TRB's Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 10: Alternative Truck and Bus Inspection Strategies explores the characteristics of the various types of alternative commercial truck and bus inspection strategies currently being used by law enforcement agencies. The synthesis examines how vehicles are selected for inspection; how, when, and where vehicles are inspected; and the consequences of violations. The synthesis also provides information on the effectiveness of the inspection strategies, documenting benefits such as reduced costs and improved resource allocation.

This study focused on developing and analyzing various concepts of operation that would link advanced onboard vehicle and driver monitoring technologies with a means of wirelessly communicating such information to local enforcement agencies in order to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the North American Standard (NAS) roadside safety inspection program. The hypothesis which prompted the study was that wireless inspection technology could be widely deployed at both traditional and virtual inspection sites to dramatically increase the number of inspections completed, and to improve pre-screening of vehicles for more detailed manual inspections. Information about the condition of the vehicle and the driver would be assembled electronically in a standard safety data message set and then transmitted to the infrastructure, using dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) technology. Concepts developed were differentiated from current electronic pre-screening programs in that real-time information about the vehicle and driver would be conveyed. Based on a review of inspection and crash data, as well as discussions with the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) industry, the high-level requirements for a wireless commercial vehicle inspection concept should focus on gathering data related to the brakes, tires, lighting systems, Hours-of-Service (HOS), commercial drivers license (CDL) information, carrier identity, and vehicle identification number (VIN). All of this information already exists on the vehicle (via discrete sensor systems or electronic control modules) and, by using conventional technologies, could be electronically linked to the serial databus for subsequent transmission to the infrastructure access points. This information, when combined with the historical information already available on carriers and drivers accessible via Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) and/or State CMV databaseswould provide the enforcement community with a very powerful decision support tool for screening vehicles and/or implementing virtual, automated, wireless inspection sites.

The objective of this report is to identify known relationships between commercial vehicle safety and crash causation factors and to prepare a synthesis of safety implications of oversize/overweight (OS/OW) commercial vehicles. This information can be used to support commercial vehicle enforcement and permitting practices and justify expenditures and investments on size and weight enforcement to enhance safety. In producing this report, insight was gained into the impacts of truck size and weight (TSW) regulations through three case studies. The state of practice in estimating large truck crash rates is complicated because of the many configurations and the wide range of possible weights for any particular configuration. This report highlights four primary findings regarding the contributions of OS/OW to commercial vehicle crashes found by its researchers.