The 2026 CVSA Roadcheck Opened Yesterday. Here’s What the First Day of Real Data Actually Shows.

What Day 1 Actually Produced FMCSA inspection records show Day 1 produced 1,580 inspections across 1,417 distinct carriers. Total violations logged: 2,637. Out-of-service orders issued: 496. That works out to an average of 1. 67 violations per inspection — a 31. 4% out-of-service rate against total inspection volume.

Data via Search Carriers, which aggregates live FMCSA inspection records and refreshes daily during the event at no cost. That OOS rate is worth holding next to the full-event benchmark from 2025. Across all 56,178 inspections conducted during the complete 2025 Roadcheck, CVSA reported an 18. 1% vehicle OOS rate.

Day 1 of 2026 is running substantially higher. Every one of those 496 OOS orders is already in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System. Those carriers are managing that CSA score impact right now, and Days 2 and 3 will add to it. Where Enforcement Hit Hardest: State-by-State The Day 1 data shows the top 10 states by inspection count.

Pennsylvania led the country with 217 inspections — more than any other state and well ahead of the second-place finisher. Kentucky came in at 159. New Jersey logged 154. Oklahoma had 89, Michigan 80, Alabama 71, Connecticut 70, Massachusetts 67, Nebraska 64, and Maine rounded out the top ten at 54.

Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and New Jersey alone accounted for 530 of the 1,580 Day 1 inspections — exactly one-third of the national total concentrated in three states. The Northeast corridor and I-75/I-65 through Kentucky are the enforcement density hotspots based on Day 1 data.

If your loads are running through those corridors on Day 2 or Day 3, that geographic pattern is the most useful operational piece of information the dashboard is producing right now. This geographic pattern is the most useful operational piece of information available heading into Days 2 and 3.

Large carriers have compliance teams monitoring live enforcement data in real time. An owner-operator running solo or a dispatcher managing five trucks has the same access to the same live FMCSA feed — no subscription, no account required.

Knowing that Pennsylvania ran 217 inspections on Day 1 while a state like Vermont was in single digits is exactly the kind of route-relevant context that sharpens where you focus your pre-trip discipline.

The Worst Individual Inspections From Day 1 The Day 1 data surfaces the five worst inspections by total violations and the five worst by OOS conditions issued. By total violations, the worst single inspection of Day 1 was SPEPI02245 in New Jersey — 30 total violations, 28 of them vehicle violations.

That is not a truck caught with one bad brake adjustment or a burned-out marker light. A 30-violation inspection represents accumulated mechanical failures across multiple systems that did not get addressed before the truck was dispatched. Second was inspection 1750002578 in Alabama with 22 total violations, 21 of them vehicle.

Third was 3063007612 in Connecticut at 21 violations, all vehicle. Fourth and fifth — PTLP000665 in Wyoming and PABJI00468 in New Jersey — each logged 20 violations. The worst OOS list tells a sharper story.

Wyoming inspection PTLP000665 produced 9 OOS conditions out of 20 total violations — nearly half the violations found were severe enough to pull the vehicle. Kentucky’s S199003136 logged 6 OOS out of 10 violations. Massachusetts inspection ED00001018 generated 6 OOS out of 15 violations. Connecticut’s 3019007132 had 6 OOS from 13 violations.

Vermont’s 4600001019 produced 5 OOS out of 13 total violations. On the driver side, five inspections from Day 1 generated 7 or 8 driver-specific violations in a single stop. Four separate inspections — in Alabama, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Alabama again — each logged 8 driver violations. Pennsylvania inspection T408613108 produced 7 driver violations.

At 7 to 8 driver violations per inspection, you are not looking at one missed annotation or an expired medical card sitting alongside clean logs. You are looking at multiple stacked failures: credential problems, HOS violations, and ELD compliance issues compounding in the same cab. That is a compliance posture, not a paperwork oversight.

The 2026 Focus Areas: What Inspectors Are Specifically Looking For CVSA designated two focus areas for the 2026 event. The driver focus is ELD tampering, falsification, or manipulation. The vehicle focus is cargo securement.

