Quick Answer: CVSA released its 2026 International Roadcheck results on August 25, 2026, and the pattern has not changed. Across 54,575 inspections conducted May 12–14, inspectors placed 10,350 commercial motor vehicles out of service — 19% — along with 3,184 drivers, or 5.8%. Brakes were again the number one vehicle failure, with 3,379 out-of-service brake system violations accounting for 24.3% of all vehicle out-of-service violations. Cargo securement, this year’s vehicle focus area, produced 1,724 violations at 12.4% and ranked fourth. On the driver side one thing did change: the most-cited violation was no medical card at 1,072 violations, or 27%, displacing hours of service. Every one of the top vehicle failure categories is an Appendix A component that a qualified inspector examines during the §396.17 annual inspection.

The encouraging half of the data: 81% of vehicles and 94.2% of drivers inspected had no out-of-service violations at all. Failing is not random bad luck. It is concentrated, predictable, and largely preventable — which is exactly why it is worth knowing precisely where it happens.

What Percentage of Trucks Fail a DOT Inspection?

During the 2026 International Roadcheck, held May 12–14 across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, inspectors conducted 54,575 inspections of commercial motor vehicles and drivers — roughly 13 vehicles per minute over 72 hours.

The results:

• 10,350 vehicles placed out of service — 19%
• 3,184 drivers placed out of service — 5.8%
• 13,534 total out-of-service orders issued
• 81% of vehicles and 94.2% of drivers had no out-of-service violations

Roughly one in five vehicles inspected during a focused enforcement blitz gets parked. Drivers fare considerably better.

Inspectors also issued 17,680 CVSA decals to vehicles that passed eligible inspections without critical violations — up from 16,521 the year before, despite fewer total inspections.

That decal is worth understanding, because it is the tangible reward for passing. It remains valid for up to three consecutive months, and a vehicle displaying a current decal is generally not selected for another Level I inspection during that window. Passing cleanly does not just avoid a violation — it buys a quarter of reduced inspection exposure.

How 2026 compares to 2025

	2025	2026
Inspections	56,178	54,575
Vehicles out of service	10,148 (18.1%)	10,350 (19%)
Drivers out of service	3,342 (5.9%)	3,184 (5.8%)
Brake system violations	3,304 (24.4%)	3,379 (24.3%)
CVSA decals issued	16,521	17,680
Top driver violation	Hours of service (32.4%)	No medical card (27%)

The vehicle out-of-service rate ticked up slightly. The brake share is essentially unchanged — 24.4% to 24.3%. That stability is the real finding. Two consecutive years, tens of thousands of inspections, and the top failure category moves by one-tenth of a percentage point.

What Is the Number One Reason Trucks Are Placed Out of Service?

Brakes. It is not close, and it has not changed in years.

In 2026, inspectors identified 3,379 out-of-service brake system violations — 24.3% of all vehicle out-of-service violations, the single largest category across North America.

Working backward from CVSA’s published percentages gives the denominator: 3,379 at 24.3%, and 1,724 cargo securement violations at 12.4%, both imply roughly 13,900 total vehicle out-of-service violations for the event. Two independent figures agreeing is a useful sanity check on the reporting.

The 2025 event tells the same story with more published detail. Brake system violations totalled 3,304 at 24.4%, and a separate 2,257 violations were cited under the 20% defective brake criterion. Together those produced 5,561 of 13,553 vehicle out-of-service violations — 41.0% of everything that parked a truck, more than tires, lights, and cargo securement combined.

Six of FMCSA’s top 20 recorded vehicle violations in 2025 involved brakes.

Why Do Brakes Dominate the Violation Data?

Three reasons stack on top of each other.

They wear constantly. Linings, drums, rotors, and pushrod stroke all change with every mile driven. A brake that measured fine in March may be out of adjustment by August. Nothing else on the vehicle degrades on that schedule.

They are fast to check at roadside. An inspector can measure pushrod stroke and eyeball lining thickness in minutes. High failure rate plus high detectability is why brakes dominate — a defect that is common but hard to find does not generate violations at this volume.

And the 20% rule aggregates small problems into a big one. Under the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, a vehicle is placed out of service when 20% or more of its service brakes have a defect, counted across every wheel position. On a five-axle tractor-trailer with ten brakes, two defective brakes crosses the threshold.

That last one explains most of the surprise. Neither of those two brakes has to be dramatically bad. Two minor, individually non-out-of-service defects add up to a parked truck. During Brake Safety Week 2025, the 20% rule was the single most-cited out-of-service reason, accounting for 1,199 violations on its own.

