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Partnership to Promote Enhanced Freight Movement at International Border Gateways: A Strategic PlanPrevious Section | Table of Contents | Next Section 3. INVESTMENT STRATEGIESThis plan for border gateway investments under the "Enhanced Goods and Freight Movement at Domestic and International Gateways" partnership centers on four outcome goals that will support achievement of the two national transportation strategic goals set forth in DOT’s 1997-2002 Strategic Plan: Mobility: Shape America’s future by ensuring a transportation system that is accessible, integrated and efficient, and offers flexibility of choices. Economic Growth and Trade: Advance America’s economic growth and competitiveness domestically and internationally through efficient and flexible transportation. For each of the outcome goals , this section of the plan presents (1) an investment strategy; (2) anticipated impacts; and, where applicable (3) critical technology or other elements; and (4) case studies. The four outcome goals are:
OUTCOME GOAL 1: IMPROVED FACILITY CAPACITYInvestment Strategy: Augment the effectiveness of the highway-centered congestion mitigation activities at border corridors through application of advanced technologies that enhance capacity and level of service. Conventional methods of capacity expansion consist of infrastructure improvements to increase lane capacity, and restore measures such as volume-capacity ratios to acceptable levels. Currently, several Federal funding programs are underway to improve border performance and capacity. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) has allocated funds for capacity enhancement at border crossings in several programs including the National Highway System (NHS) transportation improvement programs, Section 1118 on National Corridor Planning and Development Programs and Section 1119 on Coordinated Border Infrastructure and Safety Program. Building one mile of the interstate highway system can cost as much as $100 million. Available funds for conventional highway capacity improvements are hardly adequate to meet all expansion needs. Application of advanced technologies offers an effective strategy for increasing highway throughput and lane capacity. The ITS/CVO (Commercial Vehicle Operations) technologies provide an opportunity to enhance the effectiveness of the ongoing congestion mitigation efforts at border. A number of metropolitan areas are deploying traffic surveillance/monitoring, incident management, electronic toll collection, commercial driver information to support highway capacity improvements. Traffic Monitoring and Surveillance programs help corridor congestion as they control traffic flows through the deployment of devices such as control loops, closed-circuit television (CCTV), ramp metering, signal coordination, changing message signs (CMS), and highway advisory radio (HAR) to provide real-time surveillance capability. Many of these devices are used in conjunction with incident management systems and other traffic information management systems with access to shared databases and traffic data for improving the flow of traffic within the corridor. Incident management and emergency vehicle dispatch programs have been tailored to commercial vehicle traffic patterns to provide emergency equipment for traffic control and incident cleanup and hazardous material emergency response. Grade crossing incident management can also be incorporated into the corridor commercial vehicle safety programs. Electronic toll collection has succeeded in greatly increasing commercial vehicle throughput within the test corridors. On the Tappan Zee Bridge eight manual collection stations were replaced with five electronic lanes using the multi-jurisdictional E-ZPass electronic toll collection system. In addition, lane capacity was further expanded through the use of a movable-barrier procedure to allow an extra peak-direction lane. Commercial driver information services have provided a commercial vehicle version of Advanced Traveler Information Services. In some test corridors, these services have proven effective in reducing corridor congestion by providing timely en-route information about traffic volume, alternate routes within the corridor, incidents, border crossing times, scheduled events, maintenance areas, weather alerts, and hazardous material routing. Longer-term applications of advanced technologies for enhancing highway capacity include the commercial vehicle applications of the automated highway systems (AHS) and the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) technologies for collision avoidance. The AHS platoon demonstrations for commercial vehicle operations (CVO) suggest that it is possible to reduce highway congestion by tightly coordinating the movement of trucks and reducing the gap between them. With close spacing, aerodynamic drag is significantly reduced, not only increasing lane capacity, but also reducing fuel use and exhaust emissions. Using an 8-vehicle platoon, the demonstration showed a significant increase in highway throughput (i.e., vehicles per lane per hour moving along the highway.) At a maximum cruising speed of 65 mph on I-15 in San Diego, the demonstration showed that vehicles separated by a safe inter-platoon gap of 200 feet would represent a capacity of 5,700 vehicles per hour. Reducing the speed by 25 percent to allow for maneuvering needed at entry and exit points corresponds to an effective throughput of 4,300 vehicles per lane per hour. This throughput compares favorably to the