The truck industry "Roadcheck" is in process. That means from June 5-7 there will be more roadside inspectors looking at trucks – to ensure they are safe and legal – than at any other time of the year. Correspondingly, as those inspectors take a day off after the big push, the following three days have some of the fewest truck inspectors on the road. This makes June 8-10 some of the most dangerous days to be on a road in the US as dangerous truck drivers get back on the roadways and try to make up for lost time.

I have previously blogged about how ridiculous it is to announce a high period of inspections over a three day period (because all the drivers that know they are unsafe and running illegally take a vacation for those three days) but the trucking industry keeps doing it. The trucking industry then brags about the fact that almost 1 in every 5 trucks is unsafe (based on prior years inspection results), like this is an acceptable number AFTER you tell all the trucking companies and drivers you will be holding the inspection!

The Roadcheck inspection is widely published every year, months in advance, and you have to be a complete idiot not to know when these inspections take place. Anyone truly interested in safety  would ensure these inspections were unannounced. Drivers might think twice about getting on the road with an unsafe truck.

I will look forward to seeing how Roadcheck turns out this year. I will hope for some improvement, I am not holding my breath… and I am not getting on a highway June 8-10.

To find prior posts on this please search the term "Roadcheck" on my blog.