Dive Brief:
- Pennsylvania is preparing policy, procedures and standards for its new “weigh station” preclearance program, State Police told Transport Dive on Wednesday.
- The new policy will allow third parties to equip the state with technology and infrastructure to operate electronic screening. The system can also use GPS technology that requires “no infrastructure or transponder hardware,” according to a bill memo.
- The law goes into effect in January 2023 and requires State Police to set the participant criteria, such as a company’s safety history. Police spokesperson Myles Snyder said in an email that the effort is ongoing and should be ready by then.
Dive Insight:
Following legislation signed by Gov. Tom Wolf last month, Pennsylvania is joining most other states in upgrading electronic bypass systems for safety inspections, saving time for drivers and potentially unlocking further profits for companies.
Drivers can face downtime pulling into weigh stations, and safety issues can increase due to congestion. But trucks can save as much as 30 minutes of drive time when using electronic transfer for HOS data and credentials for CSA inspections, Transport Dive previously reported.
Two tech companies, Drivewyze and PrePass, have an interest in providing solutions for trucking companies operating in and through Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association President and CEO Rebecca Oyler told Transport Dive in a phone interview.
In 2019, Drivewyze debuted a pilot in Pennsylvania. Last year, company representatives also advocated its service at an informational meeting before a transportation committee.
Pennsylvania State Police noted they’ve used electronic screening to weigh commercial vehicles for more than 20 years. “When electronic screening indicates a potential problem, those commercial vehicles are stopped for an official weighing,” Snyder said.
But at the informational meeting last year, Drivewyze trainer Rick Koontz said that Pennsylvania’s existing law enforcement system involves randomly stopping trucks. According to Koontz, the company's technology allows police to target vehicles based on safety scores.
The Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association and large North America carriers supported the change, according to the bill memo.
“Nearly all the other states [use] this technology,” Pennsylvania Rep. Mindy Fee, the lead sponsor of the bill, said at the informational meeting. “The truckers were onboard, and it seems to be working in all the other states.”