roughly 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane that could be achieved at this speed under normal manual driving conditions. Impacts: ITS/CVO-typetraffic improvement projects have proven successful in improving facility capacity by increasing vehicle throughput and speed. Within the test border corridors, the application of these technologies have shown to be effective in reducing congestion and improving the flow of commercial vehicles. By optimizing facility use, throughput improves, reducing the need for new or expanded highways. For instance, the Minnesota DOT experiment with traffic control technologies such as ramp metering reported improved throughput in the range of 2,200 vehicles per lane per hour compared with 1,800 prior to the use of ramp meters, while average speeds have risen from 34 mph to 46. An incidental environmental benefit of lower congestion is that truck emissions and fuel use are also reduced. Traffic control programs have also proven effective in reducing travel time by improving flow of traffic. Automated surveillance with lane sensors and video cameras has reduced delays associated with non-recurrent congestion. Installation of closed-loop computerized signal systems has resulted in travel time reductions. Traffic light synchronization installed at arterial and network signal system has reduced delays. For a more systematic assessment of the effectiveness of the ITS/CVO technologies, baseline measures of highway capacity and performance under different scenarios need to be developed. Critical Elements: Technologies used for traffic management and incident alerts include sensors (including loops for volume and speed data); CCTV for congestion report, speed, and incidents; transponders for speed checks; AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identification) for carrier/vehicle identification; roadside weather station for ice/fog/visibility. Grade crossing technologies consist of photo enforcement devices and collision warning systems deployed at the highway-rail intersections. Automated toll collection technologies include various types of transponders and swipe cards used in conjunction with the roadside reader. Technologies used in vehicle platoon demonstrations of the AHS include a forward-looking radar that provides information that can be combined with information from a radio communication system that provides vehicle speed and acceleration updates 50 times per second. Devices for vehicle-to-vehicle communication are used to coordinate maneuvers such as lane changing. An integrated system of border corridor traffic management, would consist of standard technologies such as a central traffic signal control adapted to the corridor commercial traffic patterns, and video surveillance of key intersections, and sensors in trucks that serve as transmitters to provide information on the status of traffic operations, but also databases of current wait times with provisions for links to fleet management and dispatching, regional databases integrated with customs’ border clearance systems and the highway police safety inspection facility for electronic processing and clearance, and finally coordination with an incident response agency to handle incidents promptly. OUTCOME GOAL 2: IMPROVED INTERMODAL ACCESS AT BORDER FACILITIESInvestment Strategy: Partner with the border regulatory agencies and the carrier community to facilitate cargo flow at border facilities by removing intermodal container access bottlenecks, expediting the container interchange process, and coordinating planning and facility improvement efforts. Such partnerships would involve an array of strategies ranging from facility rehabilitation to providing adequate clearance for intermodal containers, allocating adequate staging area for handling of the containerized intermodal loads, and establishing a uniform truck size and weight system. Adequate space for container handling at border intermodal facilities is essential for smooth cargo flow. Many facilities located in heavy traffic border towns lack sufficient storage and handling capacity and have no room for expansion. Access to these facilities is also limited. For instance, in Laredo, where trucks are not permitted to travel through the downtown area, the Union Pacific had to relocate from downtown Laredo to a facility outside the city. A pilot study at the Buffalo-Niagara border to construct a Container Freight Station (CFS) tested the effectiveness of moving the Customs container inspection off site to a location away from the main bridge into Buffalo. The CFS served a dual purpose as a site for secondary customs inspection and a load consolidation station for less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. The pilot proved effective in meeting the cargo inspection objectives of the Customs, reducing congestion on the Peace Bridge, and saving trucker drivers time while allowing them to consolidate their loads. For streamlined vehicle inspection, some border facilities are testing weight-in-motion (WIM) scales for automatic weighing and reporting. Placing WIM scales before the border bridges would prevent overloaded trucks from entering either country, and supports enforcement of uniform size and weight. Many of the vehicle control systems at the border are testing the integrated applications of Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) with WIM and AVC that are linked to regional computers. Impact: Improved highway and bridge clearance allows a more direct access to facilities, cuts down on circuitous truck miles, and improves