CVSA out-of-service criteria in Canada: what parks a truck, and what follows

Where the criteria come from, and how they reach Canadian roads

The North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria (OOSC) are published by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA). CVSA calls them the pass-fail criteria for inspections: they identify critical violations, and a critical violation keeps the driver, the vehicle or the cargo out of service until the condition is corrected. The criteria are revised every year, with a new handbook edition taking effect on April 1, and CVSA sells the current edition and posts a summary of each year’s changes.

CVSA is a nonprofit made up of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal commercial vehicle safety officials and industry representatives. Its list of government members includes the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Contrôle routier Québec, British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Alberta Transportation, Saskatchewan Government Insurance, Manitoba Infrastructure, agencies from each Atlantic province, and Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Canadian enforcement agencies are members of the body that maintains the criteria they apply.

At home, the criteria sit inside the National Safety Code (NSC), the 16 standards developed by the member jurisdictions of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA). Standard 12, CVSA On-Road Inspection, contains CVSA’s on-road inspection criteria, and CCMTA refers anyone who wants a copy to CVSA. Each province and territory builds the NSC into its own rules, by adopting the standards by reference or by mirroring them in its laws, so the roadside officer works under provincial law while measuring against a list shared across North America.

The provinces back that up with their own powers. Ontario says police and transportation enforcement officers regularly inspect commercial vehicles, that an unsafe vehicle may be prohibited from operating until repairs are made, and that critically defective vehicles are impounded for at least fifteen days. Its official truck handbook adds that a safety inspection can take place at any time and any location, and that the most common reason a commercial vehicle is taken out of service is out-of-adjustment air brakes.

The out-of-service line is not your maintenance standard

The criteria mark the point at which continued operation is unsafe, which can be well below the legal minimum for the same part. Tires show it clearly. Ontario’s truck handbook requires at least 3 mm of tread on the front tires of a vehicle over 4,500 kg and 1.5 mm on the rear tires, while a CVSA inspection bulletin quotes the criteria as putting a power unit’s steering-axle tire out of service below 2/32 inch, about 1.6 mm. A steer tire at 2 mm would not park the truck, yet it is still under Ontario’s minimum and still a violation.

Inspection levels at Canadian scales and roadsides

CVSA defines nine inspection levels, used by certified inspectors in Canada, the US and Mexico. The level decides how much of the truck and the driver is examined, and only the levels that look at the vehicle can park it for a mechanical defect.

A vehicle that passes a Level I or Level V inspection with no critical violations can receive a CVSA decal. The decal applies to the vehicle, not the driver, so a driver can be put out of service while the truck earns a decal. It stays valid for the month of issue plus two more, never more than three consecutive months, and its colour shows the quarter: green for January to March, yellow for April to June, orange for July to September and white for October to December. Vehicles with a valid decal are generally not re-inspected, although nothing prevents it.

What inspectors in Canada found at Roadcheck 2026

International Roadcheck is CVSA’s three-day inspection and enforcement event across Canada, Mexico and the US, and its results, published on August 25, 2026, give a public picture of what parks trucks. Across North America, inspectors carried out 54,575 inspections and placed 10,350 vehicles (19%) and 3,184 drivers (5.8%) out of service. CVSA reports a separate breakdown for Canada.

Brake systems and “20% defective brakes”, which means that a fifth or more of the brakes on a vehicle or combination have an out-of-service condition, together made up about 40% of the vehicle out-of-service violations found in Canada. Cargo securement, the vehicle focus of the 2026 event, ranked second in Canada, higher than its fourth place across North America.

Canadian inspectors also applied 3,464 CVSA decals during the three days: 2,131 on power units and 1,333 on trailers. On the driver side, they found 163 out-of-service violations, led by false records of duty status (52, or 31.9%), hours of service (46, or 28.2%), wrong licence class (19) and licence restrictions (15).

Two cautions when you read these figures. They are shares of violations, not of trucks, and one truck can carry several. And three days is a snapshot. The order still lines up with what Ontario names as the most common reason for an out-of-service order, so the lesson for a maintenance program is the same: brakes first, then securement, tires and wheels. For a plan to get trucks and drivers ready for the event itself, see TruckerPro’s Roadcheck fleet preparation guide.

After the order: repairs, reports and the vehicle file

An out-of-service vehicle stays where it is until the condition is corrected. CVSA puts it plainly: the vehicle or driver must remain off the road until the violation has been addressed. In practice the repair happens on site, often by a mobile mechanic, or the unit leaves on a tow. Ask the officer what the province allows if you are unsure, and follow the instructions on the inspection report.

