The goal of successful enforcement programs is to not catch offenders. Despite public perception, and among the mainstream media, revenue-raising is not the primary aim of enforcement. The aim is compliance — and improved road safety.
Case studies demonstrate how the introduction of commercial vehicle enforcement tech, or compliance tech, has had a positive influence on operator and fleet safety standards. Over time,the number of citations has decreased significantly. Drivers and fleet owners/operators come to understand that not complying is simply not worth it.
Not all failures to meet regulations are due to criminality or willful dismissal of what should be done. Often, it is the result of lax behavior which needs to be rectified—to ensure that a vehicle is safe to use is not time wasted, or one could think of it as time better spent doing more important things.
THE TECH:
Improved compliance. Thanks to tech.
Virtual Weigh-In-Motion (VWIM) stations can improve compliance across a wider geographic area, as well as flag an wide variety of infringements and safety hazards. They can dramatically increase the distances at which pre-screening can be successfully and consistently carried out, extending the efficiencies and capabilities of enforcement officials, whose numbers and availability can often be limited.
VWIM can also be used to solve a long-standing problem associated with weight enforcement—avoidance of inspection by choosing alternatives to primary and preferred routes.
The result is weight-compliant vehicles constrained to those routes and road structures designed to carry them, and far less damage to secondary and tertiary roads by large, illegally operating vehicles.
THE RESULT:
Virtual weigh stations. No need for inspection stops.
Quarterhill’s Virtual Weigh Station combine VWIM with other technologies to deliver even more vehicle safety information to enforcement personnel without requiring stops for inspection.
For instance, over-dimension vehicles are a major safety concern for many agencies. They can damage bridges, cause accidents and disrupt traffic flow. Over-height, over-width, and over-length detection using vehicle dimensioning technology is an effective way to reduce bridge strikes by those vehicles.
A virtual weigh station that incorporates vehicle dimensioning improves road safety and helps prevent costly damage to bridges, vehicles, and their drivers. Enforcement agencies can monitor for vehicles that pose a risk so those vehicles can be stopped before they do any damage.