CTA wants triage inspections to count towards carrier’s record
OTTAWA, Ont. — The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) is calling on the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) to include screen – or triage – inspections in its data.
A screen or triage inspection is a quick inspection, or weigh station drive-through, to ensure the truck and driver are in compliance and safe to continue down the road. Currently they are not counted as inspections, which the CTA contends does not paint a true picture of industry safety performance. It also prevents a carrier from benefiting from having a safe operation as those inspections do not count towards its carrier profile as a passed inspection.
In a submission to the CVSA, the Alliance provided an example of a carrier whose trucks operate along a major highway and has about 100 trucks a day pass by a truck inspection station. Of those 100, 98 are screened/triaged and then sent on their way while only two are subjected to further inspection. If one of those two trucks has defects and is placed out-of-service, the CVSA will record an out-of-service rate of 50% for that carrier even though the CTA contends the OOS rate should be 1%, since 99 out of 100 of that carrier’s trucks were deemed safe and sent down the road.
It is estimated 96% of trucks that are screened are send on their way with no documentation or recording of the event.
The CVSA on the other hand, has expressed that a triage inspection is just a quick glance and no more credit should be given.
“CTA acknowledges importance of the screen/triage inspections in keeping the flow of truck traffic moving through the inspection stations,” the Alliance wrote. “The more formal CVSA inspections require an estimated 15-20 minutes to generate an inspection report, so drivers and carriers would not support a protocol that would have their trucks sitting for longer periods of time simply to generate a piece of paper. The Alliance is not calling for the end of screen/triage inspections – they work; they are just not recorded – but contends there has to be a way to efficiently collect the information on screen/triage inspections while still maintaining efficient flow of commercial vehicles through the inspection process.”
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.
I understand that the flow of traffic is important but lets be honest, we have this situation happening at the Windsor, ON 401 eastbound scale all the time and it isn’t fair.
The MTO has 3 inspectors do a “triage” inspection at this particular inspection station which includes a glance into your log book, a kick of all the tires, check all of the lights and visually inspect the brakes for obvious failures. If there are none, they allow the driver to continue. If there is an issue, they send the driver aside to do a full inspection. Their “triage” inspection takes 3-5 minutes and is not a drive-through inspection.
On our CVOR we have a 100% failure rate in Windsor – all trucks getting inspected in Windsor has had a failure. This is obviously not the case as many of our trucks have passed their “triage” inspection and have not received any recognition for having no defect. Furthermore this false-fact is misleading to anyone who wants to scrutinize the data. This situation also causes many drivers to drive around the scale to avoid it all together.
I have no problems with compliancy or a quick inspection but 3 inspectors doing everything but using a tape measure is not a “triage” inspection or a quick glance – it is an expedited inspection and should be recognized as such.
In my opinion, we do not necessarily need a piece of paper. The inspectors easily tap our license plate in the computer when we drive up anyway, we should get recognition on our CVOR that we went through an inspection with no defects.
I think that the CVSA should visit the Windsor, ON facility and review the procedure of “triage” inspection and decide weather this is in fact an inspection or a quick glance.
Many thanks to the CTA for pursuing this issue wherever they can.