Tuscaloosa and Montgomery, AL DPS Field-testing eWeight, Aiding Efficiency of Weight Crews

Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager

Messerschmidt Safety Consultants

Placing limits on how heavy a load a trucker can legally carry is a frequently debated issue. Facing pressure to move larger loads, some trucking operations view fines for weight limit violations as part of the price of doing business, and they haul heavier loads than they are permitted to.

Illegal overloads create serious problems for truck stopping distances, overall highway safety and the integrity of road pavements, and they also maximize demands on truck weight enforcement units. Without enforcement, law-abiding trucking companies face a competitive disadvantage when they comply with the law and others don't.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Safety (DPS), Motor Carrier Safety Unit weight crews in Tuscaloosa and Montgomery are currently field-testing eWeight, an electronic/paperless system for filing weight reports. EWeight will improve the efficiency of the DPS Motor Carrier Safety Unit by eliminating the many hours needed to manually input data from the 4000-6000 paper forms processed each month. In addition, the electronic system will help truckers by decreasing the amount of time spent at weigh stations and giving them more on-duty hours available to move freight.

EWeight automatically calculates axle weight, and the statistical information it generates will improve the efficiency of weight crews. The eWeight system follows other electronic systems such as eCite and eCrash, which were developed for the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC)’s Alabama Dashboards for Visualization, Analysis and Coordinated Enforcement (ADVANCE) program, by The University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS). Learn more about ADVANCE. Read an article about the Alabama initiative in the May 5, 2011 edition of The Blue Light.

Roadcheck 2010 Begins Tomorrow

For 72 continuous hours, June 8-10, law enforcement officers and inspectors will be conducting comprehensive safety inspections of trucks and enforcing safety belt use. Roadcheck is sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CSVA). In 2009, Roadcheck performed 72,782 truck and bus inspections, and it can be said that this resulted in saving 17 lives and preventing 307 injuries.

The focus of Roadcheck 2010 will be a North American Standard (NAS) Level I Inspection, which includes an examination of the following:

· Driver’s license
· Medical examiner's certificate and waiver
· Alcohol and drugs (if applicable)
· Driver’s record of duty status (as required)
· Hours of service
· Seat belt
· Vehicle inspection report
· Brake system
· Coupling devices
· Exhaust system
· Frame & fuel system
· Turn signals
· Brake, tail and head lamps
· Lamps on projecting loads
· Safe loading
· Steering mechanism
· Suspension
· Tires, wheels and rims
· Van and open-top trailer bodies
· Windshield wipers
· Emergency exits on buses and HM requirements as applicable

"Roadcheck is successful because of the dedication and hard work of the thousands of roadside inspectors all across North America, as well as the strength of our partnerships and of the combined commitment to ensure trucks and buses are sharing the road safely with others," said Stephen A. Keppler, CVSA's interim executive director.

Visit the CVSA website.
Learn more about Roadcheck 2010.

Results from CVSA's Roadcheck 2009

On June 2-4, 2009, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) conducted Roadcheck 2009. According to the CVSA, the yearly Roadcheck program "is the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial vehicles in the world, with approximately 14 trucks or buses being inspected, on average, every minute..." Click here to read CVSA's description of the Roadcheck program.

According to the National Safety Council, this year's program inspected 72,782 trucks in three days! CVSA reports that 57,013 of these inspections were NAS Level 1 Inspections. (Level 1 inspections are the most thorough or detailed of the North American Standard Inspections).

The results of these inspections are something that the trucking industry can really be proud of:

• 95.7% of drivers were in compliance with regulations (the highest score ever).
• 77.8% of vehicles were in compliance with the regulations (a 20.4% increase from 2008).
• The number of NAS Level 1 Inspections that were conducted increased by 8.9%

You can read the CVSA's press release on Roadcheck 2009 here.

In the June 2009 MSC Newsletter, we asked readers why they felt trucking fatalities had reached their lowest levels in history. The majority (62%) felt that the reduction was mostly due to fewer miles driven in a slow economy. Maybe we were wrong?

Regardless, CONGRATULATIONS are due to the North American trucking industry, and THANKS to the men and women in Law Enforcement who made the Roadcheck happen!