Metro Vancouver truck safety checks uncover thousands of violations

Truck safety is in the spotlight after the RCMP released new numbers on failures and violations at roadside commercial vehicle inspections around the Lower Mainland over the past year.

Joint enforcement operations conducted by the Burnaby RCMP and its partners resulted in hundreds of commercial vehicles pulled from service and thousands of safety violation tickets in 2023.

During 50 planned commercial vehicle enforcement operations over the year, 1,715 trucks were inspected, resulting in 999 “placed out of service” — a failure rate of 58 per cent.

Many drivers were cited for multiple issues, with 3,974 violations noted and 1,298 violation tickets issued.

Burnaby Mounties also did checks on their own over the year, inspecting an additional 811 commercial vehicles in 41 planned operations with an even worse failure rate.

Sixty-seven per cent of the vehicles checked were placed out of service, 2,591 violations were found, and 1,169 tickets were issued. And this is actually an improvement from 2022.

“The percentage of trucks placed out of service has inched down slightly this past year,” said Corp.Mike Kalanj with the Burnaby RCMP.

“There is still a lot of room for road safety improvement. This integrated team will continue to enforce commercial vehicle safety violations while educating drivers where necessary.”

In October 2023, the detachment launched a one-year pilot project dedicating a police officer to focus solely on commercial vehicle safety efforts and enhancing education, enforcement, and compliance.

Kalanj says they plan to expand education efforts in 2024.