The Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) branch promotes compliance of safety regulations within the commercial transport sector, with the goal of increasing road safety.

CVSE uses a multi-level approach to ensure safety.

Carriers must:

• have a National Safety Carrier certificate in good standing;
• ensure commercial vehicles regularly pass inspections by authorized inspectors at designated inspection facilities; and
• undergo and pass safety inspections when passing weigh scales or mobile CVSE officers.

Key facts about CVSE:

• Every year, CVSE looks at hundreds of thousands of commercial vehicles that cross the weigh scales and inspection sites throughout the province. Of these, CVSE targets an average of more than 25,000 commercial vehicles a year for closer inspections.
• CVSE staff administer safety certificates for more than 35,000 B.C.-based carriers operating more than 128,000 commercial vehicles across North America.
• Approximately 380 compliance reviews and 260 audits are triggered each year due to on road performance and approximately 40 followup audits are requested each year due to failed audits.
• CVSE oversees approximately 2,100 privately operated designated inspection facilities. It certifies over 6,300 authorized inspectors, who conduct over 315,000 vehicle inspections per year from those facilities.
• CVSE inspects an average of approximately 3,000 school buses per year.
• CVSE issues violation tickets and removes any unsafe vehicles from the road. CVSE has placed a priority on targeting commercial vehicles that warrant inspection versus randomly inspecting. This is done using officer expertise and vehicle/company history to assess vehicles.
• CVSE works with local law enforcement to do seasonal “blitzes,” or spot checks, in identified communities to check commercial vehicles and identify safety issues.
• The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure centralized permit functions at the Provincial Permit Centre located in Dawson Creek, allowing its enforcement staff around the province to focus on vehicle safety and mechanical inspections. Prior to opening the permit centre, staff at the inspection stations/weigh scales were required to issue permits. The centre issues more than 148,000 vehicle permits per year.
• Throughout B.C., there are more than 230 CVSE staff members, including mobile inspectors, stationary inspectors, managers, engineers, permit processors and clerical support staff.
• The industry is operating more efficiently because of advances in technology and more modern facilities. For instance, the Weigh2GoBC program allows commercial carriers to bypass Weigh2GoBC inspection stations (weigh scales) if they get the “green light” to go ahead.
  • There are currently 11 inspection/weigh stations participating in the Weigh2GoBC Program.
  • As of spring 2021, industry enrolment consists of more than 500 carriers and more than 5,200 vehicles.
  • It is estimated that a reduction in driver times and fuel costs has saved the industry more than $51 million. This includes more than 1.8 million litres in fuel savings from not idling through the inspection/weigh stations and a reduction of over 3.3 million kilograms in greenhouse gas emissions.