Significant growth in domestic and international commerce, coupled with ever-increasing traffic congestion and delay on surface transportation networks, challenge industries’ ability to move freight economically without use of larger and heavier load movements This trend challenges limited enforcement resources tasked with monitoring vehicle size and weight compliance in the interest of infrastructure preservation and in response to the structural constraints of the existing infrastructure
The Commercial Motor Vehicle Size and Weight Enforcement (VSW) Scan Tour, conducted from June 16th through July 2nd, 2006, included a review and evaluation of contemporary European procedures and technologies for enforcing commercial motor vehicle size and weight laws and regulations The final ten-member VSW Scan Tour Team comprised of personnel from the Federal Highway Administration (three members), various State Departments of Transportation (five members), law enforcement (one member), and academia (one member).
The Scan Team is now implementing a series of technology-based initiatives. They include Bridge Weigh in Motion, Virtual Weight Station Operating Practices, WIM Management Data, and Swiss Inspection Station. The Subcommittee on Highway Transport would like to promote a project aimed at DOT executives and law-enforcement officials around the country. The Subcommittee believes that a comprehensive report along with executive outreach sessions would accelerate a better understanding of the issues and lead to better programmatic direction to size and weight enforcement.
European enforcement has dramatically been enhanced by incorporating technology-based procedures. For example the Netherlands reported that their enforcement effectiveness (measure is based on the number of citations issued per the number of vehicles inspected) is 80 percent.
The effort proposed to assist the Subcommittee will assemble a summary and thumbnails of European policies and case studies (supplementing the information gathered in the 2006 scan), a summary and thumbnails of similar U.S experiences, case studies that describe how obstacles are overcome and results achieved, and an assembly of the latest technologies and how they are being applied.
Six breifing papers and related PowerPoint presentations were prepared that describe various aspects of successful European practices and issues related to potential implementation in the United States. They can be found below.
Briefing Paper: Size and Weight Management Agency-Wide Benefits and Presentation: Agency Wide Benefits
Breifing Paper: Bridge Infrastructure Preservation and Presentation: Bridge Preservation
Briefing Paper: Commercial Motor Vehicle Weight Enforcement and Presentation: Weight Enforcement
Breifing Paper: Commercial Motor Vehicle Size Enforcement and Presentation: Size Enforcement
Briefing Paper: Oversize/Overweight Vehicles Permitting, Routing, and Monitoring and Presentation: Permitting, Routing and Monitoring
Briefing Paper: Weigh-in-Motion System Calibration and Presentation: System Calibration
