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The Safest and Least Safe States by Out-of-Service Rate

A state's out-of-service (OOS) rate — the share of roadside vehicle inspections that result in a vehicle being pulled from service for a safety defect — is one of the more direct signals of fleet maintenance quality in that state's carrier base. It reflects both how carriers maintain their equipment and how strictly a state's inspectors enforce federal standards, so it's a mix of both, not a pure carrier-behavior measure.

Methodology

For each state, we take the median vehicle out-of-service rate across all active carriers headquartered there with at least 5 vehicle inspections in the last 24 months — the same per-carrier threshold used throughout this site (see What an Out-of-Service Rate Says About a Carrier). States are only included here if at least 1,000 carriers meet that threshold, so a single unusual carrier can't swing a small state's ranking.35 of 51 states/DC met that bar.

Lowest median out-of-service rates

Georgia 11.5% Illinois 11.4% Colorado 11.1% Wisconsin 11.1% North Carolina 10.5% Pennsylvania 10.0% Kansas 10.0% Iowa 9.1% Nebraska 9.1% Massachusetts 9.1%

Highest median out-of-service rates

  • Texas — 22.1% (n=19,835)
  • Utah — 16.7% (n=1,280)
  • Arizona — 16.7% (n=1,998)
  • Louisiana — 15.9% (n=1,115)
  • Washington — 15.0% (n=3,800)
  • Oregon — 14.8% (n=1,364)
  • Mississippi — 14.3% (n=1,267)
  • Oklahoma — 14.3% (n=1,792)
  • Alabama — 14.3% (n=2,408)
  • Maryland — 14.3% (n=4,102)

Reading this ranking carefully

A high OOS rate in a state doesn't necessarily mean its home-based carriers run worse equipment than another state's — inspection intensity and enforcement priorities vary by state, and a state that inspects more vehicles, or targets higher-risk operations more aggressively, will surface more OOS violations even from a similarly-maintained fleet. This ranking describes the roadside inspection record, not carrier intent, and it says nothing about any specific carrier — check an individual carrier's own record with DOT Number Lookup rather than inferring anything from where it's based.

Related reading

See Vehicle Maintenance Violations That Most Often Ground a Truck for what actually triggers an out-of-service order, and Reading an Inspection Report for how these inspections work.