WINDSOR, Ont. – While Canadian officials ceremoniously launched Roadcheck 2003 at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont. June 3, inspections were going full tilt at the Windsor South Truck Inspection station.

Twenty kilometres away from the bridge, along the 401, Windsor South has 10 lanes for inspections and two for mechanical repairs. That’s where a group of inspectors from across the province were pulling 12-hour shifts; signaling trucks into the station in small groups, giving them a “slow look” and directing them, if necessary, to a rear inspection area.

This was the 16th annual Roadcheck, with Mexican, American and Canadian government and law enforcement agencies taking part June 3 through 5. Some 50,000 trucks were pulled randomly and most subjected to the 37-step Level 1 inspection covering everything from personal questioning about licensing and alcohol consumption to a review of logbooks. The mechanical side included inspections of brakes, couplings, exhaust, cargo loading, suspensions and tires.

If there is a violation, such as a chafing air hose, the procedure is to release the vehicle to its home terminal. It cannot be dispatched again until the malfunction repaired, explained Dave Crawford, supervisor at the Windsor South station. If the defect is considered critical, such as a break in an air hose’s double ply cloth insulation, the driver must call a mechanic right away and cannot even leave the inspection area.

Drivers interviewed by Truck News were supportive, nevertheless.

Allen Sitler of London, Ont., a driver for National Distributors of Sellersburg, Ind., called Roadcheck a “good idea” and said the inspection found a lapsed annual permit on his trailer. “I’ll have to get a hold of the company and they’ll have to look after it.”

Owner/operator David Williams of Chatham, hauling recycled rubber, said the blitz forces drivers to maintain their trucks.

“You’re not losing money” during the wait, he said. “You’re losing money when you don’t keep your equipment up.” He added an earlier inspection had found a loose lugnut. “When we drive multi-axle trailers they do a lot of twisting.”

Inspector Andy Brown from Kitchener said he usually does area patrol instead of working from a truck inspection station. He said it’s obvious vehicles using Hwy. 401 are in better shape. “The truckers know they’re under closer scrutiny.” He couldn’t say the same for trucks he glimpsed using back roads near the inspection site. “They go around and avoid it.”

Back at the Ambassador Bridge launch, officials didn’t miss the opportunity to point out just how appropriate their choice of location was. They did so over the clatter and rumble of tractor-trailers grinding to a halt at tollbooths less than 20 metres away.

The plaza at the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest commercial crossing, handles 14,000 trucks daily, making the setting an “outstanding location,” Lt.-Col. Peter Munoz of Michigan State Police said. Peter Hurst, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s director of carrier safety and enforcement and this year’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s president, added the bridge’s handling of commercial activity was a “reason we picked it.”

Speakers at the launch credited Roadcheck, along with periodic safety inspections throughout the year, with reducing accidents and fatalities. There has been a 3.5 per cent decline over last year in the truck-involved death toll, they said.

And in Ontario the out-of service rate (vehicles taken off the road) has fallen by almost 50 per cent since 1995, according to government data.