Former CVSA president Steve Vaughn, currently vice president of field operations for PrePass, stressed asking the tough questions about technology and all the infrastructure put in place to support it when it comes to roadside inspections and over-the-air communication from the truck to law enforcement. Getting answers to those questions, some of which he details in today's edition of Overdrive Radio, is absolutely key to ensuring any potential rulemaking around electronic ID is something industry and enforcement can agree on. And hopefully without the unintended consequences that often arise in the rush toward federal implementation of new programs.
[Related: Electronic IDs for trucks: 'Big brother' or a step forward?]
PrePass' Vaughn was speaking long before the FMCSA's current request for comment on the topic, but drew connecting lines between electronic ID (sometimes referred to as UID) and the agency's long pursuit of so-called "Wireless Roadside Inspections," or WRI, a program to automate both vehicle and driver inspections with communications technology. WRI now become a more limited version of what the old program originally envisioned, in the form of CVSA's Level 8 electronic inspection standard.
Study and technology development around WRI go back to at least 2006, when the agency was provided funding for a four-year study that morphed into at least nine years of funded research. "Congress in 2018 told them you’re no longer to spend money on it," Vaughn said, speaking in March at the Truckload 2022 conference in Las Vegas. "You’ve been looking at it for 10 years, that’s enough."