truck turns and vehicle miles. Improving intermodal container interchange process would improve truck turns, equipment utilization, and the overall efficiency of the border inspection process. Reduced truck emissions and lower fuel use would be an added environmental benefit. The Buffalo Pilot showed the benefits from coordinated planning and infrastructure investment. The CFS operations showed a reduction of 20-30 percent in the number of truck movements by allowing the carriers to cube their trailers more efficiently. For an average long-haul trip, this reduction translated to cutting back 5 hours of truck operation. By improving vehicle utilization at the border the CFS helped reduce operating costs and overtime pay as drivers are allowed to increase truck turns per day. An added benefit of the CFS proved to be the greater logistics efficiency that results from reductions in "in-transit inventories" carried by LTL trucks. A reduction of 20 percent in the number of movements translates to a reduction in the average trip length from 5 days to 4 days, reducing the associated inventory costs. Enforcing uniform truck size and weight is likely to reduce damage from overweight trailers to roads and bridges, control the deterioration of arterial streets in the cities along the border, and improve the efficiency of border vehicle inspection. OUTCOME GOAL 3: IMPROVED INTERMODAL CONNECTIVITYInvestment Strategy: Promote a "total corridor" planning perspective that encompasses the entire bi-national corridor traffic flows and bolsters an optimal modal balance. Invest in intermodal improvements that facilitate the physical flow of goods over the entire trade corridor. This corridor-level approach would correct the piecemeal planning practices by integrating infrastructure and traffic management at border gateways. The approach will accommodate the maquiladora trade and improve the flow of traffic to and from border trade facilities. The failure of the piecemeal planning approach to highway construction is illustrated by the problems on the Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge in Laredo in its initial phase of construction, as described in Section 2 of this document. A shift to corridor-level investment planning would further promote improved alignment of the NHS freight facilities. Such an alignment would accommodate the North-South flows of commercial traffic, and correct for the biases in favor of the East-West land-bridge routes. Illustrating the potential improvements from a corridor-based border inspection strategy is the I-35 Corridor Coalition strategy. Interstate-35 Corridor Coalition - This coalition was formed to support a high-priority corridor from Laredo to Duluth, Minnesota. The I-35 Priority Corridor will cut the driving time between Chicago and Mexico City by as much as 40 percent, to 36 hours. Currently it takes trucks crossing the Rio Grand 8 to 12 hours just to get past the border. Included in the Corridor Coalition design are arrangements for building customs inspection stations at a few spots along the highway, allowing the trucks to be checked and then sealed hundreds of miles away from the congested crossings at Laredo. The tracking technologies used will include "smart cards" containing an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) microchip to identify the truck. Assuming the seal was unbroken when the truck crossed the Mexican border, the truck could avoid long lines at the border inspection stations and drive North through the interior. The smart cards could also be used to automate the payment of fees or weight penalties owed to US states traversed en route. The infrastructure required for the corridor would include a fiber-optic cable along the Interstate-35 which would be connected at numerous points to short-range transmitters which would send a radio signal. The signal would interact with the smart cards in the trucks and identify each one to the appropriate computer system, so that highway authorities could ensure that trucks weren’t deviating from the routes they had paid to use.14 Impact: The benefits from a corridor-level perspective include smoother flow of cross-border traffic, more efficient interior US distribution of domestic freight and in-transit flows to Canada, reduced conflict between rail and highway traffic, and ultimately the improved capacity of the border highway network. The flow of NAFTA traffic would also benefit from the improvements in the alignment of the freight infrastructure, as included in the NHS. Critical Technology Elements: Today’s large-fleet trucking companies are equipped with a number of electronic devices in heavy trucks operating in long-haul corridors. These devices allow the driver to pay tolls electronically, keep a trip log for hours-of-service reports, carry cargo manifest and bill-of-lading information on the on-board computer (OBC), perform scheduling and dispatching functions, monitor the performance of the engine or the temperature-sensitive cargo, and carry records of vehicle safety inspections. A typical high-technology truck is likely to be equipped with what is referred to as a "mobile terminal," equipped with devices such as a satellite receiver, an OBC, a data communication unit for processing data that allows messages between drivers and dispatchers to be sent via the satellite connections, a continuous tracking antenna, and an electric motor that keeps the antenna aligned with the satellite. More recently, heavy truck fleets are likely to be equipped with a modem-equipped personal computer for accessing the Internet