TRUCKING: Weigh Station Bypass Service
A Drivewyze Decision
With more truck fleets requesting mobile-based bypass service, and commercial vehicle inspection officers reporting greater operating efficiencies at weigh stations, several states have chosen to expand their Drivewyze bypass programs.
By 2015, states including Mississippi, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia and Virginia had already begun expansion of Drivewyze weigh station bypass services along state highways to include a combined total of 195 sites with interest among other states growing.
Chief Willie Huff, Director of Enforcement for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, said there’s a good reason why the mobile-based weigh station and inspection site bypass service has been so much in demand in his state.
“It’s helping us to reward those truck fleets and operators with good safety records with bypass opportunities while also providing my enforcement officers and inspectors a way to prioritize their work and focus on those fleets that should be inspected,” Huff said.
Like Mississippi, Pennsylvania has also added Drivewyze at several new sites in response to a growing demand for the mobile-based weigh station bypass, according to Corporal Rick Koontz, an enforcement officer with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Division at the Pennsylvania State Police. “With Drivewyze, we’re experiencing efficiencies in our day-to-day operations that we want to extend across Pennsylvania,” Koontz said.
How Does it Work?
Drivewyze is an intelligent transportation system (ITS) service that provides bypasses to commercial vehicles as they approach participating state highway weigh stations.
A participating vehicle’s safety record, credentials and weight are verified automatically, and if compliant with that state’s screening rules for automated bypass, the vehicle is authorized to bypass these facilities rather than pull in for manual inspection, resulting in time and fuel savings for the truck/fleet and less vehicle congestion at the weigh station.
Drivewyze uses GPS technology and the mobile internet instead of traditional battery-operated transponders, which must be mounted on the windshield and can only be used at sites equipped with poles and transponder readers. The GPS technology and mobile internet add transponder-like functionality to electronic logging devices, smartphones and tablets.
Easy to Enroll
To enroll in Drivewyze, a driver or carrier must submit an application and provide license plate and USDOT number credentials. Enrollees pay monthly subscription fees that allow them an unlimited number of bypasses. There are no application or enrollment fees and no long-term contracts.
Equipment and Function
The equipment required on the commercial vehicle or truck is as simple as the driver’s smartphone or an electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) / electronic logging device (ELD). Such a device is usually mounted on the dashboard of the truck.
As an enrolled vehicle approaches a participating inspection or weigh station, the device communicates with the Drivewyze server via the cellular phone network and requests bypass approval. Information associated with the device is then validated against state-required safety and credentials requirements. (Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) technology may also be used at some locations to verify the truck’s configuration and ensure its axle and GVW fall within acceptable limits.)
Because the device communicates over the cellular phone network, no “reader” is required at the weigh station to identify the vehicle. If the vehicle’s credentials, safety, and weight data are all in order, a green indicator on the phone or EOBR advises the driver to bypass the facility. If the vehicle is required to pull in for inspection, a red indicator and audible alert advises the driver to stop for inspection, just as trucks without Drivewyze must do.
EOBR / ELD Partners
Drivewyze is currently available on smartphones and on various types of EOBR, including:
· Zonar
Drivewyze also provides inspection site notification as an additional service. This option
displays information about a nearby weigh station — even if the station does not participate in Drivewyze.
“The time savings we get from not stopping at the weigh stations gives us the ability to move up to an additional four loads of freight per month,” claims Karol Smith, Fleet Manager for Barole Trucking.
Drivewyze is currently available at over 660 facilities in 41 American states and one Canadian province. More sites will be added in 2017/2018 in other American states and Canadian provinces.
Alkane thanks Wikipedia and the Trucking News Staff, writing for Online Trucking News, for the content of this article.
Alkane Truck Company is currently raising capital on the crowdfunding platform StartEngine. Find out more here: https://www.startengine.com/startup/alkane
