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A 30-second bumper-to-bumper commercial vehicle inspection isn't supposed to be the norm, but at Mesilla Valley Transportation's El Paso terminal, it is happening around the clock hundreds of times every day.
If you've ever returned a rental car, you might have driven through a lighted halo just prior to drop-off. That is an automated vehicle inspection checking the car for damage, leaks and missing or swapped-out components before the rental agent ever sets eyes on it.
Las Cruces, New Mexico-based MVT (CCJ Top 250, No. 59) is the first commercial trucking company to use the automated vehicle inspection system engineered by vehicle data integration company UVeye, which calls the technology an "MRI for cars."
UVeye's technology captures thousands of high-resolution images to identify tire wear, underbody anomalies, mechanical flaws, fluid leaks, and structural damage. The system also complies with Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) guidelines, automating the required 17-point inspection process for cross-border freight.
The automated system, deployed in MVT's middle-mile operations, uses computer vision to perform a 360-degree scan of Class 6 through Class 8 trucks in just seconds as they enter the yard at up to 5 mph.
The technology captures thousands of high-resolution images to identify tire wear, underbody anomalies, mechanical flaws, fluid leaks, and structural damage. The system also complies with Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) guidelines, automating the required 17-point inspection process for cross-border freight.
MVT President Royal Jones said the terminal handles upwards of 200 vehicles a day, including cross-border trailers coming from Mexico. Before implementing the drive-through system, the fleet relied entirely on manual inspections inside service pits, where workers crawled under and around the trucks.
"It’s open 24/7. You're dealing with humans, and the most perfect person is not going to get everything right every time," Jones said. "The computer has no friends, doesn't get tired, doesn't need a day off, and doesn't need a cup of coffee."
The AI system, Jones noted, not only gets it right every time, it gets it exactly right every time, adding that the automated scans provide immediate documentation of exterior damage and possible instances of equipment tampering.
"What if your cross-border carrier left with my trailer with brand new Michelins on it and brought it back with a brand used Michelins on it? This thing sees the serial numbers," Jones said, noting UVeye's system creates a digital paper trail between yard visits.
Moving forward, MVT is working with UVeye to refine specific fleet use cases, such as tracking rolling tire circumference to ensure dual-mounted tires match perfectly to eliminate fuel-wasting drag—a particular bane of Jones', whose known widely as the King of Fuel Mileage.
"I've always been big on matching the tires. I want to see the roll out. I want to get the true roll out when the tire rolls forward," Jones said. "If the outside tire was 200 and a half inches around and the other one is 200 even, that's a half inch difference, and they're bolted together.
"So every time it makes a full circle, the 200 and a half inch goes half an inch farther than the 200 inch, thus creating drag," Jones said. "And then that wears the tires out, because every time they come around and now you got one, two, three, four... positions of two things bolted together that aren't matching and it creates drag horribly."
Yaron Saghiv, Chief Marketing Officer at UVeye, said the company's technology evolved from homeland security applications designed to look for bombs and contraband hidden beneath vehicles, which explains the high-resolution, military-grade quality of the scans.
UVeye’s technology is currently used by automotive and logistics brands, including Amazon, General Motors, and Hertz. The company has more than 1,000 systems deployed globally across dealerships, fleet hubs, and rental locations, scanning more than 3 million vehicles monthly.
MVT isn't the only motor carrier benefitting from the technology. Jones noted that roughly half the trailers that come into the company's yard every day are coming from Mexico with a Mexican carrier, "and we're actually inspecting their truck, too," he said. "We're not really thinking about it or looking at it, but that's something we probably tell them down the road, 'Hey, by the way, you need this, you need that... just to help them be safer."
Not a human replacement
MVT emphasized that the automated system is aimed at optimization rather than staff reduction. Hector Sanchez, MVT's director of marketing and communications, added that the company is actively addressing driver concerns regarding automation.
"We want to make sure that we're not trying to replace any employees," Sanchez said. "This is a tool that is going to help them be more efficient. We just want to make [drivers] be able to go through the terminal in and out fast so they can run more miles. That’s the benefit for the drivers and the technicians."
Jones added that employees previously responsible for manual walkarounds could be repurposed to handle actual repairs flagged by the scanner.
"It's not going to take away any jobs," Jones said. "It's going to give the guys that were doing that more time now to go find something that we already know is broken, fix it, and get the truck out of the shop that much faster."
MVT plans to continue refining the system at its El Paso hub before eventually expanding the scanning lanes to other high-traffic terminals.
