OTTAWA, Ont. — The Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) says 82% of Canadian vehicles inspected during the Roadcheck inspection blitz in early June demonstrated a high level of mechanical fitness.

The annual Roadcheck blitz was held across North America June 5-7. Overall, 78.5% of North American vehicles passed the inspection with 21.5% placed out-of-service. Here in Canada, only 4% of drivers were put out-of-service due to logbook or documentation problems.

The Canadian results were noticeably better than last year, when 20.1% of vehicles inspected were placed out-of-service. The results show a continuing trend of improved performance year over year for the past 10 years.

CCMTA said brake-related defects continue to be the biggest cause of violations resulting in vehicles being placed out-of-service, accounting for about half of all violations.

In Canada, the highest truck OOS rate occurred in Alberta (29.9%) while the lowest rate was in Saskatchewan (12%). Eight per cent of Alberta drivers were placed out-of-service while the best province in this area was Quebec (0.2%).

Across North America, a record 62,370 inspections were conducted at 1,449 locations. North America results showed: 93.8% of all drivers passed the inspection while 96.5% of HazMat drivers passed; and 78.5% of all vehicles passed with 82.3% of all HazMat trucks passing.