The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual International Roadcheck is scheduled for May 12-14, and this year’s event will zero in on two issues that continue to generate tens of thousands of violations across North America: ELD tampering/falsification and cargo securement. This year, inspectors are going old school.
During the 72-hour enforcement window, CVSA-certified inspectors at weigh stations and pop-up sites across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will conduct thousands of Level I inspections (meaning a comprehensive 37-step review of both driver qualifications and vehicle mechanical fitness). On average, nearly 15 commercial motor vehicles are inspected every minute during Roadcheck, making it the largest targeted enforcement campaign on commercial vehicles in the world.
Mark Barlar, Director of DOT Regulatory Compliance at Reliance Partners, sat down with FreightWaves to break down what drivers and carriers should expect from this year’s event and how to prepare for it.
The enforcement landscape has shifted, and the days of taking ELD data at face value are over.
The ELD Trust Problem
ELDs were introduced to simplify hours-of-service compliance and eliminate the ambiguity inherent in paper logs. But according to Barlar, a growing subset of users has weaponized the technology’s own architecture against its intended purpose.
“Some people have figured out how to change ELD source files to hide drive time,” Barlar said. “This has been an increasingly prominent issue over the last few years, and authorities have been adapting to new falsification methods by returning to more manual investigations.”
When discrepancies appear, inspectors are forced to revert to the very methods ELDs were supposed to replace.
“Officers treat ELDs as paper logs and impugn or verify records with other sources,” Barlar said. Law enforcement is now cross-referencing driver logs against toll receipts, bills of lading, fuel records, and data collected from license plate readers across the country.
The scope of the problem has drawn attention at the federal level. FMCSA revoked nine ELDs from its registered devices list in February 2026 alone and pulled an additional 14 in March. That activity followed a steep escalation in 2025, when the agency revoked 38 devices, which was itself an increase of more than 80% compared to 2024. False records of duty status were the second-most cited driver violation during last year’s Roadcheck, with more than 58,000 cases documented.
Barlar noted that the problems are not distributed evenly across the ELD market.
“Several ELDs in common use have a good reputation, but the problems are mostly coming from certain startups and overseas companies,” he said. “It’s likely that there will be more regulation on ELDs as a result of this issue.”
Some states categorize the violation as tampering or falsification outright, while others cite a driver when the device is simply failing to function as a compliant record of duty status.
The consequences at roadside are immediate and can be relatively severe.
“When an inspector finds one of these violations or a false record of duty status, they will typically declare the driver to be out of service for ten hours,” he said.
The prevalence of manipulation has also eroded the informal benefit of the doubt that inspectors once extended to drivers with minor log discrepancies. “The prevalence of tampering forces law enforcement to be less lenient with the benefit of the doubt when there’s evidence of record discrepancies,” Barlar said.
In previous years, minor issues like unassigned drive time were easy for an inspector to identify and sometimes dismiss. But now, any inconsistency triggers a deeper review.
Carriers should note that inspectors won’t just be looking at the current day’s logs.
“Inspectors will be checking records for the previous seven days, so a total of eight days will need to be verified,” Barlar said. “You should always stay diligent with your ELD, but make sure your drivers are paying close attention during this period.”
That eight-day review window means that a single lapse from the week before Roadcheck can lead to an out-of-service order during the event itself. Carriers should consider auditing driver logs in the days leading up to May 12 to catch and correct any issues before an inspector does.
For the event, Barlar said states are pulling out all the stops.
“States will bring people off special assignments to work at the facilities,” he said. “Some areas of the state will work 24 hours a day during this period.”
Cargo Securement
The vehicle-side focus area for 2026 Roadcheck is cargo securement, a category that generated more than 34,000 violations in 2025. Of those, over 18,000 were issued because cargo was not properly secured to prevent leaking, spilling, blowing, or falling, and more than 16,000 involved unsecured vehicle components or dunnage.
