BACKGROUND: The goal of the trucking industry is to move goods safely, quickly, and profitably. State departments of transportation (DOTs) perform regulatory functions such as safety inspections, licensing, permitting, routing, and size and weight enforcement to ensure safe and lawful truck operation. DOTs routinely share regulatory information within their own boundaries and report certain information to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but infrequently share information directly with neighboring states. Sharing information more often and more quickly with neighboring states could reduce unnecessary duplication of inspections and other regulatory functions, avoid unexpected delays caused by differences in regulations, and better inform truckers of temporary restrictions or allowances. Such information sharing would reduce state DOTs’ administrative costs and trucking industry’s operational costs and improve the reliability of freight transport.
Sharing real-time data requires an information architecture, data standards, enabling technology, and a supporting organizational structure but no commonly accepted procedures for reporting such information exist now. There is a need to evaluate the need, feasibility, and benefits of real-time commercial vehicle data sharing among states; and develop an architecture for an information system that will support such data sharing among state DOTs and help accrue economic benefits while ensuring safety and compliance with regulations.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to design and demonstrate an architecture for an information system for reporting and sharing data pertaining to truck regulatory requirements among state DOTs. For the purpose of this research, regulatory requirements encompass those pertaining to licensing, permitting, enforcement, and restrictions on vehicle movement.
Accomplishment of the project objective will require at least the following tasks.
PHASE I: 1. Collect and review relevant domestic and foreign literature, research findings, and information relative to systems and procedures for reporting and sharing truck regulatory requirements among state and federal agencies. This information may be obtained from published and unpublished reports, and contacts with public and private organizations. 2. Based on the review performed in Task 1, identify and define the data associated with truck regulatory requirements and other items that merit consideration in designing the architecture that will be proposed in this research. 3. Based on the evaluation performed in Task 2, prepare a concept of operations for an information system to support data sharing among state DOTs and an updated, detailed work plan for Phase II that includes the approach for developing an architecture for such a system. The plan shall identify and define the system’s data elements and other items required for reporting and sharing relevant information. 4. Prepare an interim report that documents the research performed in Tasks 1 through 3. Following review of the interim report by the NCHRP, the research team will be required to make a presentation to the project panel. Work on Phase II of the project will not begin until the interim report is approved and the Phase II work plan is authorized by the NCHRP. The decision on proceeding with Phase II will be based on the contractor’s documented justification of the updated work plan.
PHASE II: 5. Upon receipt of NCHRP approval, execute the plan approved in Task 4, and prepare a preliminary version of the architecture and related user manual. The architecture should be prepared in an appropriate electronic format to facilitate use. The research team will be required to make a presentation to the project panel to illustrate use of the architecture with examples covering a range of applications (e.g., permitting, enforcement, etc.) and discuss how the architecture may be used by state DOTs for sharing regulatory information. Work on the subsequent tasks will not begin until review of the preliminary version is completed and work is authorized by the NCHRP. 6. Upon receipt of NCHRP authorization, prepare the draft version of the architecture. 7. Prepare a final deliverable that documents the entire research effort. Deliverable will include (1) a research report documenting the work performed in the project and used to develop the architecture; (2) the architecture in an electronic format; (3) user manual; and (4) implementation plan. The examples presented in Task 5 shall be included as an appendix to the user manual.
STATUS: Research in progress.
