Wireless Inspection Program Highlights - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Develop alternative concepts to support commercial vehicle inspections
- Improve the accuracy and efficiency
- Allow for increase in total number of inspections completed
Leverage advanced on-board sensor systems and wireless communication technologies
Evaluate concepts relative to
- Safety impacts
- Estimated cost of implementation
- Institutional and policy issues

Current Inspection Activities

Photo showing an inspector at a truck cab's door.

3 million roadside safety inspections each year
- 45 minutes to an hour to complete
- 1,200 fixed facility inspections stations
- 1,000 portable/mobile units
73% Violation rate
- 23% Vehicle Out-Of-Service rate
- 7% Driver OOS rate

Need for Improved Inspection Process

Infrequent inspections
- Average less than one per year
- Many CMVs over 10,000 – 26,000 lbs rarely inspected due to operations
Current inspection program directed at interstate carriers using tractor-trailers
- 27% of all CMV fatal crashes involve straight trucks
- 40% of all CMV crashes occur on secondary roads
Inspection program challenged by both volatility and growth in the CMV sector
- 3.3% annual growth for number of CMVs and VMT
- 40,000 new entrants annually
- In last 20 years, 1 million new tractor-trailers on highways

Opportunities for Technology

Analysis of historical inspection data reveals that a large portion of significant "defects" are limited to a few items
With the exception of load-securement, most of the key vehicle and operator condition criteria lend themselves to on-board electronic monitoring and diagnostic assessment.

Driver Violations	% Driver OOS Violations
Logbook	40.0%
HOS	28.7%
CDL	19.4%
Total	88.1%

Vehicle Violations	% Vehicle OOS Violations
Brakes	41.2%
Lighting	16.6%
Tires	9.4%
Load Securement	15.7%
Total	82.9%

Identification of Items to be Inspected

Examination of CMV crash data also completed to help identify items that should be inspected
- Most crashes linked to driver error
- While "fatigue" is not directly cited as the "critical reason" for a crash, drivers were cited as being fatigued in a significant portion of CMV crashes
- Where a vehicle defect was the critical reason for the crash, brakes, tires and load securement issues were most often cited

Critical Reasons in One Truck-One Passenger Vehicle Crashes (FMCSA Large Truck Crash Causation Study)

Bar chart showing critical reasons in one-truck/one-passenger vehicle crashes. The 'Driver' of the truck represents 88% of the critical reasons; the 'Driver' of the passenger vehicle represents 93%. The categories of 'Vehicle' and the 'Environment' for truck and passenger vehicle represent the difference.

Request for Information Summary of Comments

RFI issued in September 2005: 27 respondents, including fleets, drivers, OEMS, safety advocacy groups, and the enforcement community

Type of Respondent	Number of Responses
Vehicle OEMs and Suppliers	9
Fleets/Motor Carriers	1
State Enforcement/Inspection Agency	2
Industry Associations/Advocacy Groups	7
Transportation Research Centers	2
Private Party/Individual	6
Total	27

RFI Responses

Communication Standards/Protocols
Data Concerns
- Security, integrity, privacy
Data Message Content & Structure
End-User Concerns
- Operator resistance, electronic falsification, O&M
Inspection Frequency Level to Change Behavior
Implementation Strategies to Equip Every CMV

Technology Assessment

Most Viable Option for Wireless Inspection Concepts
Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) at 5.9 GHz
5.9 GHz DSRC has significant advantages:
- Designed for vehicle-to-infrastructure communications and has high data rates up to 27 Mbps
- Can support many other safety and "convenience" applications

Concepts of Operation Evaluation

Deployment-based
- Fixed, mobile, virtual, remote, kiosk, etc.
Data Message Set-based
- Basic
  - Driver – License number and log book information
  - Vehicle – Fault codes
- Enhanced
  - Driver – Fatigue warning, lane tracking, and collision-avoidance systems
  - Vehicle – Brake sensors, tire pressure monitoring

Recommended Wireless Inspection Solution

Driver and Vehicle Basic
- Driver Basic
  - Driver identification, CDL status, and log info
- Vehicle Basic
  - Fault codes

Wireless Inspection Concept Deployment Plan

State and Federal Government
- 1,200 fixed facility inspection sites
- 1,000 virtual inspection stations
- 500 mobile inspection vehicles
- IT infrastructure (roadside to back office systems)
Motor Carrier Industry
- All CMVs equipped with DSRC and on-board computers

Estimated Costs

Public sector annual costs of $45M – $76M
Private sector annual costs of $224M – $395M
- $533 - $940/vehicle
- 420,000 new vehicles equipped per year

Benefits Assumptions

Dramatic Paradigm Shift
- Electronic safety checks will be frequent and expected
- Number of unsafe CMV drivers and vehicles on road would be reduced
- Crashes related to unsafe CMV drivers and vehicle defects would be reduced
Size & weight program comparison

	CMV Size & Weight Program	CMV Safety Inspection Program
Number of Inspections	82M	3M
Violation Rate	0.63%	73%

Benefit-Cost Analysis

ANNUAL BENEFITS
Annual Lives Saved	253
Annual Injuries Prevented	6,192
Total Annual Benefits ($)	$1.7B
ANNUALIZED COSTS
Government-Facility, Equipment, IT, Communications Capital Costs (Amortized over 10 years)	$22M – $34M
Government—Facility, Equipment, IT, Communications O&M Costs	$23M – 42M
Industry—Annual Incremental CMV Costs (Based on 420,000 units/yr) ($533 - $940/CMV)	$224M – $395M
Total Annualized Cost	$269M – $471M
BENEFIT/COST RATIO
High – Low	6.17:1 – 3.51:1
Average	4.84 : 1

Next Steps

Conduct proof of concept field tests
Develop data interchange and message set standards
Partner with states and motor carrier industry to resolve institutional issues
Coordinate with ongoing testing and deployment programs (e.g., CVISN grants, I-95 Corridor Coalition efforts, Vehicle Infrastructure Integration program)
Investigate broader DSRC applications for trucks and buses