CVSA Adds New Level VIII Electronic Inspection to North American Standard Inspection Program

 

On April 27, 2017, at the CVSA Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Board of Directors voted to approve the addition of its newly created Level VIII Electronic Inspection to the North American Standard Inspection Program.

The Level VIII Electronic Inspection is an inspection conducted electronically or wirelessly while a commercial motor vehicle is in motion without direct interaction with a roadside inspector/enforcement official. To be considered a complete Level VIII Electronic Inspection, a data exchange must include each of the required and/or applicable data points listed in the CVSA North American Standard Level VIII Electronic Inspection definition.

As defined by CVSA, the Level VIII Electronic Inspection must include, where required and/or applicable, a descriptive location, including GPS coordinates; electronic validation of who is operating the vehicle; appropriate driver’s license class and endorsement(s) for vehicle being operated; license status; valid Medical Examiner’s Certificate and Skill Performance Evaluation (SPE) Certificate; current driver’s record of duty status; hours-of-service compliance; USDOT or (Canada) NSC number; power unit registration; operating authority; Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) compliance; and federal out-of-service orders.

"By adding a new electronic inspection level, our aim is to improve highway safety by providing additional options and strategies that will allow member jurisdictions to leverage technology while also increasing efficiency for industry," said CVSA Executive Director Collin Mooney. "This new inspection level gives member jurisdictions a standard to apply to electronic inspections as described in the definition."

The goal of this new electronic inspection is to help expand the roadside enforcement’s footprint, increasing the number of interactions an agency/department could have with the motor carrier industry and providing member jurisdictions with additional information to create unique compliance options and strategies. An electronic inspection option will assist roadside enforcement/inspection personnel to better focus their time on carriers with critical safety violations.

Implementing an electronic inspection program would also allow participating carriers the opportunity to leverage in-vehicle safety investments by communicating real-time compliance data to roadside inspection and enforcement authorities without having to stop.

The next step in the electronic inspection implementation process for member jurisdictions will be the development of the information technology (IT) infrastructure to capture the information required for a Level VIII Electronic Inspection. Currently, there are no jurisdictions with the specific necessary data exchange capabilities in place to go-live immediately and begin conducting Level VIII Electronic Inspections; however, some jurisdictions are investigating the necessary IT and data upload and exchange needs in order to proceed with the steps required to have the IT infrastructure in place to meet the definition of the new electronic inspection.

Currently, the capturing of Level VIII Electronic Inspection information by member jurisdictions is strictly voluntary and there is no deadline for implementation.

The impetus for the development of an electronic inspection came in 2014 when an issue request for action was submitted to CVSA asking for a "standardized procedure governing the electronic collection of data elements currently collected manually during a North American Standard Level III Inspection."

Moving forward, updates and ongoing discussion of the Level VIII Electronic Inspection will take place during the Alliance’s committee meetings throughout the coming years. The three main committees where discussions on the development, implementation, progress and evaluation of the electronic inspection will take place will be the Information Systems Committee, the Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee, and the Enforcement and Industry Modernization Committee.

"The new Level VIII Electronic Inspection is an enhancement to the data currently collected during roadside enforcement activities. It doesn’t replace anything currently being done. It will simply mean that more roadside inspection compliance information will be captured differently," said Mooney. "Roadside inspectors will continue to conduct all levels of commercial motor vehicle and driver inspections as applicable, in addition to the future capabilities and discoveries that will evolve with the addition and implementation of this new electronic inspection level."

 

Article provided by CVSA