Drivewyze Demonstrates the New Weigh Station e-Inspection Experience at CVSA Conference
WILMINGTON, Delaware, Aug. 30, 2021 – Drivewyze, the leader in connected truck services and operator of the largest public-private weigh station bypass network in North America, today demonstrated how automated electronic roadside inspections can save time and money, while improving highway safety.
The demonstration took place at the CVSA conference in Wilmington, Delaware, in front of convention attendees that included state law enforcement and fleets from throughout the country.
Trucks and drivers, provided by Western Express and Schneider and equipped with Drivewyze PreClear, were on hand to illustrate how e-Inspections work. A simulated inspection site showed how time-consuming elements of traditional manual inspections can be automated to save significant time for both inspectors and drivers. Traditional inspections are slowed by the necessity of an officer to collect information only after a truck has been stopped; the requirement for searching multiple systems to verify Carrier, Vehicle, and Driver credentials; and the duplication of data entry into each authoritative data system. In contrast, an officer conducting the electronic inspection viewed vehicle, carrier, and driver-level information transferred electronically while the vehicle was still in motion. The inspection system further streamlined the inspection process by screening carrier, vehicle and driver data automatically against multiple systems -- all at once -- for compliance issues, allowing the officer the freedom to validate data or focus on non-electronic elements of an inspection. In addition, the officer had their inspection form automatically pre-filled at the start of their inspection, avoiding time-consuming and error-prone manual data entry. When the officer was satisfied, the inspection was completed at the touch of a button, saving significant time, and improving the accuracy of the inspection.
“What the demonstration showed was not the future – it’s showing the here and now, and how Drivewyze and our partners are re-creating traditional inspections,” said Brian Mofford, Drivewyze’s vice president of government experience. “It takes the leadership of our public agency partners, and the capabilities of our connected truck technologies to create a new paradigm in delivering highway safety. There are too few inspectors for enforcement to operate effectively against an ever-increasing number of trucks on the road. e-Inspections are a force multiplier that increases the reach of our agency partners without impacting the movement of our economy’s freight. We’re witnessing a move from a manual data-entry world at the inspection site, to one where data is automatically transmitted for auto population on inspection forms. This can cut a ‘clean inspection’ from 30 minutes or more down to a few minutes without degrading the effectiveness of the inspection itself. It benefits carriers and drivers who can log more drive time, plus it allows inspection officers to screen more vehicles in a timely fashion.”
According to Mofford, five states -- Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia and Michigan -- are rolling out e-Inspections, through Drivewyze ELD partners Geotab, Platform Science and now Trimble – which was announced at the CVSA convention. Additional ELD partners offering e-Inspections will be announced soon, as will additional state partners.
“Momentum is building quickly,” said Mofford. “And we encourage customers of our participating ELD partners to contact Drivewyze for free enrollment and activation. This is a movement toward more efficiency at the inspection site, which translates into making our highways safer and carriers more productive.”
“At Platform Science, an integral part of our mission is to provide the best driver experience. This translates into eliminating as much manual data entry as possible,” said Michael Bray, CCO, Platform Science. “With the launch of Drivewyze's e-Inspection and the reduction of manual data entry of HOS info at weigh stations, this will be an enormous time savings for carriers, drivers, as well as inspectors. We are excited to support Drivewyze and our mutual customers, Schneider National and Western Express, as they showcase their commitment to safety at CVSA.”
Added Stephen White, Sr. Business Development Manager-Class 8 from Geotab: “E-Inspections are finally here and it’s something we at Geotab are really excited about. It’s why we made sure to have the software integration support needed to run the e-Inspections from Drivewyze. We know our customers are going to be thrilled about using this capability, and we’re looking forward to sharing this technology with them.”
Adrian Harding, business area manager, Fleet Mobility, for Trimble Transportation, said: “At Trimble, we are dedicated to empowering drivers, carriers and shippers with the tools to operate more efficiently. We believe Drivewyze e-Inspections will save drivers time at the roadside, result in more completed inspections and greater safety overall. We look forward to continuing to help our customers realize the time and cost savings made possible by this technology.”
