced this week in the U.S. House takes another shot at DataQs reform after similar legislation stalled in the previous Congress.

Reps. Tracey Mann (R-Kansas) and Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) reintroduced the “Motor Carrier Safety Screening Modernization Act,” which would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to establish guidelines for states to follow in reviewing DataQs-system challenges to violations and crashes. Currently, states have the authority to establish their own review process.

The legislation would also expand access to FMCSA’s Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP), allowing motor carriers to review safety records for both prospective and current drivers rather than just for pre-employment purposes.

“The men and women who keep our supply chain efficient play a critical role in feeding, fueling, and clothing the world,” said Rep. Mann. “This commonsense legislation makes our roadways safer, gives trucking companies the tools they need to strengthen driver training and safety programs, and improves the efficiency of our supply chain. By cutting unnecessary red tape and ensuring accuracy in driver safety records, we can better support both our nation’s truckers and the businesses that rely on them every day.”

Under terms of the bill, if a citation or violation is being contested with a challenge via DataQs, the citation or violation would be required to be labeled to indicate that it is being contested in the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) and other relevant databases.

The bill would also amend the DataQ appeals process by requiring FMCSA to enact program participation guidelines that direct states and other federal agencies that receive Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding to provide for an appeals process in which, following the conclusion of a request for data review, an affected party can appeal the decision. Such an appeal would have to be adjudicated by a person other than the officer that issued the violation.

FMCSA last year proposed to essentially do just that with more impartiality in the challenge process, among other proposals.

Since 2009, the PSP has provided motor carriers access to data about driver-related safety violations during the hiring process, but current law prohibits carriers from accessing those same records after a driver is hired. The legislation would update the PSP to allow for continuous access.

According to a press release from Rep. Mann, the bill has received support from the American Trucking Associations, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, National Safety Council, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association, Truckload Carriers Association, Women in Trucking and others.

The bill was previously introduced in 2023 and passed the House Transportation Committee, but it never made it to the House floor for a vote.