Truck Out-of-Service Rates by State

What an Out-of-Service Order Actually Is

An out-of-service order is an inspector's finding that a driver or a vehicle is unsafe to operate, issued on the spot under the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria maintained by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. It is not a ticket. It is a prohibition: the truck does not move, or the driver does not drive it, until the defect is corrected and the order is cleared.

• Driver out of service — the driver may not operate any commercial vehicle. Hours-of-service violations, a missing or expired CDL, and no valid medical certificate are the usual causes. Depending on the finding, the clock can run 10 hours or until the paperwork is fixed.
• Vehicle out of service — the truck or trailer stays where it is until repaired. Brakes at or beyond the 20% defective threshold, flat or badly underinflated tires, and inoperative required lamps account for most of them.
• Both — an inspection can produce a driver order and a vehicle order at the same stop, and frequently does.
• It follows the carrier — every violation is reported to FMCSA and feeds the carrier's Safety Measurement System percentiles for 24 months, which is why a defect that would be a five-minute fix in the yard costs far more when it is found at a scale.

Nothing here is legal advice, and the criteria are revised annually. Check the current CVSA out-of-service criteria before relying on any specific threshold.

Avoid the Order in the First Place