This project developed procedures and associated software for evaluating truck weight enforcement activities through the use of a set of measures of effectiveness (M.O.E.s) developed on the basis of specific truck weight enforcement objectives. The final M.O.E.s were selected on the basis of their ranked abilities to meet highway and enforcement agency needs, and then validated in a four-state study to confirm their sensitivity to actual enforcement activity.

Truck weight enforcement programs are intended to limit the amount of damage to the infrastructure and to promote public safety. In the past, the level and value of truck weight enforcement activities has been gauged by means of statistical measures such as the number of trucks weighed, the number of violators detected, and the amount of fines collected. Such statistical measures can demonstrate level of effort, but do not indicate what is actually being accomplished as a result of that effort. A true measure of the effectiveness of truck weight enforcement programs would indicate what, if any, real effect is being achieved. Useful measures of effectiveness might, for example, quantify the reduction in the number, proportion, and severity of illegally overweight trucks. Thus, use of such measures of effectiveness will provide a meaningful way to quantify what is accomplished by weight enforcement efforts.

The objective of this research was to develop and validate measures of effectiveness for truck weight enforcement programs.

An abridged version of the final report was published as Research Results Digest 229. The full agency final report is available on the NCHRP web site as NCHRP Web Document 13 where it can be browsed or copies can be ordered. The TWEET (Truck Weight Enforcement Effectiveness Tool) software may be accessed through the Transportation Research Corporation web site at https://www.trc-net.com/tweet/. As of April 2002, there have been 110 downloads of the software to state highway agencies, consultants, and universities in 23 states as well as 13 foreign countries. Downloads to public agencies include several with truck-weight enforcement responsibilities.