Alberta Celebrates Highway 63 Vehicle Inspection Station with Driver Appreciation Day

New $11-Million Station Features Advanced Thermal Imaging; Drivewyze Weigh Station Bypass

ATMORE, Alberta, July 26, 2018 – The Alberta Justice and Solicitor General Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Branch (CVEB) and the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) held a driver appreciation day on July 18, 2018, at the commercial vehicle inspection station on Alberta Highway 63, about 6 kilometers north of Atmore. The new $11-million station has been in operation for just over 6 months. 

On hand for the celebration – and handing out tokens of appreciation to commercial drivers – were representatives from the Alberta Partners in Compliance program, the AMTA, Intelligent Imaging Systems (IIS), and IIS’ sister company, Drivewyze. IIS supplied advanced vehicle screening technology for the inspection station, while Drivewyze provides PIC certified fleets and owner-operators with weigh station bypass service. 

According to Jacquie Daumont, acting chief of the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Branch (CVEB), the technologies from IIS and Drivewyze allow enforcement officers to screen commercial vehicles and conduct inspections with greater efficiency. “This is one of Alberta’s busiest highways – the technology we’re using makes a difference in creating safer roads for this region,” she said. 

The Atmore station is equipped with the Intelligent Imaging System Smart Roadside electronic screening platform, overhead cameras, license plate and decal readers, and advanced thermal imaging system. These systems automate some of the work and procedures for enforcement officers, so they can deal with high volume of commercial vehicles CVEB expects to pass through the new Atmore station in its first year of operation. 

“The Atmore station reflects a lot of forethought by Alberta officials into its design, location and use of advanced technology,” said Brian Heath, president and CEO of Intelligent Imaging Systems and, Drivewyze. “Alberta became the first province in Canada to adopt our advanced thermal imaging system to automatically identify high-risk and problematic commercial vehicles from the roadside without disrupting the flow of traffic. It’s also the first province to use our smart transponder-based weigh station bypass service.” 

In 2017, CVEB began offering Alberta fleets involved in the Alberta Partners in Compliance (PIC) program weigh station bypasses through the Drivewyze PreClear weigh station bypass application. The Alberta PIC Drivewyze Bypass program, operated by the AMTA under a partnership agreement with Alberta Justice and Solicitor General CVEB and Alberta Transportation, was recently recognized by the Intelligence Transportation Systems Society of Canada (ITS Canada) with a national award for its use of smart transponder technology at 56 locations in Alberta. 

In the month of May alone, nearly 56,000 participating PIC member commercial vehicles received weigh station bypasses from Drivewyze in Alberta. Drivewyze returned 1,134 hours of driving time to drivers and saved participating fleets more than $126,000 in avoided fuel and operational costs. 

Daumont said Drivewyze not only benefits safe fleets, but also her agency’s enforcement officers. They can screen approaching vehicles, identify safety-conscious fleets participating in the PIC program, and zero in their enforcement efforts on those carriers whose safety records warrant them. 

“Then, Intelligent Imaging System’s advanced thermal imaging system, license plate and decal readers and Smart Roadside screening platform greatly enhance our officers’ ability to identify and remove unsafe vehicles from a highway on which more than 1 1⁄2 million vehicles travel each year,” she said. 

The opening of the Atmore Vehicle Inspection Station goes a long way towards fulfilling the Alberta Government’s commitment to making Highway 63 safer for the motoring public while traveling to and from Fort McMurray, said Heath. 

“A decade ago, the Government of Alberta set out to transform the essential transportation corridor connecting Fort McMurray with the rest of Alberta, and making it a much safer highway,” Heath said. “The opening of the Atmore Vehicle Inspection Station is an important step towards that goal.” 

The Atmore Vehicle Inspection Station is part of the province’s overall plan for improving the 443-kilometer stretch of highway from Radway to Fort McKay. Two years ago, the province completed a multi-year $1.2 billion project that converted 240 kilometers of Highway 63 from a two-lane road to divided four-lane highway. One of the project’s goals was to significantly reduce the number of fatalities that occurred in the last decade. Highway 63 connects Alberta’s oil sands region with major trade routes to the south. As the only all-weather highway out of Fort McMurray and the Athabasca oil sands area, it carries a considerable amount of commercial vehicle traffic. 

About Intelligent Imaging Systems

Intelligent Imaging Systems Inc., the parent company of Drivewyze, is a supplier and integrator of some of the industry’s most advanced imaging systems available, providing transportation and law enforcement agencies with the tools to be more efficient and effective in their commercial vehicle enforcement efforts. Intelligent Imaging Systems’ core markets are transportation safety and security, and law enforcement and public security. Its leading-edge inspection system solutions focus on improving agency field operations in environments that demand reliability and performance against the constraints of limited time and resources. 

About Drivewyze Inc. 

Drivewyze Inc. is the leader in connected truck services and is on a mission to revolutionize the delivery of highway safety and transportation management through world-class products, systems and services. Drivewyze serves commercial drivers and fleets with innovative trucking services such as the Drivewyze PreClear bypass service, and the Drivewyze Analytics Weigh Station Loss Reporting service. Drivewyze was recognized by Frost & Sullivan with the North American Weigh Station Bypass Company of the Year Award for 2017, for its best practices and industry leadership. To learn more about Drivewyze, visit www.drivewyze.com. 

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