Rolling out technology to keep trucks moving

• Nation's top trucking safety official in Indiana gets demo of tech tools
• Tools could reduce time spent at weigh stations, officials say
• Innovations might help roadside inspectors prevent more wrecks
• Devices let law enforcement see companies with spotty records

Federal and state trucking safety officials are previewing technology in Indiana on Friday that's expected to drastically reduce the time truckers spend at weigh stations where they and their trucks are checked for safety.

Anne Ferro, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, will be at a demonstration on Interstate 70 in Richmond, Ind., of two technologies that officials say will help make highways safer by keeping non-compliant trucks off the road.

The two technologies are being demonstrated as budget-constrained states wrestle with how to inspect a growing numbers of trucks on the roads with limited law enforcement resources.

The first innovation, Help Inc.'s 360SmartView, uses high-definition cameras to read a truck's Department of Transportation number and license plate as it enters an inspection station. The information, collected from about 90 government databases, provides inspection officers with a compliance snapshot on that carrier.

"This technology allows law enforcement to work with multiple state and federal agencies and identify non-compliant carriers, which helps enforcement officials get bad trucks and unsafe drivers off the road," says Jim Poe, deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Revenue.

The process can be completed in a matter of seconds -- what now takes several minutes or more, says Indiana Department of Revenue spokesman Bob Dittmer. "Every time you stop a truck, it costs a lot of money," he says.

The technology enhances safety, according to Help, which says that a Department of Transportation evaluation found that the manual inspection practices now used at most state facilities prevent about 0.7% of the 441,000 truck-involved crashes that occur in the USA each year; 360SmartView-type inspections would allow officers to prevent 3.5%-4.8% of crashes -- which equates to 15,000 to 21,000 wrecks per year.

The other innovation being presented is a version of PrePass, which is similar to the vehicle transponders used by many commuters on toll roads. Drivers and trucks with good safety records are pre-screened and enrolled.

As these truckers approach a roadside weigh station, in-cab technology communicates information about the driver, the truck and the trucking company to an above-the-road monitor or to an inspection officer's hand-held device. If no compliance issues are found, the driver is allowed to bypass the inspection facility without stopping.

PrePass, also from Help, a Phoenix-based public-private partnership, is already in use at over 300 weigh stations in 31 states, but it's being enhanced to allow more data to be exchanged more quickly.

Last year, trucks in the USA hauled 9.2 billion tons of freight, according to the American Trucking Associations, the nation's largest trucking industry trade association.