For the brake standards in detail, see our DOT air brake certification requirements guide and the Brake Safety Week 2026 guide.

What Are the Top Vehicle Out-of-Service Violations?

For 2026, CVSA has published brake systems and cargo securement in detail. Tires, the 20% defective brake category, and lights round out the top five, with full figures reported for 2025:

Category	Share of vehicle OOS violations	Count
Brake systems	24.3% (2026) · 24.4% (2025)	3,379 · 3,304
Tires	21.4% (2025)	2,899
20% defective brakes	included in the 41% brake total (2025)	2,257
Cargo securement	12.4% (2026), ranked 4th	1,724
Lights	~14% (2025, trade reporting)	—

Brakes, tires, and lights alone account for roughly three-quarters of everything that parks a truck. Add cargo securement and you are close to the whole picture.

You are not defending against a hundred possible failures. You are defending against four categories — all of which are Appendix A inspection items.

Cargo securement: the 2026 focus area

Each year CVSA names one vehicle and one driver emphasis. For 2026 the vehicle focus was cargo securement, and it showed: 1,724 out-of-service violations, 12.4% of the vehicle total, ranking fourth across North America.

Inspectors looked for freight that was inadequately restrained, immobilized, locked, secured, tied down, packed, or monitored. See our DOT cargo securement rules guide for the Part 393 Subpart I requirements, including working load limits and tie-down counts.

Tires

Tires were the 2025 vehicle focus and produced 2,899 out-of-service violations that year — 21.4% of the vehicle total and the second most-cited category. Failures included flat or underinflated tires, insufficient tread depth, severe cuts exposing cord or belt material, bulges from improper repairs, and tires not rated for the load.

Tread depth is where most operators get caught on a detail: the federal minimum is 4/32 of an inch on steering axles and 2/32 elsewhere, measured in a major tread groove — but CVSA’s out-of-service threshold is lower, which means a tire can generate a citation without the truck being parked. We break that apart in legal, out-of-service, or failed inspection: the three standards every DOT inspector has to know.

Lights: the cheapest failure on the list

Lighting violations are the least excusable category in the data. A burned-out lamp costs a few dollars and takes minutes to replace, and it is visible to anyone who walks the vehicle.

Worse, a defective light is often what triggers a closer look at everything else. It is the easiest defect for an officer to spot from a moving vehicle, and it invites the inspection that finds the brake problem.

What Are the Top Driver Out-of-Service Violations?

This is where 2026 broke from the previous year. Hours of service had led the driver category for years. In 2026 it did not.

• No medical card — 1,072 violations, 27% of all driver out-of-service violations, and the new number one
• Hours of service — 929, second
• No commercial driver’s license — 620, third
• English language proficiency — 361
• False records of duty status — 266
• ELD tampering — 146 out-of-service orders, 3.7%, seventh most-cited, and the 2026 driver focus area

For comparison, in 2025 hours of service accounted for 32.4% of driver out-of-service violations, with no CDL at 24.4% and no medical card at 14.9%. A medical certificate that lapsed at 14.9% one year and 27% the next is not a driving problem. It is a calendar problem, and it is entirely preventable with a tracked expiration date.

One genuinely positive number: only 1.25% of drivers inspected were not wearing a seat belt, producing 667 violations across the event.

These are documentation and credential failures, not maintenance failures. No amount of shop work prevents them. But note the pattern: the top driver violation and the top vehicle violation are both about routine discipline, not catastrophic failure.

Why Do Trucks Fail When the Driver Says It “Drove Fine”?

Because almost nothing on the top-violation list is something a driver would feel from the seat.

Two brakes out of adjustment on a ten-brake combination will not change how the truck stops in normal driving. The other eight compensate. The driver notices nothing, and the 20% threshold is crossed.

A steer tire at 3/32 of an inch stops and steers normally on dry pavement. It is a federal violation, and its wet-weather performance is badly degraded, but nothing about the drive tells you that.

A burned-out clearance lamp on the passenger side of a trailer is invisible from the cab.

This is the entire argument for a systematic inspection rather than a subjective one. The failures that park trucks are measurable, not perceptible. They are found with a gauge, a straightedge, and a procedure — not by how the vehicle feels.

What’s the Difference Between a Violation and an Out-of-Service Order?

A distinction worth understanding, because the numbers above count out-of-service violations specifically.

A violation means a component does not meet the federal standard in Part 393. It generates a citation and CSA points against the carrier’s Vehicle Maintenance BASIC, but the truck may continue.

