CVSA announces results of hazardous materials inspection initiative

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has released the results of its five-day unannounced hazardous materials/dangerous goods (HM/DG) inspection initiative. Over June 13-17, inspectors in Canada and the United States inspected over 6,200 vehicles transporting HM/DG and over 6,600 HM/DG packages.

The top three most common violations discovered during this year’s initiative are the same as last year’s top three:

1. Shipping papers violations
2. Non-bulk/small means of containment packaging violations
3. Bulk packaging/large means of containment placarding violations

Drivers and vehicles that were put out of service (OOS) were not allowed to resume travel until all OOS violations were corrected. OOS orders can be issued for a wide variety of serious violations, including not having shipping papers that identify the HM/DG in the vehicle, missing more than half of required hazard class placards, or transporting forbidden materials. CVSA has not disclosed how many OOS orders were issued during this year’s initiative, but it did reveal that 43 HM/DG packages were found to be leaking, which is an automatic OOS condition.