Brake Safety Week Targets Drums and Rotors, 39 Trucks OOS in 2025
CVSA's annual brake blitz runs this week. Inspectors will focus on drum and rotor violations that put 39 commercial vehicles out of service last year.
What violations will inspectors look for during Brake Safety Week?
CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance) Brake Safety Week is underway, with inspectors focusing on brake drum and rotor violations. In 2025, inspectors found 113 drum-and-rotor violations during 15,175 inspections and placed 39 commercial motor vehicles out of service for rotor or drum violations.
Brake drum and rotor failures do more than kill stopping power. Broken pieces can dislodge on the road, damaging other vehicles or causing injuries or fatalities.
What happens during Brake Safety Week
Inspectors will report data to CVSA about vehicle inspections and brake-related violations throughout the week. CVSA will collect and analyze all submitted brake-related data and release the results later this year.
The initiative combines enforcement with education. Inspectors and officials will engage with drivers, motor carriers, and mechanics to highlight the role of preventive maintenance in reducing crashes and saving lives.
Compliance steps for carriers and drivers
Motor carriers and drivers are encouraged to perform thorough pre-trip and post-trip inspections and ensure all brake components are in proper working condition before operating their vehicles.
A pre-trip inspection should include visual checks of brake drums and rotors for cracks, excessive wear, or missing pieces. Rotors should be smooth without deep grooves or heat cracks. Drums should be free of cracks or chunks missing from the friction surface.
If you find a cracked drum or rotor during a pre-trip, the vehicle cannot be operated until the component is replaced. A roadside out-of-service order for brake violations feeds your CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) Vehicle Maintenance BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) percentile and can trigger an FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) compliance review if your percentile crosses the intervention threshold.
What this means for your CSA score
Brake-related out-of-service violations carry severity weights in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. A single OOS brake violation can add 4 points to your CSA score, multiplied by a time-weight factor that decays over 24 months.
Carriers with Vehicle Maintenance BASIC percentiles above 80 percent face FMCSA intervention, including warning letters and potential on-site investigations. Small fleets (fewer than 20 power units) often see larger percentile swings from a single violation because the denominator (total inspections) is smaller.
If your fleet has had brake violations in the past 12 months, use this week to audit your maintenance records and pre-trip inspection logs. FMCSA investigators will pull those records during a compliance review, and missing documentation for brake inspections or repairs can result in additional violations even if the physical components pass inspection.
Pre-trip inspection documentation
Federal regulations (49 CFR 396.11) require drivers to prepare a written report at the completion of each day's work covering brake system defects or deficiencies. Carriers must review the report, certify repairs, and retain the record for 90 days.
If you use a side-by-side review of ELD options that includes DVIR (Driver Vehicle Inspection Report) functionality, ensure drivers are logging brake-system defects in the app and that your maintenance staff is closing out repairs in the system. Paper DVIR logs must be signed by both the driver and the mechanic or carrier representative who certified the repair.
Missing DVIR records for brake defects found during a roadside inspection can result in a violation under 49 CFR 396.11(a), separate from the underlying brake defect itself.
What to check tonight
Before Monday morning, walk your fleet and visually inspect brake drums and rotors on every truck and trailer. Look for cracks, missing chunks, deep grooves, or heat discoloration (blue or purple tint indicates overheating). If you find any of these, tag the vehicle out of service and schedule replacement.
Review your maintenance logs for the past 90 days. Confirm that every DVIR entry noting a brake defect has a corresponding repair entry signed by a mechanic. If you find gaps, document the repairs retroactively if the work was done but not logged, or schedule the repair immediately if it was deferred.
Brake Safety Week is an enforcement blitz, but it is also a free audit of your maintenance program. Use it to find the gaps before FMCSA does.