The focus areas do not narrow the scope of the Level I inspection — inspectors still run the full 37-step process — but they direct additional scrutiny and time toward those categories. Understanding what specifically triggers a finding in each area is what separates a passed inspection from an OOS order.

On the ELD side, CVSA chose this focus because the underlying data demands it. According to CVSA, falsification of records of duty status was the second most-cited driver violation across all FMCSA inspections in 2025, at 58,382 total violations. Five of the top ten driver violations in the 2024 FMCSA enforcement dataset were hours-of-service or ELD related.

During the 2025 Roadcheck specifically, 332 driver OOS violations — 10% of all driver OOS findings — were for false logs or falsified records of duty status. What inspectors are looking for during an ELD check is not limited to obvious fraud.

They are cross-referencing the record of duty status against supporting documents — fuel receipts, bills of lading, toll records — and flagging specific anomalies. Driving time recorded while the device was in an unidentified or disconnected state. Edits to the log without annotations, which federal regulations require on any change to an entry.

Location data that does not align with the driving time recorded. Log patterns so uniform they don’t reflect how real driving behavior actually looks in the data. CVSA acknowledged directly in its 2026 focus area announcement that some inaccurate ELD entries result from drivers misunderstanding regulations rather than intentional falsification.

The enforcement consequence is identical either way. The penalty structure is not ambiguous. Operating without a certified ELD carries fines of $1,000 to $3,000 per violation. Falsifying electronic records runs $3,000 to $10,000. Willful violations can reach $16,000 per violation, and criminal charges are a legal possibility in severe cases.

Every ELD violation is weighted into the HOS Compliance BASIC in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System. CSA BASIC scores above 65% in any category trigger warning letters and targeted inspection attention. Insurance underwriters use CSA data in premium calculations. Brokers use it in carrier vetting.

There is a separate ELD compliance risk running in parallel with the falsification focus: revoked devices. Since January 2026, FMCSA has removed 27 ELDs from its registered devices list — nine in February and 14 in March — continuing a pace of revocations that ran 80% higher in 2025 than the year before.

After a 60-day grace period from each revocation date, a carrier still operating a revoked device is treated by FMCSA as running without an ELD. That means full OOS exposure on every mile. The revoked devices list is publicly available and searchable at eld. fmcsa. dot. gov.

If your device has not been checked against that list recently, do it before your next dispatch. On the cargo securement side, CVSA’s choice of focus area reflects consistent violation volume.

In 2025, inspectors issued 18,108 violations for cargo not secured to prevent leaking, spilling, blowing, or falling, and another 16,054 violations for unsecured vehicle components and dunnage — more than 34,000 violations in a single year from two securement subcategories alone. The governing standard is FMCSA’s cargo securement rules at 49 CFR Part 393.

The foundational requirement: the aggregate working load limit of all tiedowns must equal at least half the weight of the cargo being secured. What inspectors are physically examining during a cargo securement check goes beyond counting straps. They are looking at tiedown condition — frayed webbing, rusted chain, cracked anchor points, worn hardware.

A tiedown that passes the working load limit calculation on paper but shows visible degradation in the field is an OOS condition under the CVSA North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

They are verifying that loads cannot shift in any direction, that flatbed freight is either blocked against the front-end structure or secured with tiedowns that prevent forward movement under hard braking.

They are checking every piece of equipment on the truck — dunnage, tools, tarps, spare tires, chains — because loose equipment generates violations at the same rate as unsecured freight. International Roadcheck start today! The 2026 focus is on ELD compliance and cargo securement.

Looking at the numbers since 2017, out-of-service rates usually hover around 20%. Last year (2025) saw an 18. 4% OOS rate for vehicles. Let’s see if we can bring those numbers down… pic. twitter.

com/p1w3vl3t1m — FreightWaves (@FreightWaves) May 12, 2026 Which Carriers Are Showing Up in the Data The Day 1 data identifies the most inspected carriers by name and DOT number. This is public FMCSA data presented as a compliance performance record.

Tornado Bus Company (DOT #565859) led all carriers with 11 inspections on Day 1 and posted a 0% OOS rate with only 2 total violations — 0. 18 violations per inspection, tops among carriers with 10 or more inspections.

