Commercial Vehicle Safety

 

Making Illinois Roads Safer

 

People share roadways everyday with commercial motor vehicles.  These carriers are professionals who make every effort to keep their vehicles and drivers in compliance with all regulations.  Carriers do not always realize the shortfalls in their equipment.  Through IDOT/DTS’s federally funded Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP), roadway inspections are conducted in order to save motorists’ lives.

 

The Illinois State Police (ISP), in cooperation with the 35 MCSAP staff at IDOT/DTS, took part in seven special roadside enforcement details in the last fiscal year.  Their combined efforts were nationally recognized for removing unsafe drivers and carriers off the road.  During these details, IDOT/DTS staff manned multiple roadside weigh stations to inspect the maximum amount of vehicles.  Over 18,000 inspections were performed by IDOT/DTS staff, placing more than 39 percent of those vehicles out-of-service requiring those vehicles to be removed from the roadways until repaired.  ISP assisted by monitoring normal roadside scale-passing facilities and brought in more than $300,000 in over-weight trucking violations.

 

IDOT/DTS’s MCSAP has continued to thrive in its normal output of work in the compliance field.  During the past calendar year, the program achieved extremely high numbers and marks to lead all Midwestern states in performance and is considered one of the highest in performance in the nation.

 

During calendar year 2010, IDOT/DTS performed:

 

* 2,345 New Entrant/Safety Audits.  These audits educate new trucking companies by IDOT/DTS staff 
  coming into their working environment individually and reviewing and educating these carriers in
  their industry requirements;

 

* 516 Compliance Reviews.  When a carrier is identified as having shortfalls in their safety operations,
  IDOT/DTS staff visits the company and assesses a fine against those violations in an effort to bring
  the carrier into compliance.  This number represents the highest number of compliance reviews ever
  completed in one year for IDOT/DTS;

 

* $1,158,040 – the amount of fines accessed by IDOT/DTS compliance staff during calendar year  
  2010, the highest total amount of fines.  This year’s fines slightly exceed their 2009 numbers of
  $918,710 which at the time more than tripled the fines collected in calendar year 2008;

 

* $1,040,549.65 – the amount of fines collected from carriers by IDOT/DTS to be placed in the
  road fund for use on roadway projects at the Department’s discretion;

 

* 74,000 roadside inspections completed in calendar year 2010 through the efforts of IDOT/DTS and      
  ISP.  Of those inspections, 22,282 (or 30.11 percent) vehicles were placed out-of-service due to
  mechanical issues.  An additional 4,158 (or 5.46 percent) driver’s licenses were either suspended or  
  revoked or they had exceeded the maximum amount of hours of service they could drive.

 

While 2010 was a banner year, the program continues to expand and strive for excellence in promoting its ever expanding roles.  The program is currently training two additional compliance staff and will continue to train current staff in specialized areas which will make the roadways of Illinois safer.

 

 

 

~ By Tom Wise, Motor Carrier Compliance Unit Chief

 

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