Inspection & Violation Trends Analysis

Analysis

· as of April 17, 2026

The most notable pattern in this dataset is the divergence between vehicle and driver out-of-service rates over the past 18 months. Vehicle OOS rates have remained relatively range-bound, averaging 15.2% in the trailing 12 months versus 14.6% in the prior 12-month period. Driver OOS rates, by contrast, have moved sharply higher: the trailing 12-month average of 6.6% compares to roughly 4.9% in the prior period, and the monthly figures tell a starker story. In April 2023, the driver OOS rate was 4.69%. By July 2025, it had risen to 7.12%, and it has remained above 6.5% in every month since April 2025. August 2025 recorded the highest driver OOS rate in the dataset at 7.15%, compared to 4.95% in August 2024. The vehicle OOS rate for those same two months was 15.40% and 15.40% respectively, essentially unchanged year-over-year, which underscores that the divergence is specific to driver compliance rather than equipment condition.

The violation rate has been more stable, oscillating between roughly 53.5% and 58% throughout the period. The trailing 12-month average violation rate of 56.5% is modestly above the prior 12-month average of 55.3%, suggesting a mild upward drift rather than a structural shift. Total inspection volumes in the trailing 12 months were 2,686,451, slightly below the prior period's 2,768,325, so the higher rates are not an artifact of fewer, more targeted stops.

The rise in driver OOS rates is consistent with increased enforcement activity focused on hours-of-service and driver qualification violations, though the data does not identify violation categories directly. It may also reflect labor market pressures that have drawn less-experienced drivers into active fleets, but that interpretation goes beyond what this dataset can confirm. The November 2025 observation of only 104,298 inspections appears anomalous relative to adjacent months and likely reflects partial reporting rather than a true drop in enforcement activity.

Placed in a longer context, the five-year cumulative total of 15.3 million violations across 9.5 million inspections reflects a persistent structural rate of roughly 1.6 violations per inspection, which has not materially improved over the window of this data.