Are You Ready For The Inspector? By Carmen Daecher

In the coming months and years, you can expect to meet state safety enforcement officers across the country who will be inspecting your motorcoach at destinations of at designated roadside areas. Thanks to the Federal Highway Administration, Office of Motor Carriers, and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, State Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enforcement Programs will place more emphasis of the inspections of motorcoaches. Level 1 and Level 5 inspections will be encouraged since these inspections will result in a CVSA decal being placed on the motorcoach if it passes inspection.

These inspections are important because they will show that reputable motorcoach operators maintain their vehicles in excellent operating condition; and passengers will know that they are traveling in safe vehicles. It will also help the motorcoach operator since these decals will signify to other state inspectors that a vehicle has recently passed inspection and need not be delayed for additional inspections.

While there are many positive aspects to this program, you should be aware that if a vehicle is found to have an out-of-service defect, it will not be allowed to proceed until that defect is repaired. This could mean inconvenience to the motorcoach operator and more importantly to passengers! It is therefore important that you and your company know the current out-of-service criteria, and that your drivers and maintenance personnel constantly inspect to make sure that defects do not exist. For a list of the current out-of-service defects, contact the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, 5430 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814.

Past inspection of motorcoaches in California and across the country have resulted in 15% to 27% of all motorcoaches inspected being placed out-of-service. Now, state inspectors are armed with portable ramps so that they can get under the bus to inspect brakes, steering systems, tag axles, and other items on the motorcoach that they could not inspect before. With these enhanced inspections, as many as 40% of the motorcoaches are being placed out-of-service. The moral of the story is simple; good preventative maintenance and thorough daily driver checks of motorcoaches will have you ready for the inspector whether you meet him at your destination or somewhere along the way!

In conjunction with these inspections of motorcoaches, the Federal Highway Administration has recently put into effect new rules concerning drivers who violate out-of-service orders from state safety enforcement officers. These new rules make disqualifications and fines mandatory under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. If a motorcoach driver violates orders not to operate an out-of-service motorcoach until it is repaired and reinspected, that driver will have his license suspended for 180 days. Any subsequent violations will result in a 3 to 5 year disqualification. Fines will range from $1,000 to $2,500 for drivers and $2,500 to $10,000 for employers.

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