An out-of-service order means the defect meets CVSA’s out-of-service criteria. The vehicle is physically removed from service and cannot move until the defect is repaired — not even to the nearest truck stop.

The two thresholds are different numbers, which is why a single vehicle can carry several violations while the count of vehicles parked is lower than the count of violations issued.

Which Failures Does the Annual Inspection Actually Catch?

Nearly all of the vehicle ones, which is the point of this article.

The annual periodic inspection under 49 CFR §396.17 is performed against Appendix A to Part 396, which covers brake systems, coupling devices, exhaust, fuel systems, lighting devices, steering, suspension, frame, tires, wheels and rims, windshield glazing, and wipers.

Brakes, tires, lights, cargo securement. Every one of the top vehicle failure categories sits inside that list.

The difference is timing and cost. A defect found in your shop is a scheduled repair. The same defect found at a scale house is an out-of-service order, a road service call, a missed delivery, CSA points, and a violation that follows the carrier’s DOT number into the next insurance renewal.

Between annual inspections, the daily layer catches the rest. See DVIR requirements under §396.11 for what has to be reported daily and who certifies the repair.

How Do You Actually Prevent These Failures?

1. Measure brakes, do not eyeball them. Pushrod stroke is measured with the engine off, reservoir at 80 to 90 psi, brakes fully applied. Lining thickness is measured at the shoe center. Both are gauge work.
2. Count defective brakes against the 20% threshold before deciding a truck is roadworthy. Two out of ten parks it regardless of how minor each one looks.
3. Check tread in a major groove, not at the wear bar. 4/32 on steers, 2/32 elsewhere, and replace well above both.
4. Walk the lights every single day. Cheapest category on the list and the one that invites deeper inspection.
5. Track medical card expirations on a calendar. It is now the number one driver out-of-service violation and it is pure administration.
6. Run a real §396.17 annual inspection against Appendix A, with the report documenting components inspected and results — not just “passed.”
7. Keep the paperwork. Annual inspection reports 14 months under §396.21(b)(1), DVIRs three months under §396.11(a)(4), inspector qualification for the period employed plus one year under §396.19(b). See what goes on the truck and what stays on file.

For the broader enforcement calendar, see our 2026 CVSA International Roadcheck guide. If a single component is being targeted, that is a CVSA Level IV inspection.

One honest caveat about this data

International Roadcheck is an announced, high-visibility enforcement blitz, not a random sample of normal operations. Some carriers park questionable equipment during the window, which pushes the failure rate down. Inspectors are also working at maximum thoroughness, which pushes it up. The category proportions — brakes first, tires and cargo securement close behind — hold steady year over year and across other CVSA events, so treat those as reliable. Treat the headline pass rate as directional rather than a precise estimate of your everyday odds.

Who Is Qualified to Catch These Before Roadside Does?

Someone qualified under 49 CFR §396.19. There is no federal DOT inspector certification or license — no agency issues one. The motor carrier qualifies its own inspectors and retains the evidence on file.

Under §396.17(d) a carrier may perform the annual inspection itself, and under §396.17(e) it may use a commercial garage, fleet leasing company, or similar business as its agent, provided that business employs qualified inspectors. Either way, someone has to meet the §396.19 standard. See can I do my own DOT annual inspection and who can perform DOT annual inspections.

Brakes carry a second, separate qualification under §396.25 for anyone who inspects, maintains, services, or repairs them — which, given that brakes are consistently a quarter of all failures, is not optional. See who fills out the §396.25 brake inspector qualification form.

Qualify a Mechanic and Catch It in Your Shop

Four categories cause the overwhelming majority of out-of-service orders, and the proportions have not moved in two years. All four are Appendix A components. The economics are straightforward: qualifying one mechanic costs less than a single out-of-service event with a loaded trailer.

Our DOT Annual Inspection Training Course covers the full Appendix A inspection — brakes, steering, suspension, lighting, tires, coupling devices, frame, fuel systems — along with the inspection report requirements under §396.21 and the out-of-service criteria that drive the data in this article.

Every enrollment includes three deliverables:

• Certificate of completion — documenting the training component of qualification under §396.19(a)(3)(ii)(A)
• Inspector qualification form — the §396.19(b) record your carrier retains on file
• Inspection checklist — the working document for performing and recording annual inspections

Fully online and self-paced, with lifetime access. For how qualification works in full, see how to get certified to do DOT inspections.

Training a shop or a fleet? Group registration with volume discounts is available.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of trucks fail a DOT inspection?

