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Every year the Department of Transportation has something known in the logistics and trucking industries as Blitz Week, officially known as the Commercial Vehicle Safety Administration International Roadcheck. It is a 72 hour crackdown on trucks at inspection/weigh stations and by police officers to ensure truckers are meeting vehicle maintenance and driver compliance practices.
This year Blitz Week begins the morning of Tuesday May 14th and ends the evening of Thursday May 16th. On May 16-18 [2023], 59,429 commercial motor vehicles were inspected in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. as part of CVSA’s 72-hour International Roadcheck inspection and enforcement initiative.
Why does this affect your freight? Simply put, carriers and drivers alike tend to shy away from accepting freight to transport during these 72 hours as the chances of them being delayed increases exponentially. As a result, many drivers will take the entire week off to avoid the hassle of being waylaid by possible inspections. This year, International Roadcheck will have two focus areas: one related to hazardous driving behaviors and the other pertains to critically important vehicle violations discovered on commercial motor vehicles.
Should a driver be found to have a violation they must halt progress until the violation is rectified and if a driver is found to have a violation, they are then subject to further scrutiny to see if there are any additional violations. The most critical impact of a violation is the impact to the carrier who will receive an out-of-service violation that impacts their Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) score.
Rock Solid Logistics utilizes carrier411.com to verify a Motor Carrier is in good standing and we can view their CSA score among other things to ensure the carrier being booked for our customer’s freight is the very best.
Because carrier capacity plummets during this 72 hour period and, if you are able to secure a carrier who is willing to risk Blitz Week to transport your freight, the cost may be higher than you are used to.
Ultimately if you need freight delivered this week you will likely encounter difficulties in securing a carrier. If you don’t I would recommend booking for next week.