Mofford noted that in addition to improving the efficiency of existing inspections, e-Inspections allows for more inspections to be conducted, which is welcome news to many carriers. “Agencies do not have enough inspectors to stop every truck and this has caused a data sufficiency problem with CSA,” he said. “The reason is a combination of the limited enforcement officers (13,000 inspection officers as opposed to 6 million trucks that go through weigh stations) and manual paperwork that takes time to complete. To reduce congestion, officers sometimes have no choice but to release trucks cleared of any violations, but without a formal clean inspection to its credit. Waving a truck on after it has stopped and documents screened does reduce congestion, but it does not credit the carrier and driver’s safety profile within CSA, which is unfair given the loss in fuel and drive-time. Another impact of too few inspections, is that carriers needing more inspections to improve their safety score cannot get them.
“Now, e-Inspections speed the process, so the inspection officer can do more inspections, allowing safe fleets to bolster their scores, and unsafe fleets to have a bit more scrutiny via more thorough inspections,” continued Mofford. “Additional inspection data will also reduce the lag time in today’s CSA safety scores that do not always represent a carrier’s existing safety investments and practices. Today, any fleet that may have had a bad incident and had their safety score negatively impacted may suffer from poor scores long after incidents occur, regardless of changes in safety practices. More inspections would increase data sufficiency in CSA, reduce lag time in adjusting a safety score, validate, and reward a carrier’s current safety performance.”
According to Daniel Patterson, Director of Safety at Western Express, which participated in e-Inspection trials earlier this year, in addition to participating in today’s event, being able to efficiently transfer data to make inspections more seamless is a positive for both law enforcement and carriers. “It’s very important to us,” he said. “E-Inspections allow us to achieve the goal of gathering more data and increasing the safety of our roadways. We are very excited for this program to expand throughout more states and increase the effectiveness of our partnership both with Drivewyze and with law enforcement agencies.”
About Drivewyze Inc.: Drivewyze Inc. is a leader in connected truck services and operator of the largest public-private weigh station bypass network in North America. “Drivewyze has moved the trucking industry forward with disruptive technologies designed to improve commercial transportation safety and efficiency. Drivewyze serves commercial drivers and fleets with innovative trucking services, such as the Drivewyze PreClear bypass service, Drivewyze Safety+, Drivewyze Safety Notifications, and data intelligence, via Drivewyze Insights. To learn more about Drivewyze, visit https://drivewyze.com/.
About Platform Science: Platform Science is an IoT technology company that empowers enterprise fleets to take control of their technology on one user-friendly platform. Founded in 2015, Platform Science makes it easy to develop, deploy, and manage mobile devices and applications on commercial vehicles, a process previously defined by fragmented architectures and proprietary protocols. The platform offers flexibility and delivers an unlimited canvas to fleets and developers seeking to innovate and create new solutions as customers' needs, businesses, and industries evolve. For more information, visit www.platformscience.com.
About Geotab: Geotab is the world’s #1 commercial telematics company, equipping more than 2.3 million vehicles with its award-winning fleet management technology across the globe. Geotab and Drivewyze announced their formal partnership in January 2020 when Drivewyze PreClear was made available to over 40,000 Geotab customers via the Geotab Marketplace.
About Trimble Transportation: Trimble Transportation is multi-modal and provides solutions for the long-haul trucking, field service management, rail and construction logistics industries to create a fully integrated supply chain. In trucking, Trimble provides enterprise and mobility solutions focused on business intelligence and data analytics; safety and regulatory compliance; navigation and routing; freight brokerage; supply chain visibility and final mile; transportation management and fleet maintenance. With an intelligent ecosystem of products and services, Trimble enables customers to embrace the rapid technological evolution of the industry and connect all aspects of transportation and logistics—trucks, drivers, back office, freight and assets. Through the combined legacy of ALK, PeopleNet and TMW Systems, Trimble delivers an open, scalable platform to help customers make more informed decisions and maximize performance, visibility and safety. For more information about Trimble Transportation, visit: https://www.trimble.com/transportation-logistics.
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