Compared to its neighboring state to the north, Virginia might seem like an inspection slouch. Maryland, No. 1 in Overdrive’s inspection-intensity rankings of inspection volume per mile of roadway, conducts almost four times the number of annual inspections. Virginia ranks toward the middle of the national pack at No. 21 for inspection intensity.
“Our guys knock out a lot of Level 1 inspections,” says Lt. Ron Maxey of the Virginia State Police, lead officer over the truck inspection program. Level 1 is the highest and most complete inspection level of both the truck and driver.
Maxey reveals something of an old-school approach that de-emphasizes newfangled technology such as the performance-based brake testers (PBBTs) used in Georgia, Tennessee and elsewhere in the Southeast. Instead, Virginia inspectors are “inside a pit or on their backs on a creeper measuring those brakes,” Maxey says.
However, the state has increased its use of infrared imaging systems in screening trucks for inspection at its fixed facilities, he says. The so-called “IRIS” systems make it easier to identify cold or overheated brakes that indicate potential mechanical problems, and they also provide a possible explanation for a marked rise in Virginia’s percentage of brake violations found since 2011. The state conducted 43 percent of its 2014 inspections at fixed facilities.
Dedicated full time to truck enforcement are 66 state police troopers, all certified for the highest levels under the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance protocol. Another “25 troopers are Level 2-certified so that they can conduct basic [walkaround and driver] inspections out on the road,” Maxey says. “If you’re going to get underneath the truck and check the brakes, we want it to be your full-time job and be sure that you’re not going to miss something.”
