In Pursuit of the Elusive Transponder Standard

The debate over on-highway electronic clearance of commercial trucks has broken down into two major turf wars: One battlefield pits the private vs. the public sector, and the other arena is technology.

Roadside electronic clearance program deployments. Source: ITS America

With no immediate truce in sight, the conflicts do not bode well for those interested in developing universal transponders and other equipment that will hasten the day of a truly national intelligent transportation system.

The electronic clearance blanket covers much ground, such as automatic vehicle identification, weigh-in-motion checkpoints, electronic tolls and border inspections. The battle in the Pacific Northwest revolves around the future of electronic clearance services and the sort of bureaucracies and business practices that could become a national model.

It's old news that HELP Inc., spawned by the early state experiments in sharing electronic information about trucking operations, and the Oregon Department of Transportation are at odds over trucker fees and state use of the data collected by the process. Oregon was one of the original states involved in automatic vehicle identification and a charter member of HELP Inc. (short for Heavy vehicle Electronic License Plate). HELP Inc., directed by an industry-government board, oversees PrePass, currently the largest port-of-entry clearance system in terms of state and customer participation.

HELP Inc. has a business partner in Lockheed Martin IMS, headed by Norman Mineta, the former congressman who once chaired the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. Lockheed Martin IMS operates PrePass as a profit center.

Oregon DOT declined to adopt the PrePass product -- whether it was because of the fees or the limitations on data use is another matter of dispute. Charting its own course, Oregon DOT developed its Multi-jurisdictional Automated Pre-clearance System, or MAPS, and severed ties with HELP Inc.

MAPS has found fertile ground in the Pacific Northwest and is now being held up as a rival to PrePass. And the Oregon derivative is expanding into new territory. MAPS recently joined with Advantage CVO in the eastern United States to create a formidable force in NORPASS -- North American Pre-clearance Automated Safety System.

In addition to Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Washington are MAPS states, while Advantage CVO provides on-highway clearance to truckers traveling the Interstate 75 corridor from Florida to Canada. The merger marks the latest change for Advantage CVO, which was earlier known as Advantage I-75.

NORPASS combines these resources and creates a client base of about 15,000 trucking customers.

For truck operators who dream of running under a "seamless" system from state to state, the gulf that separates these systems is very real barrier.

For the full story, see the June 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.