The U.S. Department of Transportation is testing high-tech ways to protect hazardous materials loads from being hijacked by terrorists.

The test will assess which combination of technology and procedures is the safest and most cost-effective for protecting different types of hazardous cargo from being hijacked by terrorists.
The two-year effort will include 100 trucks equipped with a variety of existing technologies. The project will test capabilities such as biometric driver verification, off-route vehicle alerts, stolen vehicle alerts, cargo tampering alerts and remote vehicle disabling.
Private and public sector participation has in effect doubled the buying power of the $2.5 million being provided by the federal government. The DOT has awarded the contract for this project to the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio. The Battelle team includes the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the American Transportation Research Institute (formerly the ATA Foundation), Qualcomm, Total Security Services International, and several motor carrier companies and technology component vendors.