Oregon has severed its relationship with Transcore, the company that administered its electronic weigh station preclearance system.

The move, which took effect at the close of business Friday, Feb. 18, signals Oregon’s determination to follow its own course in the developing marketplace for preclearance systems. It came less than a month after Oregon withdrew from Transcore’s Norpass preclearance system.
The Oregon Department of Transportation will take over administration of the state’s preclearance system, called Green Light. David McKane, program manager for safety investigations and federal programs, said the only change will be that ODOT will handle the task of entering electronic license plate information into the state’s data base.
“Motor carriers will not see any difference in what’s going on,” McKane said.
This makes Oregon the only state that owns and operates its own preclearance system. Other states that offer preclearance use either Norpass or PrePass, each of which is administered by its own public-private consortium.
Gene Bergoffen, executive vice president of Norpass, said Transcore and Norpass will continue business as usual. “We are going to figure out how we can work cooperatively with Oregon. It’s not going to deter us, and we’ll try to make sure it does not slow us down.”
Oregon’s move was triggered by a partial “interoperability” agreement between Norpass and PrePass that took effect Feb. 18. Under that agreement, Norpass carriers may use PrePass provided they meet PrePass safety criteria, have the right transponder and pay the fee.
What Oregon does not like is that Norpass users have to get permission from the organization that administers PrePass, HELP Inc., before they can use PrePass. Oregon says users be able to enroll their transponders in any system they want – without asking for permission.
The next stage of interoperability, in which PrePass carriers would get access to the Norpass system, still is under discussion.