Truck Driving Schools

Global Driving

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Three thousand trucks in Maryland are getting new electronic toll tags attached to their windshields in a pilot test of a plan to help police decide which tractor-trailers to pull over for inspection. Trucks normally get stopped at weigh stations randomly, and police check its weight, safety equipment, and the driver's logbook. But the new, voluntary, fusion tags go beyond paying tolls electronically, as they send information ahead to the nearby inspection station. Police can see the truck's ID number and its corporate owner's name, and quickly check it against a database to decide whether to make the driver pull in to the station. A green signal means keep on trucking, but red means a stop is required. The theory is that good trucking companies are spared needless stops, and police operate more efficiently. However, according to the article in Technology Review , Mike Russell of the American Trucking Associations says it smacks of Big Brother, and is an attempt "to use electronically collected information as an enforcement tool, and we have some serious concerns with that."

Related Links:

• Drivers.com's section on Technology Communications
• Current ITS use in Canadian trucking
• Black boxes in cars--Drivers.com article

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