Commercial Motor Vehicle Transportation Safety Community Gathers at 2016 CVSA Workshop

More than 500 government officials, enforcement personnel and industry representatives attended this year’s CVSA Workshop, which focused on quality, uniformity and consistency in commercial motor vehicle safety and enforcement.

The CVSA Workshop provides attendees the opportunity to continue their work toward advancing commercial vehicle safety and enforcement throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The CVSA Workshop took place on April 24-28, 2016, in Chicago, Illinois.

“Over the years, this organization and those involved have helped make significant strides in safety,” said CVSA President Maj. Jay Thompson with the Arkansas Highway Police. “At the annual spring CVSA Workshop, enforcement and industry come together to work collaboratively to continue to develop solutions to our challenges.”

Participants from all across North America collaborated at the CVSA Workshop to affect meaningful changes to the overall culture of transportation safety. They attended various committee, membership, region and program meetings aimed at the ongoing progress of CVSA’s mission to promote commercial motor vehicle safety, and to achieve common goals of uniformity, compatibility and reciprocity.

This year, CVSA’s new strategic plan was presented to lead agency contacts and primary points of contact for all CVSA jurisdictions. The purpose of that gathering was to provide an overview of the development process, communicate the new direction of the alliance, and socialize the implementation strategy for CVSA’s new strategic plan to the agency/department leaders responsible for the coordination and oversight of commercial motor vehicle safety and enforcement programs within their jurisdiction.

The 2016 CVSA Workshop also featured informative and collaborative sessions on some of the most important topics for commercial motor vehicle safety, enforcement and industry, such as:

  • Updates and training on the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) and the International Registration Plan (IRP)
  • An FMCSA Listening Session which provided an opportunity for interested parties to share their thoughts, data and analysis on the potential benefits and feasibility of a beyond compliance program, and ways to credit carriers and drivers who initiate and establish programs that promote safety beyond the standards established in FMCSA regulations
  • Fraud detection and remediation training
  • Issues/concerns with the cargo securement regulations in pursuit of developing and implementing uniform regulatory and enforcement requirements for the securement of cargo on or within commercial motor vehicles
  • Large truck and bus traffic enforcement training

Also of importance during the CVSA Workshop, the following members were nominated for the international leadership position of CVSA secretary:

  • Commercial Vehicle Inspector Rhonda Wood with the Kentucky State Police
  • Capt. Scott Carnegie with the Mississippi Highway Patrol

Elections for the secretary position will take place at the 2016 CVSA Annual Conference and Exhibition, Sept. 18-22, 2016, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“We have a responsibility to make sure the foundation of the organization is strong, current, relevant and practical. We do that by evolving and improving every year,” said CVSA Executive Director Collin B. Mooney, CAE. “The CVSA Workshop provides an environment where enforcement and industry can gather, as a collective group, to help shape the current and future state of commercial motor vehicle safety throughout North America.”

View photos from this year’s CVSA Workshop in Chicago, Illinois.

Next year’s CVSA Workshop is scheduled for April 23-27, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia.