WASHINGTON – North American truck drivers and their trucks are the safest they’ve even been.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance reports that the three-day, 2011 Roadcheck enforcement blitz last month produced the lowest out-of-service rates since the program began in 1991, proving, says the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, that the commercial carrier industry continues to improve its safety operations.

Nearly 8,000 certified inspectors at 2,550 locations across North America performed 70,712 truck and bus inspections in 72 hours (that’s about 16 every minute). Inspectors focused on the North American Standard Level I inspection, hours of service logbooks, and household goods carriers.

Data from 2011 shows the overall vehicle compliance rate at 80.7 percent (a little higher than the 80 percent in 2010), with an overall driver compliance rate of 95.8 percent.

On its own, Canada fared even better. Officials released Canada-specific records earlier this week, showing OOS lows for both trucks (18.9%) and drivers (just 3 percent).

Although overall OOS rates are at record lows, the CSA issued a press release saying – as it does every year – that there’s still "room for improvement until the roads are free from vehicle and driver violations."

Once again, hours of service logbook violations lead as a percentage of all driver violations cited (50.6 %) while problems brakes, as always, was the top equipment defect.

Inspectors also queried drivers of their use of electronic logging devices; 14 percent indicated they were using them.

CVSA sponsors Roadcheck each year with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation in Mexico.