Maryland and federal transportation agencies launched a six-month pilot program that uses transponders in commercial trucks to electronically screen trucks at weigh stations as well as pay tolls electronically.

The Maryland Department of Transportation, Maryland Transportation Authority and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration unveiled the E-Screening Pilot Program during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway complex on Interstate 95 in Perryville, Md. If successful, the $1.2 million project could lead to additional electronic screening sites at a dozen commercial vehicle weigh and inspection stations in Maryland.
The system uses a pocket-size transponder attached to a truck's windshield and sensors embedded in and alongside the road to automatically check a moving vehicle's weight, height, safety history and tax and registration status. The sensors detect height and weight; the transponder identifies the truck and allows the system to quickly check the carrier's safety and credentialing information in state and federal databases. Cleared vehicles are signaled to bypass the weigh station without stopping, while those flagged "at risk" are directed into the station for closer inspection.
Joe Foster with the Maryland Department of Transportation explains that while on the surface the system might sound similar to the widely used PrePass system, there are some big differences.
For one thing, the same transponders can be used in the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system, recently opened up to commercial vehicle use in Maryland.
Secondly, this system completely conforms to the U.S. Department of Transportation's architecture for CVISN, a collection of systems known as the Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks. CVISN is a national program to develop a "paperless" system where information can be passed from moving vehicles to roadside checkpoints, and between government agencies and commercial operations, using existing or recently developed technologies. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century calls for deployment of CVISN in a majority of states by September 30, 2003.
The Maryland E-Screening program does real-time screening, not preclearances like the PrePass system, Foster says.
"It evaluates each vehicle that's passing based on current information. It's not something that's granted in advance, it's something that happens when the truck passes. It includes both mainline weighing and height detection, as well as the review of the credentials to see that they're valid and the carrier's safety rating. So for example if a vehicle were placed out of service in Connecticut for a safety violation, that information gets uploaded to SAFER and we would pull that truck in."
The pilot program is limited to 50 trucks, pulled from carriers who volunteered to be a part of the test. Foster says if the pilot program is a success, the state will probably start electronic screening at about a dozen of the state's 17 potential sites. In addition, they plan to work with the New York State Thruway, which has more than 200,000 commercial vehicles using electronic tolls and is looking into electronic screening as well.
The system was designed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The E-Screening project is part of a five-year, $40 million contract the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration awarded to APL in 1999, through which the lab supports FHWA, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and other DOT agency initiatives to develop Intelligent Transportation Systems.