Safety Scofflaws: More oversight of annual inspections is desperately needed
The truck technician plays a pivotal role in ensuring the trucks and trailers we all share the roads with are safe. Particularly those charged with conducting annual safety inspections and affixing the stickers that prove to enforcement officers, at a glance, that the piece of equipment it’s attached to is theoretically in sound condition.
I recently wrote a deep-reaching investigative piece about a scheme in Ontario and Illinois that saw FMCSA safety inspection decals attached to visibly unsafe Ontario-based trucks and trailers that were clearly unfit for the road.
I’ve waited for a call from the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. Maybe the O.P.P. Hell, perhaps even the FMCSA or FBI, given the United States connection. Nothing but silence and I’m told that operation continues to operate with impunity, putting all us road users at great risk.
That’s not to say I haven’t heard from anyone on the topic of improperly issued safety inspection decals, allegedly awarded in exchange for cash, with no legally mandated safety inspection of the actual equipment being conducted.
I’ve heard from readers right across this country who tell me this issue isn’t isolated to Ontario. One such reader, who asked I not share his name, bought a trailer for storage at a Manitoba auction in October.
The side rails were badly corroded, the type of damage that occurs over years. Yet, what’s this? A freshly attached safety inspection decal from the province of Alberta?
The “safety” expired in July and the rotting trailer was sold at auction in October.
“The side rails have tremendous corrosion that would take a lot more than a year to develop, unless maybe someone dumped buckets of acid on it,” the buyer told me. And it wasn’t the first time he’s purchased a badly damaged trailer at auction for storage that came with a freshly attached annual inspection decal (see photos).
“Rest assured, the box has been turned into a storage shed to never ever be on a public road again,” this reader told me of his latest purchase.
That’s well and good, but it’s startling that equipment in such poor condition is still being safetied by “professional” licensed mechanics who are willing to put their livelihood at stake for a few bucks on the side.
Where is the oversight of the various provinces’ annual safety inspection programs? Here’s a suggestion: Require the mechanic to attach their name to any safety inspection decal they issue. Include the name of the shop as well. Let’s make it super easy for enforcement agencies charged with overseeing these programs to identify and track down the bad actors.
Let’s root them out. When a roadside enforcement officer comes across a trailer with badly corroded side rails, let’s give them, not just the authority but the encouragement, to call on that mechanic. Demand the inspection documentation. Examine the pictures. Visit the shop and see if it: A) actually exists; and B) is operating above board.
Alberta recently cracked down on fraudulent activity in the trucking industry, shutting down five training schools and 13 carriers. The closures came after a six-month investigation that uncovered fraudulent reporting and record keeping, Devin Dreeshen, transportation and economic corridors minister, told Today’s Trucking.
It’s a good start. Now, how about looking into how badly corroded trailers such as the one pictured above have obtained a safety inspection as recently as 15 months ago?
Have your say
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My company has been licensed to do annuals and safeties by the Province of Ontario for over 35 years, has the new program improved things? Marginally! I had high hopes for a real cleanup of the program, it’s better, but far from perfect. You would think with an electronic login system that requires pictures of defects be submitted and a pass or fail submitted the system would flag a vin that fails at one shop and passes at another shop within days with no mention of defects. That definitely is not happening. My understanding is that the Ontario MTO has ONE enforcement officer licensed to do follow up investigations in all of northern Ontario.
Unless that changes there will be no improvement, just another feel good program.
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Well said major changes are needed
As someone actively working in Safety and Compliance, I can say this issue is far more widespread than most people realize and it is one of the biggest hidden threats on our highways. Annual safety inspections are only as good as the integrity of the technician signing off, and right now the system relies almost entirely on trust. That loophole is being abused.
When carriers, brokers, and even shippers unknowingly send out equipment that was “safetied” only on paper with no real inspection completed, it undermines every responsible carrier that invests in proper maintenance. It also puts drivers in a dangerous position because they are the ones behind the wheel of equipment that could fail catastrophically, yet they have no way of knowing that the annual sticker they are relying on is fraudulent.
Your suggestion to put the mechanic’s name and shop information directly on the decal is long overdue. Transparency creates accountability. If a roadside inspector finds a trailer with structural corrosion, weak frame rails, cracked crossmembers, or obvious rot, they should immediately know who issued that sticker and have the authority to question it.