Then the paperwork has to come home and go into the file:

1. The driver hands in the report. In Ontario, section 10 of Regulation 199/07 requires a driver to give the operator any inspection report or notice issued under the Highway Traffic Act or by an enforcement official of another jurisdiction, as soon as possible and no later than 20 days after receiving it.
2. The shop opens a work order the same day. Every defect on the report, not only the out-of-service items, gets a repair line, a cause and a correction.
3. The report joins the vehicle records. Ontario lists copies of those notices and reports among the records an operator keeps for each vehicle, for at least two years, or six months after the vehicle stops being operated, whichever is shorter. British Columbia’s CVSE record-keeping guide files CVSA inspections with the driver’s incident records within 15 days and keeps them for the current year plus four.
4. Someone looks for the pattern. NSC Standard 11 notes that infractions under the other standards can be a sign that the maintenance program is not adequate, and may prompt a facility audit.

If a Canadian truck is put out of service in the United States, the US follow-up rules apply instead, including a written certification of repairs; the US version of this guide on rigmd.com covers them.

How an out-of-service inspection shows up on your safety record

In Canada, roadside results feed the carrier profile kept by the province that issued your NSC certificate. NSC Standard 7 gives jurisdictions a record of driver and carrier performance, Standard 14 sets the safety rating framework, and Standard 15 sets out the facility audit. Ontario notes that all provinces and territories share driver and carrier profile information through an inter-provincial system, and Alberta’s profile, for one, includes inspections done in Canada and the US.

Ontario: the CVOR record

Ontario’s CVOR record covers collisions, convictions and inspections. Officers complete a Commercial Vehicle Inspection Report (CVIR) during Level 1 to 5 inspections, and Ontario emails it automatically to the address on the CVOR file. Each event carries points, and the overall violation rate compares the points of the last 24 months with a threshold set for that carrier. For inspections, the threshold is based on the number of units inspected; collisions and convictions are weighted double compared with inspections.

• At 35% of the threshold the ministry may send a warning letter.
• From 50% it may decide a facility audit is warranted, and at 70% the safety rating drops to Conditional, with or without an audit.
• At 85% the carrier may be called to an interview with a senior official and must produce an action plan.
• At 100% the CVOR certificate may be suspended or cancelled.

Alberta: the carrier profile

Alberta’s carrier profile lists every level of CVSA inspection done on the carrier’s vehicles in Canada and the US, each recorded as a pass, “requires attention” (defects, none of them out-of-service) or out of service. In its CVSA points, an out-of-service inspection counts four times as much as a requires-attention one, the points stay on the profile for one year from the inspection date, and the CVSA result is one of the four elements in the carrier’s R-Factor score, alongside convictions, administrative penalties for impaired driving and collisions.

British Columbia: the NSC carrier profile

British Columbia’s carrier profile counts roadside CVSA inspections that put a power unit, trailer or driver out of service. Its sample report says an inspection whose overall result is out of service is assigned 3 NSC points, valid for one year from the inspection date, and the scores are compared with the provincial median for carriers of similar fleet size. Periodic CVIP results also appear on the BC profile, for information only and without points; the province suggests that a carrier whose vehicles keep failing CVIP review its maintenance and trip inspection programs.

Other provinces keep their own profiles under the same national standards; check with the province that issued your NSC certificate. Keeping the driver, hours and safety side of that record in order is easier in one system, such as TruckerPro’s trucking compliance software.

A Schedule 1 pre-trip aimed at the out-of-service list

NSC Standard 13 requires trucks, tractors and trailers to be inspected under Schedule 1 every 24 hours when they are operated, and no one may drive with a major defect. Many Schedule 1 major defects describe the same conditions that dominate the Canadian Roadcheck table, so a driver who works through them honestly removes most of the risk before the truck leaves the yard.

Air brakes

• Major: pushrod stroke of any brake beyond the adjustment limit, air loss rate over the prescribed limit, an inoperative tractor protection system, a low air warning that fails or is active, an inoperative service, parking or emergency brake.
• Minor, but worth fixing before it grows: an audible air leak or a slow build-up of air pressure.
• Stroke is measured, not guessed: build pushrod stroke checks into every PM, done by someone qualified to adjust brakes.

Cargo securement and coupling

• Major: insecure cargo, or a required securement device or load covering that is missing, failed or deteriorated.
• Major: a coupler that is insecure or moves beyond the limit, a coupling or locking mechanism that is damaged or will not lock, or a defective or missing safety chain or cable.

Tires, wheels and suspension

• Major: a flat tire, tread below the wear limit, a tire touching another tire or a vehicle part other than the mud flap, a tire marked “Not for highway use”, or exposed cords in the tread or outer sidewall.
• Major: a loose, missing or ineffective wheel fastener, a cracked or broken wheel or rim, or signs that a wheel, hub or bearing is about to fail.
• Major: a damaged or deflated air bag, a cracked or broken main spring leaf, or a loose U-bolt.

Lamps and the paperwork

• Major when lamps are required: both low-beam headlamps out, or both rearmost tail lamps out. Major at all times: a rearmost turn signal out, or both rearmost brake lamps out.
• The driver carries the applicable inspection schedule and the current trip inspection report, and shows them to an inspector on request.

When the driver marks a major defect, the truck stays parked until the repair is done and recorded. Our guide to trip inspection requirements covers Standard 13 in full, and the guide to CVIP and periodic inspections covers the yearly inspection that sits behind it.