Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance

When the rubber meets the road, how will autonomous trucks handle blowouts?

A mangled tire on the rim of a semi

Tire blowouts lead to dozens of highway deaths every year. For autonomous trucks, they pose a prickly problem: how to regain control without a human driver at the wheel.

“We can talk about redundancy in our sensors, machine-learning algorithms and all this fancy stuff until we’re blue in the face,” said Don Burnette, co-founder and CEO of Kodiak Robotics. “But at the end of the day, if you press the brake pedal and your tires don’t respond, it’s not useful.”

Kodiak is working with Bridgestone...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/when-the-rubber-meets-the-road-how-will-autonomous-trucks-handle-blowouts

Is FMCSA losing control of its safety mission?

Federal regulators are losing their grip on how they administer and oversee rules governing truckers, and it’s putting safety at risk, trucking and safety advocates warn.

In comments filed with U.S. Department on Transportation on the department’s draft strategic framework, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), whose members include local, state and federal truck safety officials, contends that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “has fallen behind on its core responsibility...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/is-fmcsa-losing-control-of-its-safety-mission

CVSA gets contract to run FMCSA’s fatigue management program

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) will now operate the North American Fatigue Management Program, a multipronged approach toward reducing the incidence of fatigue behind the wheel.

The program, known as NAFMP, was awarded to CVSA to manage after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a “sole source contract” to CVSA, according to Rodolfo Giacoman. He is the Fatigue Management Program specialist at CVSA and responded to a series of questions sent to him by FreightWaves.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/cvsa-gets-contract-to-run-fmcsas-fatigue-management-program

Brake Safety Week begins Aug. 22

Coinciding with Brake Safety Awareness Month, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has slated Brake Safety Week for Aug. 22-28, meaning drivers and carriers have just a few more days to tighten up on brake safety.

Over the seven-day period, inspectors will conduct North American Standard Inspections of commercial motor vehicles with a focus on brake systems and components, removing any inspected vehicle found to have brake-related out-of-service violations. CVSA will then compile data...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/brake-safety-week-begins-aug-22

Roadcheck Week results: HOS violations a bigger share of all citations

A comparison of the just-released results from International Roadcheck Week shows that hours-of-service (HOS) violations in both the U.S. and Canada rose as a percentage of all violations between 2020 and 2021. 

The data from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance shows most trends and percentages of violations were roughly in line with where they were during the 2020 checks, with the exception of HOS.

Roadcheck Week, which encompasses the U.S., Canada and Mexico, was held May 4-6. Many drivers...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/roadcheck-week-results-hos-violations-a-bigger-share-of-all-citations

Check lights and logs before next week’s safety blitz

With the International Roadcheck just a week away, now’s your last chance to dot your i’s and cross your t’s in and around your truck and trailer.

Most vehicle violations are easily preventable — if proper precautions are routinely taken. Reliance Partners Director of Safety Brian Runnels provides a few simple tips to ensure a roadside inspection doesn’t leave you on the roadside.

What is Roadcheck 2021?

International Roadcheck Week is slated for May 4-6. Each year, the Commercial Vehicle Safety...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-lights-and-logs-before-next-weeks-safety-blitz

Volume-flattening Roadcheck Week slated for early May

International Roadcheck Week in North America is moving back to the spring this year, with May 4-6 set as the dates, according to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).

Roadcheck Week is the three-day period in which two things happen: Law enforcement authorities across North America ramp up their inspections of trucks in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and a lot of drivers stay home.

Roadcheck Week was moved last year from May to Sept. 9-11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drop in SONAR’s...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/volume-flattening-roadcheck-week-slated-for-early-may

The Daily Dash: Chao steps down; safety groups concerned about HOS exemption

The Daily Dash is a quick look at what is happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has submitted her resignation, citing the events in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Plus, a worker classification rule could be scrapped before it goes into effect, and safety groups are concerned about an hours-of-service exemption being considered for agricultural haulers.

Chao steps down

The events of Wednesday in Washington, D.C., have led...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/the-daily-dash-chao-steps-down-safety-groups-concerned-about-hos-exemption

Safety groups rail against HOS exemption for ag truckers

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and other truck safety groups have warned federal regulators that relaxing hours-of-service (HOS) rules for ag haulers threatens safety by exposing more drivers to fatigue.

In a petition for reconsideration filed in late December with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), CVSA stated that the interim final rule (IFR) issued by the agency in November that attempts to clarify the definitions of “agricultural commodity” “livestock”...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/safety-groups-rail-against-hos-exemption-for-ag-truckers

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