During CVSA’s 2026 International Roadcheck, inspectors conducted 54,575 inspections and placed 10,350 commercial motor vehicles out of service, a rate of 19 percent, along with 3,184 drivers at 5.8 percent. Conversely, 81 percent of vehicles and 94.2 percent of drivers inspected had no out-of-service violations. The 2025 event produced a 18.1 percent vehicle out-of-service rate across 56,178 inspections.

What is the number one reason trucks are placed out of service?

Brakes. In the 2026 International Roadcheck inspectors identified 3,379 out-of-service brake system violations, 24.3 percent of all vehicle out-of-service violations and the largest single category. The 2025 event produced 3,304 brake system violations at 24.4 percent, plus a further 2,257 violations under the 20 percent defective brake criterion, which together accounted for 41.0 percent of all vehicle out-of-service violations that year.

What were the 2026 International Roadcheck results?

CVSA released the results on August 25, 2026. Across 54,575 inspections conducted May 12 to 14, inspectors placed 10,350 vehicles and 3,184 drivers out of service and issued 13,534 total out-of-service orders. Brakes led vehicle violations at 3,379, or 24.3 percent. Cargo securement, the vehicle focus area, produced 1,724 violations at 12.4 percent and ranked fourth. Inspectors affixed 17,680 CVSA decals to vehicles that passed.

What was the 2026 Roadcheck focus area?

Cargo securement for vehicles and electronic logging device tampering for drivers. Inspectors identified 1,724 cargo securement out-of-service violations, 12.4 percent of the vehicle total and fourth overall, looking for freight inadequately restrained, immobilized, locked, secured, tied down, packed, or monitored. ELD tampering produced 146 out-of-service orders, 3.7 percent of driver violations and seventh most-cited.

What is the most common driver out-of-service violation?

In 2026 it was not having a current medical card, with 1,072 violations accounting for 27 percent of all driver out-of-service violations. Hours of service ranked second at 929, no commercial driver’s license third at 620, English language proficiency at 361, and false records of duty status at 266. This was a change from 2025, when hours of service led at 32.4 percent and no medical card accounted for 14.9 percent.

What is the 20 percent defective brake rule?

Under CVSA’s North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, a vehicle is placed out of service when 20 percent or more of its service brakes have a defect, counted across every wheel position. On a five-axle tractor-trailer with ten brakes, two defective brakes crosses the threshold. It generated 2,257 violations during the 2025 International Roadcheck and was the most-cited out-of-service reason during Brake Safety Week 2025 with 1,199 violations.

Why do trucks fail inspection when they drive fine?

Because the most common failures are measurable rather than perceptible. Two brakes out of adjustment on a ten-brake combination do not change how the truck stops in normal driving, since the other eight compensate. A steer tire at 3/32 of an inch steers and stops normally on dry pavement. A burned-out trailer clearance lamp is invisible from the cab. These defects are found with a gauge and a procedure, not by how the vehicle feels.

What is the difference between a violation and an out-of-service order?

A violation means a component does not meet the federal standard in Part 393. It generates a citation and CSA points but the truck may continue. An out-of-service order means the defect meets CVSA’s out-of-service criteria, and the vehicle cannot move until it is repaired. The thresholds are different numbers, which is why a component can be in violation without being out of service.

Does the annual DOT inspection catch the same things a roadside inspection does?

Largely yes, for vehicle defects. The annual periodic inspection under 49 CFR 396.17 is performed against Appendix A to Part 396, which covers brake systems, tires, lighting devices, steering, suspension, coupling devices, frame, fuel systems, exhaust, wheels and rims, and glazing and wipers. Brakes, tires, lights, and cargo securement, the categories driving the overwhelming majority of out-of-service orders, all fall inside that list. Driver credential violations such as a lapsed medical card are outside its scope.

Who is qualified to perform a DOT annual inspection?

A person meeting the requirements of 49 CFR 396.19. No federal agency issues a DOT inspector certification or license; the motor carrier qualifies its own inspectors and retains the evidence on file. Under 396.17(d) a carrier may perform the inspection itself, and under 396.17(e) it may use a commercial garage or similar business as its agent provided that business employs qualified inspectors. Anyone inspecting brakes also needs the separate 396.25 brake inspector qualification.

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About the Author

Josh Lopez has spent more than 10 years in trucking and freight, working across shippers, carriers, brokerage, and reefer LTL. He founded dotinspectioncourse.com to give mechanics, owner-operators, and fleet managers accurate, regulation-first training on 49 CFR Part 396. Every regulatory citation on this site is verified against the current eCFR text before publication, and enforcement statistics are sourced to the issuing body wherever the issuing body has published them.