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 commercial transportation to remote northern and rural areas. A recent initiative undertaken by Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation is a public-private partnership with commercial carriers to allow larger truck configurations to haul primary weights on select secondary rural roads if the carrier deploys road friendly vehicle technologies, such as air-spring suspension and central tire inflation. The pilot partnership haul program has resulted in haul cost savings of between 20% and 50%, generating approximately four million dollars per year in total, which is subsequently shared between the carrier and Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation. At the present time, equitable distribution of partnership haul cost savings and compliance audits are determined manually based on submitted logbooks and waybills. Because this manual system is labor intensive and prone to accounting errors, the administration of the partnership haul program is only tenable for larger carriers with semi-automated administration systems. 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. International Road Dynamics Inc. proposed and developed an automated vehicle monitoring and audit system that is designed to facilitate the Saskatchewan partnership program. This paper discusses the Saskatchewan partnership program and describes the technological features and advantages of the automated vehicle monitoring and audit system. This paper also discusses other potential applications of the automated vehicle monitoring and audit system.Key words: commercial vehicle operations, automated vehicle monitoring system, central tire inflation, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, transportation sustainability, road preservation, intelligent transportation systems, rural road management.