US FMCSA Sponsoring Workshop for Truck Active Safety Systems Requirements
IVsource.net
20 February 2004

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, within USDOT, is inviting trucking firms and vehicle suppliers to participate in a half-day workshop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on March 14 -- to open a dialogue with trucking industry stakeholders regarding performance requirements for selected active safety systems.  In order to meet national safety goals, FMCSA is actively engaged in encouraging the voluntary adoption of systems that have been shown to have clear safety benefits.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration within USDOT is inviting trucking firms and vehicle suppliers to participate in a half-day workshop to open a dialogue with trucking industry stakeholders regarding performance requirements for selected active safety systems.  In order to meet national safety goals, FMCSA is actively engaged in encouraging the voluntary adoption of systems which have been shown to have clear safety benefits. 

A large segment of the trucking industry is gathering in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in March for the annual meeting of the Technology and Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Association.  The FMCSA workshop will be held during the morning of Sunday, March 14, 2004, the day before the opening of the TMC Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition.

Trucking Apps: From IVI Research to Deployment

FMCSA has been a major participant in the USDOT’s Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) program, which seeks to promote the development and deployment of collision avoidance systems for cars, trucks, and transit buses.  During the last several years, FMCSA has partnered with industry to evaluate three specific types of safety systems including:

• Rollover Crash Avoidance Systems (RCAS)

• Forward Collision Warning Systems with Adaptive Cruise Control (FCWS)

• Lane Departure Warning Systems (LDWS)

Field operational testing of these systems is now in various stages, and early results are considered to be very promising.  FMCSA is moving into a new phase to promote deployment of these systems within the US trucking fleet, in order to increase the safety and security of all who utilize our roadways.  

At the fleet level, early results indicate that the use of these types of systems also makes good business sense – as crash-related costs do have a severe impact on the bottom line.  Within this win-win context, FMCSA seeks to work closely with the trucking industry to define vendor-independent performance requirements for these systems, and ideally, to establish them formally as TMC Recommended Practices.

To accomplish these goals, FMCSA has contracted with General Dynamics’ Transportation Safety and Security Group to conduct a major program entitled, “Deployment Planning and Facilitation for Safety Systems Onboard Commercial Vehicles.”  General Dynamics is helping to organize the workshop, and will work intensively with industry stakeholders during 2004-05 to address areas such as system requirements (which may support future incentives programs), cost/benefit analysis, raising industry awareness of system benefits, and deployment tracking.  In this effort, General Dynamics is partnered with Bishop Consulting, the Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC), the Safety and Loss Prevention Management Council (SLPMC), the National Accounting and Finance Council (NAFC), and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).

Workshop Agenda

The workshop will open with a review of FMCSA field operational testing for these systems and the aims of the overall deployment facilitation project.  This will be followed by descriptions of specific systems, and an overview of the steps necessary to establish Recommended Practices for these types of systems.  

The second half of the workshop will focus on initial requirements definition, i.e., what factors need to be defined to support purchase decisions of these systems by fleets.  This will be done via break-out groups, which will reconvene during the last segment of the workshop to report results.

This workshop kicks off what is expected to be a longer-term requirements definition process, which will include additional stakeholder workshops in the future.

Interested parties within the trucking industry may contact meeting coordinator Dan Fuglewicz of General Dynamics at 716.632.7500, extension 5514, or by sending him an e-mail confirming your intent to attend at daniel.fuglewicz@gd-ais.com.  

FMCSA Workshop Meeting Agenda
March 14, 2004