Ahead of Brake Safety Week 2022, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance weeklong outreach and inspection initiative focused on braking systems and starting this Sunday, Aug. 21, we're listening back to the 2021 Overdrive Radio podcast talk with Pennsylvania-based former local-department officer and long-certified DOT inspector Andy Blair. Looking at the landscape for commercial truck inspections generally, Blair sees plenty missed opportunities when it comes to troopers helping truckers with out-of-service violations. All too frequently, violations that put an owner-op or other driver out of service simply aren't explained at the point of inspection. Too many trucking companies large and small don't invest in the CVSA out-of-service criteria handbook, the only place you'll find those criteria in all their minutiae, according to Blair.
[Related: Refresher on the OOS violations for hours of service, lights]
The equipment category that takes up the largest number of pages therein? Brakes, of course, and specifically clamp-type drum brakes. In this edition of Overdrive Radio, Blair runs us through the specifics of the "20% rule" when it comes to clamp-type brake adjustment, among the most common of brake violations. Fundamentally, as he outlined in a document that's excerpted here below, if 20% or greater percentage of a truck's brakes are defective, that unit is out of service. With the Brake Safety Week inspection blitz kicking off nationwide Sunday, listen back to my full discussion with Blair here:
