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SOUND FAMILIAR?

An October 2007 news story by reporter Fred Hirers in Ocala, FL describes the problems faced by motor carrier enforcement personnel in Florida charged with enforcement of the state's truck weight laws. The story in its entirety was cited on the Truck Safety Coalition's Website. The Truck Safety Coalition is a partnership between the Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) Foundation and Parents Against Tired Truckers (P.A.T.T.). The Coalition is dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by truckrelated crashes, providing compassionate support to truck crash survivors and families of truck crash victims, and educating policy makers and media about truck safety issues.

Florida is not alone. Over the past year, ITRE has posted online much of the work that it has done in support of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Motor Carrier Enforcement Administration of the NC State Highway Patrol on the dangers of larger and heavier trucks on NC highways. As the North Carolina legislature begins its discussion of a 'statewide logistics plan' (and the obvious role of trucking in that plan) and as the Federal Government anticipates an unprecedented economic 'stimulus' plan to revitatalize the country's aging roads and bridges, it is imperative that we not lose sight of the role of enforcement in 'maintaining' that infrastructure investment.

In particular, attention needs to be given to:

• More precise specification of the relationship between overweight trucks and the measured degree of damage done to key infrastructure elements

• The identification of the infrastructure 'most vulnerable' to overweight trucks for the purpose of targeting size and weight enforcement efforts

• Enforcement's ability to develop and maintain strategically located weight facilities (i.e., permanent weigh stations)

• The tactical deployment of enforcement personnel with portable scales

• The development and deployment of new technologies (e.g., transponders, weigh-in-motion facilities, virtual weigh stations, and programs like CVISN) to increase efficiencies both for those who weigh the vehicles as well as for operators and carriers

• The need to accelerate the development of WIM scale technologies to permit a cost effective level of precision to support unmanned, electronic citations to be issued

• The need to re-evaluate current fine/penalty structures for their ability to serve as an effective deterrent

• The logic – or lack thereof – associated with allowing overweight trucks, once cited, to continue to operate in an overweight status, and

• The manner in which overweight fines and penalties are used by state government.

All things considered, it seems to be an opportune time, given the likelihood of a major investment in US transportation infrastructure and the need for effective oversight of that investment, that 'stimulus' funding for improvements not overlook the need for funds to ensure its maintenance – with size and weight enforcement being one component of that maintenance. If we can't maintain what we've already built, without a maintenance budget for new construction it will only be a matter of time before we find ourselves in the same situation as now. . . except on a more massive scale.

It is also an opportune time to give serious thought to 'what' this stimulus package will be used for; that is, to simply repair and build 'more of the same,' or to explore new system concepts that are responsive to the logistics needs of the industry for longer trailers able to carry more weight. Such new concepts will require in-depth, integrated thinking about new vehicle concepts that minimize the weight impact on the road as well as operational concepts that more effectively 'match' vehicle capabilities to roadway characteristics. The operational concept of the single 'super truck' (longer, heavier, wider) that functions as a single delivery mechanism irrespective of roadway characteristics has to be reconsidered