Thousands of commercial vehicles were inspected during an unannounced hazardous materials/dangerous goods (HM/DG) inspection and enforcement operation over the summer.
On September 10, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) released results from a surprise HM/DG inspection initiative that took place in the U.S. and Canada from June 8 through 12, 2026.
A total of 5,046 commercial vehicles were inspected over a five-day period.
Of these, 683 commercial vehicles were placed out-of-service, a 13.5% total out-of-service rate.
See below for more on some of the out-of-service violations discovered during the initiative:
- 55 placard out-of-service violations
- 20 marking out-of-service violations
- 29 HM/DG package integrity (leaking) out-of-service violations
- 128 cargo securement out-of-service violations
- 57 shipping paper out-of-service violations
According to the CVSA, vehicles are declared out-of-service when inspectors identify any conditions that fail to communicate the HM/DG hazards or are an imminent hazard, as noted in the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, a set of pass-fail guidelines used by safety inspectors to identify critical violations that prohibit commercial motor vehicles, drivers or cargo from continuing en route until all out-of-service violations are addressed.
In total, inspectors handed out 1,187 CVSA decals indicating that there were no critical vehicle or specification cargo tank violations on those vehicles.
During last year’s unannounced HM/DG inspection initiative, 4,629 inspections were conducted and 598 out-of-service HM/DG violations were documented.
