What 393.104B means in plain language
When an inspector writes up a 393.104B, it means they found a tiedown or cargo securement device on your load that was damaged, defective, or no longer capable of doing its job. That could be a strap with a deep cut through the webbing, a chain with a cracked link, a ratchet buckle that won't hold tension, or a binder with a bent hook — anything that compromises the ability of that device to actually restrain cargo.
The rule doesn't require the cargo to have shifted or fallen. The defect itself is the violation. An inspector who spots a frayed strap mid-inspection doesn't need to wait for something to go wrong — the damaged device is the problem, full stop.
This matters practically because drivers sometimes keep worn gear in rotation, figuring it's "good enough." Our data shows inspectors disagree, and they're looking for it actively. Any securement device on a load you're running is fair game for examination.
What our enforcement data actually shows
Across 13 million inspections in our database, 393.104B has accumulated 3,020 all-time citations, placing it at #440 out of 3,036 FMCSR codes by citation volume. That's a meaningful enforcement footprint — not a rarely-written code.
The pace is accelerating. Our inspection records show 1,839 citations in the last 12 months alone, and 430 citations in just the last 90 days. That means roughly 143 drivers per month are picking up this violation right now.
On out-of-service risk: 393.104B is not OOS-eligible as a standalone violation, but our data tells a more complicated story. Of the 3,020 all-time citations, 725 resulted in the vehicle being placed out of service — a 24.0% OOS rate. The reason is co-occurring violations (more on that below). For context, the all-FMCSR average OOS rate across all codes in our database is 31.4%, so 393.104B sits below that average. Still, nearly one in four inspections where this code appeared ended with the truck parked. Don't treat "not OOS-eligible" as a reason to relax.
Looking at the monthly trend, citation volume has been persistently elevated. Our records show 172 citations in August 2025, 175 in October 2025, and 195 in February 2026 — with March 2026 hitting 191 citations and 61 OOS placements, the highest OOS count in the trailing 12 months.
Who gets cited most
Among the states with the highest 393.104B activity in the last 180 days, Texas leads decisively with 747 citations — far ahead of any other state in our records. North Carolina logged 33 citations during the same period, and Iowa also recorded 33 citations.
The OOS-rate variation across these three states is significant and worth noting. Texas came in at a 26.1% OOS rate. North Carolina ran considerably hotter at 45.5% — meaning nearly half of all 393.104B inspections in that state during this window resulted in a truck being taken out of service due to companion violations. Iowa, by contrast, recorded a 0.0% OOS rate across its 33 citations, suggesting inspectors there wrote the tiedown violation without finding the additional defects that trigger OOS action. If you're running freight through North Carolina, the inspection environment warrants extra attention to your entire vehicle condition, not just the straps.
On the carrier side, our data shows fleets such as P&S Transportation LLC (USDOT 1243338) with 10 all-time citations and Annett Holdings Inc (USDOT 87409) with 8 citations appearing at the top of our carrier records for this code. Volume at any single carrier is still low relative to the overall citation pool, which tells us this violation is widely distributed across the industry rather than concentrated in a handful of operations.
How severe is this compared to similar codes
In the Vehicle Maintenance category, 393.104B's 3,020 all-time citations look modest next to some of the high-volume peer codes in our database. Consider 393.9(a) — Inoperable Required Lamps — which has 660,737 citations and a 15.4% OOS rate. Or 396.3(a)(1) — the general inspection, repair, and maintenance code — which carries 236,919 citations and a substantially higher 45.3% OOS rate.
The CSA severity weight for 393.104B is 6. That's the number that flows into your SMS score, and it applies to every citation regardless of whether you were placed OOS. By comparison, peer codes with similar or higher severity weights but lower citation volumes can actually hurt a carrier's percentile ranking more when they do appear, because the denominator of inspections in a given category is smaller. A severity weight of 6 on a code written 1,839 times in the last year means it is actively moving SMS scores for drivers and carriers across the country right now.
How to avoid it
The co-occurring violation pattern in our data is the most useful signal here. In the last 90 days, 393.104B appeared alongside other violations in a clear pattern — meaning the inspections that produced this citation very often produced additional write-ups at the same time. Use that pattern to build a sharper pre-trip.
- Inspect every tiedown device end-to-end before departure. Run your hands along webbing straps looking for cuts, abrasions, or stiffness from chemical exposure. Check ratchets and binders for bent or cracked components. A device that can't reach working load limit gets pulled before you leave the yard.
- Check your lamps as part of the same walkround. Our records show 393.9 (Inoperable Required Lamp) appeared in 125 shared inspections with 393.104B in the last 90 days. A burned marker lamp draws the inspector to your truck; once they're there, they look at everything, including your straps.
- Address any fuel system condition before departure. 396.5B (Fuel system leak) co-occurred in 42 of the same inspections. A dripping fuel line is an immediate inspector magnet and broadens the inspection scope.
- Carry proof of your periodic inspection. 396.17C (No proof of periodic inspection) showed up in 70 shared inspections. Not having that document on board signals to an inspector that maintenance discipline may be weak — which prompts a closer look at your securement equipment.
- Know your vehicle make's exposure. Freightliner (FRHT) leads our all-time cited vehicle records for this code with 769 citations, followed by Peterbilt (PTRB) at 389 and Kenworth (KW) at 374. These are the most common power units on the road, so the distribution reflects fleet size — but it also means inspectors working major freight corridors are well-practiced at finding tiedown defects on exactly the equipment you're likely driving.
- Replace worn gear on a schedule, not on failure. The regulation targets devices that can no longer perform their intended function. By the time a strap looks bad enough to catch your eye at the dock, it has likely already crossed the threshold an inspector would use at the scale.