The Texas Department of Public Safety announced it will be equipping five of its truck inspection facilities at three separate locations with PrePass commercial vehicle safety technology starting this summer.
PrePass is a technology that enables qualified commercial motor carriers equipped with transponders to be screened at designated weigh stations. Cleared vehicles can then bypass the inspection facility while traveling at highway speed.
Inspection facilities at Riviera on U.S. 77 and New Waverly on I-45 will come online in the summer. The Falfurrias inspection facilities on U.S. 281 will be deployed as a part of the facility re-construction scheduled for later this year.
Carrier participation is strictly voluntary and eligibility is subject to stringent safety qualifications. Trucking companies seeking more information about participating in the PrePass Program can visit www.PrePassTexas.com.
“Unsafe and overloaded commercial vehicles are a threat to highway safety,” said Steven C. McCraw, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “By screening commercial vehicles at highway speeds for compliance with Texas safety and credential requirements, we can help our troopers and inspectors focus on those commercial vehicles most in need of inspections.”
At the same time, commercial motor carriers with established safety records will be allowed to comply electronically.
“With this new technology, our State Troopers are able to make certain more trucks are complying with state law and those not safely permitted are taken off the road,” said John D. Esparza, president of Texas Motor Transportation Association. “Safety is the trucking industry’s top priority and we rely on the enforcement community to implement the laws of the state, keeping our highways safe. PrePass is great tool to help them do exactly that.”
Texas joins 29 other states with the deployment of PrePass electronic screening technology. More than 400,000 trucks have enrolled in the PrePass service nationwide. In addition, PrePass technology enables Texas to meet Federal Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) requirements for the electronic screening of commercial vehicles.