Eleven inspections without an OOS order on Day 1 of Roadcheck reflects a maintenance and compliance program built to hold up under scrutiny, not one assembled for a single week. Autobuses Ejecutivos LLC (DOT #1044521) logged 9 inspections on Day 1 with 0 violations and 0% OOS. New Prime Inc (DOT #3706) had 6 inspections, 3 violations, and a 17% OOS rate.

Shark Transportation Inc (DOT #793512) ran 5 inspections and came away with 13 violations and an 80% OOS rate — the worst performance by OOS percentage among the most-inspected carriers in Day 1 data. Protour and Travel Services LLC (DOT #2571867) completed 5 inspections with 0 violations and 0% OOS.

The Day 1 data also ranks shippers by OOS rate among loads with sufficient inspection volume. Amazon freight led the worst shippers list with a 21% OOS rate — 4 of 19 inspections resulting in OOS orders, with 20 total violations — while simultaneously appearing at the top of the best shippers list at 1. 05 violations per inspection.

That apparent contradiction reflects the ranking methodology: worst shippers are ranked by OOS rate with total violations as tiebreaker, while best shippers are ranked by violations per inspection. Amazon’s volume is high enough that both lists include it using different metrics. “Same As Carrier” ran a 10% OOS rate with 12 violations across 10 inspections.

The category listed as “MC” logged 3 of 31 inspections OOS at 10% with 44 total violations across those 31 stops. What the Level I Inspection Covers Beyond the Focus Areas The 2026 focus areas — ELD tampering and cargo securement — direct additional inspector attention but do not limit what the Level I process examines.

Every truck going through a Roadcheck inspection this week is being evaluated on the full 37-step checklist. The 2025 OOS data from the full Roadcheck event shows where trucks consistently fail across the full inspection, independent of any named focus area. Brake systems led the 2025 OOS list and have led it in every recent Roadcheck cycle.

CVSA inspectors recorded 3,304 brake system violations in 2025 — 24. 4% of all vehicle OOS findings — plus 2,257 additional violations for 20% defective brakes, where at least one-fifth of the vehicle’s braking system was in an OOS condition. Those two categories combined for more than 41% of all vehicle OOS orders in 2025. Brakes are not a 2026 named focus.

They do not need to be. They generate more OOS orders than any other category regardless of whether inspectors are told to pay extra attention. Tires were the second leading vehicle OOS category in 2025 at 2,899 violations and 21. 4% of vehicle OOS findings. Lighting violations were third at 14%.

Lights are the most preventable violation on the list — a burned-out clearance light or a trailer with a non-functioning brake light is something any driver can catch in a pre-trip walk and correct in the yard.

On the driver credential side, no valid medical certificate accounted for approximately 16% of driver OOS findings in 2025, up from 12% the prior year. That number has been trending in the wrong direction for two consecutive years. An expired medical card is a compliance failure that does not require a wrench or a parts order.

It requires a scheduled appointment that didn’t happen. What to Do on Day 2: The Owner-Operator If you are dispatching today, the pre-trip process is the compliance program. It is not a formality. Start with your ELD. Pull up eld. fmcsa. dot. gov and confirm your device is on the registered list and not under a revocation notice.

Open your 8-day log and look for unassigned driving events — driving time not assigned to a driver is one of the first patterns a trained inspector checks, because it is a primary indicator of potential manipulation even when the driver had a completely innocent explanation.

If there are unassigned events in your record, resolve them through your device’s proper edit procedure with an annotation before you reach a scale. Check your securement before the load moves. Physically inspect every tiedown for fraying, rust, cuts, and wear. Verify the working load limit against the weight of what you are hauling.

Walk every piece of equipment on the truck that could shift or fall — chains, tarps, dunnage, tools — because an inspector will ask how it is secured. Walk the truck. Lights front to rear, trailer markers, brake lights. Brake hoses for visible air leaks. Tires for inflation, tread, and sidewall condition. This is what 49 CFR 396.

13 requires on every dispatch, not just during Roadcheck. A violation found at a scale on Day 2 of blitz week is not a Roadcheck violation. It is a pre-trip failure that existed before the truck left the yard. If your truck is clean and your paperwork is current, do not avoid the scale.

