The U.S. Department of Transportation is funding a test of technologies and procedures for safeguarding hazardous materials transported by truck. Private and public sector participants have contributed resources to the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) operational test, basically doubling the $2.5 million provided by the federal government.
The purpose of the test is to assess the effectiveness, costs and benefits of different technologies and procedures. It will independently assess which combination of technology and procedures is the safest and most cost-effective for protecting different types of hazardous cargo from being hijacked by terrorists.
The two-year effort, which will include 100 trucks equipped with a variety of existing technologies, will test capabilities such as biometric driver verification, off-route vehicle alerts, stolen vehicle alerts, cargo tampering alerts and remote vehicle disabling.
DOT awarded the contract for the project to the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio. The Battelle team includes the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the American Transportation Research Institute (formerly the ATA Foundation), Qualcomm., Total Security Services International and several motor carrier companies and technology component vendors.
