Commercial Motor Vehicle Repairs

In the United States, there were over 677,000 active motor carriers-common, contract, or private-using buses or trucks to provide commercial transportation of passengers or freight in 2004 [1]. Trucking accounted for 40 percent of the nation's freight ton-miles in 2002 [2]. Repair data for most trucks are not public information.

Over 2.1 million roadside truck inspections were completed in 2004, up from 2.0 million in 1994, to ensure that trucks are in compliance with federal safety regulations and standards (figure 12-1). Nearly one-quarter of those inspected in 2004 were taken out of service for repairs. Trucks are taken out of service when they receive a serious violation during the inspection process.

The downtime for a truck undergoing an inspection can vary from 30 to 60 minutes. Trucks that are placed out of service for repairs may be delayed from a few minutes to several days, depending on circumstances.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Commercial Motor Vehicle Facts, available at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/, as of April 2005.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, 2002 Economic Census, Transportation, 2002 Commodity Flow Survey (Washington, DC: 2004), table 1a.