for load dispatching information. The mobile terminal also includes a removable memory cartridge to transfer data to an office microcomputer or to pass from the recorder to a radio or satellite data receiver for relay to dispatch office. An estimated 3 percent of the vehicles operated by small-fleet carriers, and 41 percent of the vehicles operated by large-fleet carriers use in-cab sensors and monitors.15 An estimated 11 percent of vehicles operated by small-fleet carriers and 54 percent of those operated by large-fleet carriers are equipped with driver logs. Carriers who pay drivers by the hour use driver logs for keeping and verifying driver hours and reducing payroll costs. OUTCOME GOAL 4: ENHANCED US COMPETITIVE POSITIONInvestment Strategy: In collaboration with border agencies, promote electronic commerce (EC) and cargo pre-clearance arrangements and expedite vehicle clearance and processing, and support an interoperable system of EDI, Internet, electronic fee payment, and private fleet management practices, while ensuring national security and commercial vehicle safety. Implementing this strategy would involve a two-pronged policy to:
Advance The Application of Electronic Cargo Clearance Technologies: Electronic transmission of cargo clearance information, as required at the border, is fairly advanced in the US and Canada, and is improving in Mexico. The pre-filing arrangements currently in place consolidate customs declaration, permits, and fee payments for a select group of exporters and the maquiladora operators working with specialized customs brokers. For truck traffic, the pre-filing strategy consists of arrangements for cargo release through prior dispatch of the cargo manifest and random vehicle inspections. The U.S Customs Service has instituted several streamlined inspection programs, including line-release, automated paperless export monthly reporting, and special arrangements for frequent shippers, using a number of computerized systems such as Automated Broker Interface (ABI), and Automated Customs System (ACS).16 These systems have somewhat reduced delays and processing times at land borders and ports. For rail clearance, an effective strategy to streamline border traffic would be to allow free passage of unit trains across the border and conduct inspections at internal customs facilities located adjacent to intermodal facilities. Such arrangement would avoid the common practice of transferring containers from rail to truck, and bypass the border bottlenecks. Promote Border Transparency by Supporting an Integrated Electronic Commerce System: Electronic commerce in the United States is not new. Businesses began sending and receiving purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notifications electronically via private EDI networks in the late 1970s. EDI transmissions have historically been over private value-added-networks (VANs). As VANs are expensive and require training and installation, they have remained beyond the reach of many small and medium-sized businesses. Conservative estimates of the business use of the EDI over private networks for trade are for over $150 billion in goods and services annually.17 The role of the Internet in EC and in advancing commercial freight mobility is of utmost importance. The Internet has revolutionized EC by making it affordable to many small and medium-sized businesses. The Internet use for border clearance functions is also gaining widespread support.18 The U.S Customs Service is currently using the Internet to serve as a central network for commercial vehicle clearance information –instead of the earlier NATAP design for proprietary VANs. There are also significant efficiency gains from promoting the integration of commercial fleet management into the border inspection and Internet applications. Private carriers have begun using the Internet extensively for customer service, allowing the shippers access to information about the status of the shipment, and providing vehicle tracking and dispatching capability. Global shipping documentation is still based on outdated conventions, and is not standardized across transportation modes. Each mode decides the terms of liability, insurance, EDI format, and the B/L terms and conditions. Replacing the modal structure with an intermodal process, and developing a uniform, universal B/L would require international cooperation on commercial operating procedures, concurrent operating authority, contract provisions, and better data transmission. Such a universal system would include a) Uniform B/L terms and conditions b) EDI compatible B/L; c) a uniform liability component; d) standard insurance rules, and finally, legislative implementation. In the absence of such intermodal uniformity, a door-to-door shipment would end up at the destination pier waiting for a separate B/L, before it is carried on its last leg.19 Impact: Avoiding redundant inspection lines at the crossings would reduce many of the inspection-related delays. Multiple lines at the crossings for redundant checks on each piece of documentation required at the border often leads to redundant delays. In Otay Mesa, for instance, lengthy delays occur due to the separate queues for each agency. After obtaining clearance in one long inspection line, the trucks are steered to another one for the State Highway Police truck safety inspection. The impact of a pre-clearance policy would be to reduce total clearance time, thus improving the efficiency of the border processing, while ensuring border security and compliance with commercial vehicle safety. A uniform