Overdrive's decade-long annual CSA's Data Trail investigation of inspections/violations trends for 2022 shows clearly what the COVID-19 pandemic did to state and federal roadside inspection programs. With very few exceptions, inspection numbers took a nosedive in 2020 as law enforcement departments and truckers themselves sought to limit person-to-person contact. Some states continued that trend in 2021, perhaps to the delight of owner-operators seeking further relief from the risk of this one of a myriad potential delays to any haul.
Longtime independent Mike "Mustang" Crawford noted he'd been inspected just a single time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, in Arizona, where a minor, and questionable, violation was encoded as a result for his computer equipment and toolboxes' supposed obstruction of his view forward and to the right out of the windows. Aside from that, "I have gone through areas where they’re famous for inspecting you," he said, including "certain places in Texas, the super-coop in Illinois on I-55 north of St. Louis, north of Springfield on the southbound side of I-55," and many others, without a pull-in to speak of.
Generally, it seems states across the board "haven’t been inspecting that much," Crawford added.
Longtime inspection-intensity leader California, conducting more inspections per lane-mile of National Highway System than any other perennially, showed continued decline in overall inspection numbers. Jaime Coffee, spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol, noted challenges out West "in staffing of both uniformed and nonuniform personnel" over the last few years.
That's meant reallocation of otherwise truck-enforcement dedicated and specialized resources "to general law enforcement coverage and periodic deployments for civil protests/unrest," Coffee said. Think trucking has a recruiting problem? That issue is acute for many law enforcement agencies.
Captain Josh Barnes, of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division of No. 2 inspection-intensity leader Maryland, put a finer point on that, even urging Overdrive to share the Maryland State Police's "MSP Careers" website. His division alone currently operates with 35 vacancies, 10 sworn and 25 civilian truck inspectors not working full-time on inspections.