Right now, i believe there are zero consequences for the certificate mills cutting corners. They keep operating because the process shields them from being identified. That has to change. Annual inspections should not be a revenue opportunity; they are a public safety responsibility. Attaching a real name to every sticker is a simple, enforceable step that forces accountability back into the system.
If we can track a driver’s HOS minute by minute, we can certainly track which mechanic signed off on a corroded trailer. Alsp, this is not about more regulation, It is about enforcing the regulation that already exists and holding accountable the people who are abusing it.
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Prior to the new system..
If a vehicle got pulled over/inspected the safety sticker would be ( should be anyway) visible on the unit with a serial number imprinted.
Yes over time the number will fade but not in 36 days… Or one would hope.
Included with this nice bright yellow sticker was a copy of the inspection certificate with a matching serial number..
The ones for power units are/were usually kept in the cab and were in fair condition.
On this certificate was not only the exact date that this unit was inspected/certified, the proper name of the inspection station with id number and the inspecting technician’s printed name, signature and provincial license number.
As for trailers.. Some times if the trailer was a dedicated on the above certificate would be with the tractor one in the cab but other times it is located on the trailer in either a document tube/pouch or holder. Even if this document is stored in a plastic zip lock bag it can still become poor to read due to climate changes/moisture etc. And this can happen in the 36 day period or shortly there after depending on severity.
So accountability for responsible shops/technicians was always there. There were a few loopholes, as there will always be.
The new system also has it’s loopholes
Some are not discovered and in some cases certain regulations are unclear and leave a gap.
The MTO has sublet this system to a third party for oversight and operation.
The MTO still do the road checks on vehicles/accident investigations etc.
But if I am not mistaken any enforcement will be handled via the third party.
That is fines, penalties,removal from being able to participate etc.
Prior to this if a technician/shop falsified safety certificates and an accident occured then the above would be legally charged/fined/imprisoned via the provincial court system.
If a certain shop had questionable safety certificates and the MTO did an investigation and it was found to be an ongoing/consistant thing then that particular shop would first be suspended for a time and if it continued the shop would be banned from issuing safety certificates.
Yes there are ways to get around this but they are no different to what is happening today with questionable shops AND companies.
It will never change , I’ve been doing this for 30 yrs and the players are always ahead of any government program to perform safety inspections
There is so much more to this story if you dig deeper but nobody wants to uncover the truth
Good luck to all that try and do it properly and keep getting audits for what are simple mistakes but become a trend as it is so called it will never be a perfect system but the same players are the ones to fault
There is no political willpower to enforce safety legislation. I’ve had multiple conversations with Alberta Transportation, even submitted pages of documentation and photos, nothing ever comes of it. Their suggestion, (and ultimately, the only thing I can do) is make sure that everything that passes through my shop is impeccable if it carries my certificate, sticker, and signature. We no longer live in a high trust society. Rules will be broken, laws will be ignored, industry standards will be lowered, until we fix the root cause.
Well I thought the new safety program was suppose to stop all of this and the new stickers are able to be scanned so they can tell which shop did the work.
In Alberta, DOT can type in the # on any sticker and know in a minute who did it and what shop it came from.
The people putting on these “Drive through CVI stickers” create unsafe conditions for the driving public, make a bad name for all of us who do conduct CVI’s the way they should be done, and train customers that they can get away with overlooking repairs that should be done. We have multiple conversations with customers every week telling us what we should be “passing” because “insert name of company …..” passed it last year. Jeff Adema’s comment is correct… we can only make sure that what comes out of our own shops is done right. Furthermore, we can train the apprentices in our own shops to do things properly also, so that they do it right when they earn the ability to do so.
How do we fix the system?
Specific training for conducting CVI’s is one area that I have asked to be included in apprenticeship training. Teaching the students how to find correct measurements, inundating them with pictures of what constitutes a pass vs fail condition on brakes, body damage and rust jacking, etc. Also creating easier access to “Manufacturers specs” that is referred to throughout our manuals would help. Proper training will go a long ways to a better future!
When it comes right down to it we have too few people investigating trucking on the maintenance side. Three days every May doesn’t cut it. The same organizations placing fraudulent Safety Stickers on equipment, are same ones cheating on OHS, are commonly inter-stating and are the cheer leaders for Driver Inc.
What we need to do is start throwing these owners and managers in jail for a few years, and things will clean up quickly.
I’ve been licensed truck mechanic for over 40 years. We are not responsible for these illegal safety inspections. It is businessmen trying to make a fast buck that don’t know anything about a truck or trailer.