Technology Briefs - Jan. 17 - Jan. 23

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The Latest Headlines:

• ATRI Issues RFP for Idle-Reduction Technologies
• GeoLogic Adds 15 Customers at Year's End
• New Hampshire Testing 'Smart Highways'

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ATRI Issues RFP for Idle-Reduction Technologies

The American Transportation Research Institute Thursday said it was seeking project teams to demonstrate and evaluate mobile idle-reduction technologies on heavy-duty trucks.

The technologies would either be installed as part of the manufacturing process or prior to a truck being placed in service, ATRI said.

Project teams must consist of a trucking fleet, a truck manufacturer and an idle reduction technology vendor.

For a copy of the request for proposals, visit ATRI’s Web site, www.ATRI-online.org. Transport Topics

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GeoLogic Adds 15 Customers at Year's End

Fleet technology and tracking provider GeoLogic Solutions said it signed 15 new customers to purchase its MobileMax wireless asset management system at the end of last year.

The contracts represented a range of companies including private and for-hire carriers, the company said in a statement. MobileMax uses both terrestrial- and satellite-based networks.

“With the addition of Cingular's . . . high-speed data network to our communications offering, we are looking at 2006 to be a record-breaking year for us,” said John Lewis, GeoLogic’s chief executive officer. Transport Topics

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New Hampshire Testing 'Smart Highways'

Starting this month, hockey-puck-sized disks embedded in roads throughout New Hampshire will record information about road temperature and moisture levels, the Associated Press reported.

The disks are part of a “Road Weather Information System,” and will be located both at the road surface and 17 inches below the surface, while transmitting road conditions and temperature data to a computer mounted on a 30-foot tower nearby, AP reported.

If the road gets slippery, the disk will send an alert to a computer, notifying road-crew chiefs, who can send workers out to treat the road with sand or salt, AP said. The information also will be available online for drivers, who can use it to plan trips around bad weather.

Three times an hour, those computers will transmit the data to a central computer at the state’s Department of Transportation. Instruments on the tower also measure and transmit data on humidity, wind speed and precipitation, AP reported. Transport Topics

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