"It's important to remember, a brake hose does not know - or care - whether its carrier has razor thin margins or double-digit profits. It fails the same way. What differs is the cost of that failure after it happens. When done with discipline, inspections convert random failure cost into planned maintenance cost and courtroom risk into documented diligence. Hard Economics: The 3 Big Profit Centers"
"The FMCSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) assigns the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC a three-point double weight for violations that place a vehicle out of service. Miss enough pre-trip defects, and the BASIC percentile climbs into the shaded intervention zone, triggering warning letters, audits, and potentially a compliance review that can revoke operating authority. Civil litigation is more brutal. In 2022, the average jury verdict against carriers in fatal crashes exceeded $7 million."
Relentless inspections lower operating costs by shifting unplanned failures into scheduled maintenance and protecting the three major profit centers: fuel, uptime, and maintenance. Regulatory compliance hinges on documented inspections; the FMCSA's SMS gives Vehicle Maintenance BASIC heavy weighting for out-of-service violations, and missed pre-trip defects raise intervention risk. Civil liability is costly: average jury verdicts in fatal crashes surpassed $7 million in 2022, and missing or invalid DVIRs materially strengthen plaintiff claims. Consistent DVIRs, legible timestamps, and repair orders form strong evidence of reasonable care. Organizational culture, training, and emerging inspection technologies separate reactive fleets from resilient ones.
Read at Busline News
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