For States That Use Outdated Visual or Road Test Inspections:Is Your Vehicle Inspection Program Up To Today’s Fleet? Today’s changing vehicle fleet -- more vehicles, older vehicles, and advances in automobile technologies -- means that the nature and the number of defects you need to uncover is evolving and growing. The automobiles on the road today are far more complex than the vehicles of just ten years ago. Is your program up to the challenge? An Aging Vehicle Fleet = More Hazardous Vehicles It’s a fact -- owners are keeping their cars longer. The average age of the cars on our roads is now 8.6 years compared to 6.6 years in 1980. Studies show that as vehicles age, they are more likely to be involved in a fatal crash involving defective equipment and be cited for problems in vehicle inspections [GAO, p.15-6]. An aging fleet means more potential defects for your inspection program to identify. More Vehicles Means More Inspections In 1997 there were 198,293,459 motor vehicles registered in the United States. The number of registrations has been increasing at the rate of approximately 2.5% for the past several decades [AAMA Motor Vehicle Facts & Figures, 1997]. The number of miles traveled has increased an average of 2.5% each year this decade [AAMA Motor Vehicle Facts & Figures, 1997]. As the state vehicle fleet grows, so does the demand on your inspection program. Today’s Inspections Must Keep Pace With Today’s Complex Brake Systems Brake testing is one of the most important parts of vehicle inspection. The braking system is of utmost importance to traffic safety and brakes are one of the most common defects cited as a factor in vehicle crashes. Many passenger vehicles on the road today have front wheel drive, which relies on properly balanced brakes to handle the enormous difference between front and rear axle weights. The proper balance in these sensitive brake systems is necessary for safe stopping, especially in panic situations. Traditional brake testing can’t determine brake balance. New technologies, such as lighter-weight and environmentally safe materials, will provide additional challenges to the proper, long-term operation of brake systems -- and brake testing [Woolverton testimony before Minnesota House of Representatives, October 29, 1993, p. 4]. Visual Brake Inspection Isn’t Enough The traditional method of brake inspection -- removing one or more wheels for a visual check -- isn’t enough, especially for modern brake systems. Visual inspections are time-consuming, yet never check if the brakes actually work [CSCV video narration]. Brake imbalance is detectable only during hard braking [CSCV video narration], such as in a dynamic brake test. Nearly one fifth -- 19.1% -- of 1,028 vehicles tested at random in three large cities failed brake balance testing [B400 Action Report, Hunter 1990]. Dynamic Brake Testing: It Finds Problems Other Tests Miss In computerized dynamic brake testing, the vehicle is simply driven onto a metal plate and the brakes applied -- no need for lifts, tools, or vehicle disassembly. Compared to visual testing, computerized dynamic brake testing:
Computerized dynamic brake testing:
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