Carriers should not assume the scrutiny is limited to open-deck trailers.
“Law enforcement will not just be looking at flatbeds,” Barlar said. “They’ll be checking the safety of any load that’s on the vehicle, including spare tires, tarps, load bars, chains, and coolant… anything on the vehicle that can come off.”
Van trailers and hazmat loads are also under scrutiny, including movement of a dangerous material within the vehicle.
Federal cargo securement standards are outlined in 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I, with commodity-specific rules covering everything from dressed lumber and metal coils to intermodal containers and large boulders in Sections 393.116 through 393.136. The regulations require that all cargo be immobilized or secured to prevent shifting, leaking, spilling, or falling, and inspectors will be measuring compliance against the letter of those requirements.
One area Barlar flagged as a common point of confusion and a frequent source of violations is working load limits on chain securement.
“For loads that utilize chains, they have working load limits you need to be aware of at all times,” he said. “Check the handles on your binders if you don’t know the specific limit of your equipment.”
Inspectors calculate the capacity of an entire securement system based on its weakest component.
“A forty-thousand pound load, for instance, needs securement methods whose weak points equal half the total limit of the entire load,” Barlar said. That means the aggregate working load limit of all tiedowns (measured at the weakest link) must reach at least 20,000 pounds.
Practical Advice for Carriers
For ELD compliance, the guidance centers on vigilance and proactive review. Carriers should audit logs across their fleets, ensure all ELDs are currently listed on FMCSA’s registered devices list, and verify that drivers understand how to properly use personal conveyance. These issues have historically caused confusion.
On the cargo securement side, Barlar recommended a layered approach. “Carriers, if you haven’t already, spend extra time training drivers on load securement methods,” he said. “Have drivers pay extra attention to load securement, especially flatbeds and hazmat.”
His advice extended to the practical realities of road vibration and long hauls. “Every few hours, stop to check load securement. Road vibration can shift things more than most people realize,” he said.
Barlar also urged carriers to equip drivers with backup securement materials. “Carry extra load securement in case you get inspected and need more,” he said. “If there’s damage, those devices can be written up and not included in the case of the check, and you don’t want to be caught at a stop without any way to get into compliance.”
Nylon straps deserve extra attention when it comes to flatbed operations specifically. Without edge protection, nylon straps can be worn down quite easily.
“When in doubt, add an extra strap,” Barlar said. “More is better when it comes to securement.”
After the Inspection: DataQs
Even with thorough preparation, violations can happen. When they do, they feed directly into a carrier’s CSA scores, which affect insurance rates, shipper access, and regulatory scrutiny. Barlar pointed carriers toward FMCSA’s DataQs system as a critical post-inspection tool.
DataQs is a web-based system that allows motor carriers and drivers to request a review of federal and state safety data they believe to be incomplete or inaccurate. Requests for data review are sent to the appropriate state or federal reviewer and can result in the removal or modification of violations on a carrier’s record.
“Reliance Partners has an excellent safety impact team,” Barlar said. “We win seventy percent of DataQs with FMCSA.”
Barlar also noted that he teaches dedicated sessions on how to effectively navigate the DataQs process. “In fact, I teach classes on how I do my DataQs, and I will be doing one such class July 21st for the Tennessee Trucking Association in Nashville,” he said.
International Roadcheck may only span 72 hours, but the issues it targets are enforcement priorities year-round. FMCSA has been steadily tightening oversight of the ELD ecosystem, pulling noncompliant devices from the market at an accelerating pace and exploring new technical requirements to address fraud schemes. Meanwhile, cargo securement violations continue to rank among the most frequently cited vehicle-side infractions at roadside.
The preparation window is narrowing. The event kicks off May 12, and the enforcement machinery is already being assembled. Drivers and fleet managers who treat the next several weeks as an opportunity to tighten compliance will be in the best position to keep their trucks moving when the inspectors come knocking.
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