A vehicle that passes a Level I or Level V inspection without critical violations during Roadcheck earns a CVSA decal valid for up to three months — a documented compliance signal that reduces the likelihood of reinspection during that window. The carriers routing around weigh stations this week are the ones who cannot afford for their trucks to be examined.

That assumption is a compliance problem that needs to be fixed, not worked around. What to Do on Day 2: The Small Fleet If you are managing multiple trucks through a live enforcement event, FMCSA inspection data is updating daily and is publicly accessible. Use it.

It shows live inspection counts by state, surfaces the worst individual inspections by violation count and OOS severity, and identifies which carriers are accumulating the most activity. The first priority today is ELD compliance across every truck currently running. Since January 2026, 27 devices have been removed from FMCSA’s registered list.

If your fleet runs different ELD providers across different trucks, or if any truck is running hardware that has not been audited recently, that is where your compliance exposure lives today. Cross-reference every device against eld. fmcsa. dot. gov.

If a device is revoked and the grace period has passed, that truck should not dispatch until a compliant device is installed. Run a spot audit of the last 8 days of records for each driver currently on the road. You are looking for unassigned driving events, edits without annotations, and gaps that do not align with supporting documents.

Drivers create these compliance gaps regularly without intent to falsify anything — they do not fully understand how the ELD handles certain scenarios, and the resulting record raises flags at roadside. Finding and correcting those records before your trucks reach a scale is the highest-leverage compliance action available on Day 2.

For any truck running flatbed, step deck, or open-deck: require a driver confirmation that securement was physically inspected before departure — tiedown condition, working load limit against cargo weight, and a walk of every piece of equipment on the trailer.

That confirmation is the documented pre-dispatch process that keeps cargo securement violations in the yard rather than on an inspection report. Three Questions Operators Are Actually Asking Q: My driver got placed out of service on Day 1. The truck is sitting at a weigh station and he’s calling me. What’s the sequence here?

First, get the inspection report number — it will be referenced in every subsequent communication with FMCSA and is the document you need if you want to contest any factual errors through the DataQs system. If the OOS is HOS-related, the driver is parked for a minimum 10-hour restart before they can legally operate.

The freight sits at the inspection location until either the driver is compliant and can move it, or you arrange another driver and truck to complete the delivery — which means a truck and driver that can legally reach the location within a timeframe that makes sense for the load. The OOS order is already on your safety record regardless of what you do next.

It is attributed to your USDOT number and will appear in your CSA BASIC scores within the next reporting cycle. Pull your current BASIC scores at ai. fmcsa. dot. gov and know where you stand before this adds to a category that is already elevated. Q: I’m running flatbed. Day 1 data shows cargo securement is generating serious OOS counts.

What specifically are inspectors looking for that most flatbed operators miss? The most commonly missed items in flatbed cargo securement inspections are not tiedown count — operators generally know how many straps are required. They are tiedown condition and equipment securement.

An inspector looking at a strap with visible abrasion, a burn mark from contact with a hot surface, or fraying at the hook connection does not see a usable strap at reduced capacity. They see an OOS condition under the CVSA’s North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, which defines defect thresholds for every securement device type.

The second area is loose equipment on the truck: spare chains, load binders, tarps, dunnage blocking, pallet jacks, spare tires. Anything on the truck that is not secured to the truck is a violation waiting to be written. Walk the trailer as if the inspector is standing next to you. If you can move it, it needs to be secured.

Q: My company name is showing up in the Day 1 inspection data. How do I find out exactly what violations were written against my trucks during blitz week? Every inspection result entered into FMCSA’s system during Roadcheck is accessible through the Safety and Fitness Electronic Records system at safer. fmcsa. dot. gov.

Search by your USDOT number and pull every inspection report entered, including the specific violations cited and the inspection level conducted. If you find a violation that contains a factual error — wrong vehicle, wrong date, wrong violation code — the FMCSA DataQs system is the formal process to challenge it.

A successful DataQs challenge can result in a violation being corrected or removed from your record. File it as soon as you identify the error, because the process takes time and the violation is affecting your CSA score from the moment it is entered. The post The 2026 CVSA Roadcheck Opened Yesterday. Here’s What the First Day of Real Data Actually Shows.

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