Performance-Based Brake Testers - Round Robin Study

00804720https://doi.org/10.21949/15028922000PDFBriefFMCSA-MCRT-01-002InspectionBrakesCommercial vehiclesBraking performancePerformance-based brake testers (PBBT)United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationNTL-FREIGHT-Trucking IndustryNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Highway SafetyUnited States Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationIn the early 1990s, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration initiated research to evaluate various types of performance-based brake testing technologies for application to commercial vehicle inspections. The purpose of the research was to determine if performance-based brake testers (PBBTs) could be used to evaluate commercial vehicle braking capability. A PBBT is a device that assesses the braking capability of a vehicle through quantitative measure of individual wheel brake forces or overall vehicle brake performance in a controlled test. They are widely used for brake inspection in Europe and Australia and are beginning to emerge as both an enforcement tool and diagnostic aid for private sector maintenance and repair shops. This tech brief summarizes a study based on a series of "round robin" tests (i.e., tests in which a single standard is used to evaluate the consistency of various test apparatuses) conducted in July 1998 to assess the suitability of PBBTs for use in law enforcement. 4 p.84