• Interactive Maps

    COVER Lab currently publishes interactive maps that help assist the State Highway Patrol MCE make informed planning and operation decisions.
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  • Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT)

    TACT is a safety program that is focused on 'aggressive' driver behaviors that take place in the 'shared use' car/truck operating environment
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  • Road Vulnerability Index (RVI)

    The RVI provides a useful tool for the visual analysis and integration of roadway maintenance and operations concerns across various departments of the North Carolina Department of Transportation
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What is COVER Lab?

Located on NC State University's Centennial Campus, COVER Lab is the Institute for Transportation Research and Education's (ITRE) flagship resource for CMV safety and road infrastructure preservation.

Our staff provides data analysis, geographic information, and program evaluation support to the Motor Carrier Enforcement (MCE) section of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP).

Read more about who we are and what we do.

What is A Commercial Motor Vehicle?

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) is one with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or gross combination vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 lbs that is used to transport goods in interstate commerce.

Commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce are subject to roadside driver and/or vehicle inspections. Due to their weight and potential for damage to the infrastructure CMVs are also subject to be weighed by enforcement personnel either on static scales (generally fixed/permanent weigh stations) or on mobile scales.

MCE Maps and Tools

With all due fairness to the supporters of Higher Productivity Vehicles (HPVs) and highway safety advocates

The Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) at North Carolina State University (NCSU), while obviously an advocate for highway safety, has a responsibility to promote a data-driven debate on critical issues.  Truck size and weight is such an issue. 

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NCTAIs ‘Transformational Change’ Possible in How Freight is Moved Via the Surface Transportation System in the US?

ITRE, in a posting to the COVERLAB portion of its website,  argued that rather than to pursue an incremental approach to allowing longer and heavier commercial motor vehicle (trucks), perhaps what is needed is a ‘transformational’ change to our very concept of operations governing  the surface transportation of freight by commercial motor vehicles.

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NCTAITRE and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) Conduct Study of the Attributes of Carriers Involved in Fatal Combination Unit Truck (CUT) Crashes in Virginia and North Carolina, 2005-2009

A recent study by researchers at NC State University’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) has shown fatal crashes involving combination unit trucks (CUT) in NC for 2005-2009 were more frequent on non-Interstate roadways than on Interstate roadways. Read More...