NORTH AMERICA — A surprise five-day hazardous materials inspection initiative conducted across the United States and Canada in June pulled 683 commercial vehicles off the road — a 13.5% out-of-service rate — including 29 trucks found to be actively leaking hazardous materials, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced September 10.
The unannounced operation ran June 8 through 12, 2026, with inspectors conducting 5,046 commercial vehicle inspections. Inspectors handed out 1,187 CVSA decals to vehicles with no critical violations.
Out-of-Service Violations
128 cargo securement violations. 57 shipping paper violations. 55 placard violations. 29 package integrity violations — actively leaking hazardous materials. 20 marking violations.
Shipping Papers and Documentation
Inspectors identified 265 total shipping paper violations, of which 57 were serious enough to warrant out-of-service orders. HM shipping papers must contain specific descriptions, quantity and package information, emergency response phone numbers, and shipper certification. Inspectors also found 47 HM registration violations, 16 HM endorsement violations, and 8 HM safety permit violations.
In Canada, 70 dangerous goods training certification violations were issued and five equivalency certificate violations were found. In the U.S., five undeclared hazardous material packages were discovered. In Canada, 24 misdeclared dangerous goods packages were found — cargo shipped with missing, false, or misleading labels, documentation, or packaging.
What Was Being Hauled
A total of 5,805 Class 1 through 9 packages were inspected during the five days. The most common categories included Class 3 flammable liquids at 2,584 packages, Class 8 corrosives at 993, Division 2.1 flammable gas at 678, Division 2.2 non-flammable compressed gas at 538, and Class 9 miscellaneous at 403. Division 6.2 biohazardous infectious substances and Class 7 radioactive materials were also among the cargo inspected.
Year Over Year
Last year’s unannounced HM initiative produced 4,629 inspections and 598 out-of-service HM violations. This year’s operation saw both inspections and violations increase.
The initiative is supported by PHMSA, FMCSA, and Transport Canada and is conducted annually as part of CVSA’s broader commercial motor vehicle safety enforcement program.
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Tags: CVSA, hazardous materials, surprise inspection, out of service, leaking cargo, shipping papers, PHMSA, FMCSA, North America, hazmat enforcement
