Drivewyze Inc. announced that Kansas has become the 17th state to adopt the Drivewyze Pre-Clear bypass service, which uses tablets, smartphones and select electronic on-board recorders to provide commercial vehicles with inspection site bypass opportunities.
“With Drivewyze PreClear now available at all eight weigh station locations in Kansas, truck freight can be moved through the interior of the United States with fewer delays,” said Brian Heath, president of Drivewyze Inc.
By adding the Drivewyze mobile-based inspection site bypass service, the state of Kansas can offer truck fleets and operators more opportunities to bypass its weigh stations if their safety and credentials records meet the state’s pre-arranged criteria.
“Drivewyze is reward-based because an FMCSA study demonstrated that avoiding one weigh station stop made for even 5 minutes can save a carrier $8.68 in fuel and time,” Heath said.
“We are excited about adding any technology that helps us improve highway safety,” said Capt. Chris Turner, commander of the Kansas Highway Patrol’s Commercial Motor Carriers Safety Assistance Program and the Kansas accident reconstruction team. “Because Kansas lies at the center of the country, we have a large of amount of truck freight that passes through Kansas as it travels our major interstates and highways.”
The state of Kansas has 9,503 center lane miles of highway and 236 center lane miles on the Kansas Turnpike, a toll road operated by the Kansas Turnpike Authority. According to the 2009 Kansas City Regional Freight Outlook report issued by KC SmartPort Inc. and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), an estimated 291 million tons of truck and rail freight was handled within the 18-county Kansas City area alone. By 2027, KC SmartPort Inc. and the MARC estimates regional rail and truck freight will increase from 246 million tons in 2007 to 349 million tons in 2027, a 20-year compound annual growth rate of 1.8 percent.
“Drivewyze offers a win-win because it does all the hard work of identifying the trucks and carriers passing by the weigh station and alerting us which ones operate safely and which ones require more scrutiny,” Turner said. “It’s all automated with the exception of trucks chosen at random for inspection regardless of their safety record. Any technology that can help reduce the strain on our weigh stations of increasing truck freight traffic and reduce the resulting congestion by helping us properly vet the trucks and carriers is a huge benefit to us and to the safety of the motoring public.”
Drivewyze leverages cellular networks and the internet to add transponder-like functionality to tablets, smartphones and select electronic on-board recorders like those offered by PeopleNet, Zonar and XRS. Unlike traditional methods that use dedicated short-range communication transponders in every truck, Drivewyze doesn’t require the installation of additional equipment. And law enforcement agencies like the Kansas Highway Patrol don’t have to deploy expensive roadside equipment to read the transponders.
“Because we don’t have to install any infrastructure to offer this benefit to motor carriers, the price the Drivewyze mobile-based bypass is certainly right for us,” Turner added.
The Drivewyze PreClear bypass service notifies the driver of an upcoming inspection site 2 miles out. With the Drivewyze PreClear subscription, drivers receive permission 1 mile out to either bypass or pull into the inspection site if the state enforcement agency has an agreement with Drivewyze to grant bypasses to fleets that meet the agency’s standards.
Whether fleets meet the standards is based on the carrier’s safety records and other standard information checks. The bypass decision is solely controlled by the participating law enforcement agency, which establishes its own criteria based on several factors including safety scores, registration and IFTA tax compliance. It is both safe and easy to use, with assured privacy and data protection, meeting both Federal and state distracted driving laws.
Provided their registration and taxes are in order, along with a strong safety score, most fleets and operators can expect to receive bypasses about 75 percent of the time, Heath said. Those with the strongest safety records, hard-earned ISS scores can earn bypasses up to 98 percent of the time. Even those who are working to improve their fair ISS scores can expect bypasses 50 percent to 75 percent of the time, provided their taxes and registration are in order, he added.
Drivewyze PreClear is available for Android, iOS and Blackberry. The app is free in app stores and there’s a 60-day free trial subscription available now. The regular subscription fee is $15.75 per truck per month. There is no annual commitment and users can cancel at any time, the company says.
