Automated vehicle monitoring and audit system for administering partnership haul agreements

Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation has been a leader in road and short-rail transportation initiatives that facilitate efficient c ommercial transportation to remote northern and rural areas. A recent initi ative undertaken by Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation is a public-private partnership with commercial carriers to allow larger tr uck configurations to haul primary weights on select secondary rural roads if the carrier deploys road friendly vehicle technologies, such as air-spri ng suspension and central tire inflation. The pilot partnership haul progra m has resulted in haul cost savings of between 20% and 50%, generating appr oximately four million dollars per year in total, which is subsequently sha red between the carrier and Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transpo rtation. At the present time, equitable distribution of partnership haul co st savings and compliance audits are determined manually based on submitted logbooks and waybills. Because this manual system is labor intensive and p rone to accounting errors, the administration of the partnership haul progr am is only tenable for larger carriers with semi-automated administration s ystems. As a result, a system that automatically allocates partnership haul cost savings and performs compliance audits is the enabling technology to expand the partnership program to small and mid-size carriers. Internationa l Road Dynamics Inc. proposed and developed an automated vehicle monitoring and audit system that is designed to facilitate the Saskatchewan partnersh ip program. This paper discusses the Saskatchewan partnership program and d escribes the technological features and advantages of the automated vehicle monitoring and audit system. This paper also discusses other potential app lications of the automated vehicle monitoring and audit system.