As the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration kicked off its Vehicle Safety Recalls Week, Carfax and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation reached a milestone with their Vehicle Recall Search Service. They said the safety tool completed more than 10 billion vehicle checks for unfixed safety recalls since launching in 2018. 

“It’s clear the partnership is working. When drivers know about recalls and get their vehicles fixed, road safety increases. Who isn’t for that?” said alliance President and CEO John Bozzella. “We can get even more vehicles checked if additional organizations, including state DMVs, sign up to use this no-cost, easy-to-use vehicle recall service.”

The service helps participants identify vehicles with open recalls, aiming to reduce the number of unaddressed safety issues and thereby increasing road safety. Participants include state motor vehicle agencies, public safety departments and inspection programs. Currently, DMVs in California, New York, Ohio, Arizona, Texas, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington participate, as well as U.S. territory Puerto Rico, which recently joined. 

According to Carfax data, some critical recalls have declined in recent years. 

“This Vehicle Recall Search Service has now checked more than half of all vehicles on U.S. roads,” saidFaisal Hasan, vice president of data acquisition at Carfax. “Still, one in five vehicles still has an unfixed recall, an ongoing risk for drivers. We encourage more states to participate. There is more work to be done.”

Auto dealerships have the opportunity to help lower the number of unaddressed recalls in their service drives. 

According to Wayne Mitchell, who oversees automotive solutions development for risk-management service provider Sedgwick, about 11% of vehicles on the road leave the service drive with undone recall repairs. He recommends building recall management into service drive processes to help simplify the process for consumers.