CVSA Puts Off International Roadcheck From May To Undetermined Date

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) is postponing 2020 International Roadcheck.

The CVSA stressed that Roadcheck is not cancelled. Rather, the May 5-7 timeframe for it is being postponed to a date in the future.The dates were not disclosed. 

The annual procedure involves several days of expanded testing of various truck safety mechanisms, usually with a particular focus. Last year, suspension systems were at the top of the safety list. 

The focus in 2020 was to be on what CVSA called the "driver requirements category of a roadside inspection."

"With last year's federal electronic logging device full-compliance mandate in the U.S., the Alliance decided that this year's International Roadcheck would be the perfect opportunity to revisit all aspects of roadside inspection driver requirements," CVSA President Sgt. John Samis said of the plans for this year's Roadcheck, first announced in late January. 

As for rescheduling this year's Roadcheck, CVSA said it will "monitor the status of the coronavirus pandemic and appropriately select the new dates when it's safe and reasonable to do so. Once the rescheduled dates have been selected, CVSA will notify the commercial motor vehicle enforcement community, the motor carrier industry, the press and the public," it said.

Many truck drivers use the occasion of Roadcheck (which is also known as Roadcheck Week, though it lasts just three days) to take a few days off the road. Roadcheck has traditionally tightened capacity for a few days. And in 2019, the national Outbound Tender Rejection Index (OTRI) of the FreightWaves SONAR market dashboard did rise from 4.27% on June 2, two days before the start of Roadcheck, to 4.78% when it began on June 4. Two days later, the national OTRI was at 4.97%. However, the national OTRI stood near 6% by the end of the month so the index was clearly moving higher regardless.

CVSA said in its announcement that  Operation Safe Driver Week is still scheduled for July 12-18. Brake Safety Week also is still on the schedule for August 23-29.

International Roadcheck gets its name from the fact that it takes place in Canada, Mexico and the United States concurrently and all under the direction of the CVSA. 

As FreightWaves reported last year, "an average of 17 commercial vehicles per minute are inspected throughout North America during the 72-hour period."