B/L will mean greater efficiency and transparency of the border transactions. A truly intermodal document would apply to all modes – air, ocean, rail, road, and barge – and to domestic, North American, and international shipments regardless of the interim stops and modal transfers. Such a system would allow a virtually seamless, door-to-door, intermodal information flow, reducing delays and inefficiencies. Benefits from access to the Internet for EDI transmission include its low-cost availability to small and medium size businesses, compared to the high costs of a proprietary VAN. The Internet is also being tested to provide access to network databases, and offers the potential to save time and effort in obtaining credentials and permits, shorter delays for clearance at the borders, and ability to remotely identify vehicles and drivers. Anecdotal reports of the benefits from private fleet management gains indicate a 20 percent increase in loaded miles. Preliminary baseline figures for border processes indicate that for trucks, customs clearance times currently range from 1 to 3 minutes to several days, depending on the type of cargo and carrier, and whether or not border clearance arrangements are in place. For safety inspections, the average inspection time is more than 30 minutes. Average delay times are partly a function of the rate at which vehicles are inspected. At some locations such as Laredo the customs inspection rates are as low as 5 percent of the northbound traffic. In Otay Mesa, the US Customs inspection rates for incoming traffic are as high as 60 percent for some types of vehicles, with an average rate of 10 percent.20 Baseline information on the extent of market penetration of electronic devices among commercial trucking carriers would provide useful data for assessing the performance of the Gateway Partnership. An ATA study has estimated that some 46 percent of the small fleet carriers and 63 percent of the large fleet carriers use mobile communication systems for fleet management. For navigational systems, only a small percentage of the small fleet operators and nearly one fourth of the large fleet carriers use some sort of electronic vehicle location device. In general, the market penetration of all types of electronic commerce suggest greater use by large fleet carriers. However small-fleet carriers constitute the largest segment of the market in terms of the number of carriers.21 Critical Technology Elements: An array of electronic technologies is currently in use in the trucking industry for pre-clearance data transmission and fleet management, load scheduling and dispatching, data transmission and reporting, and equipment and cargo location and identification, including: Navigational systems and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) – Roughly one fourth of the large-fleet trucking companies use some form of navigational device, most commonly the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS). AVL draws on several available radio navigation and other technologies that enable periodic position determination, including GPS, LORAN-C and dead reckoning. Omni Tracs is one of the commonly used navigational system that relies on automatic satellite position-reporting to track vehicle locations and send data messages between dispatchers and drivers. AVL systems allow drivers, dispatchers, shippers, and receivers to track a vehicle continuously from pickup to delivery and locate the commercial vehicle with a high degree of precision. Computer-aided dispatch and routing and state-line crossing systems.- A variety of software products is available to the trucking industry for vehicle dispatching and routing functions and load optimization. The systems are often used in conjunction with navigational devices such as GPS and are designed to help dispatchers choose the best vehicle for a given delivery. Automated dispatching benefits carriers by allowing the dispatchers to choose the best truck for a delivery based on pre-selected parameters. Another software system recently entering the market is the patented State-line-crossing system, recently marketed by Rockwell. The software is targeted towards fleet operators and government regulators interested in keeping track of truck mileage driven in their state. When used with a GPS receiver, the system enables automatic recording of the time and date of border crossings. The system contains a database that defines the latitude and longitude of the borders of all US states and Canadian provinces, and identifies the borders with Mexico. Internet-based load dispatching and tracking –Increasingly, freight railroads and commercial trucking carriers have begun using the Internet for a variety of uses included customer order processing, container tracking, and load consolidation. Today, all major rail and expedited package carriers provide the customer with the option to track the status of the container or package by logging on to the carrier’s web-site. The Internet is also in wide application for seeking potential customers. Mass Motion, for instance, is an Internet-based site for matching container loads. By charging a nominal monthly fee, plus $0.25 for each truck listed, the internet based load-matching service provides a cost effective alternative to deadheading. It costs shippers nothing to use the service. A truck carrier looking for backhaul can access the web-site and input the truck’s departure point, departure date, and destination point. A continent-wide network of agents support the simultaneous coast-to-coast load matching for the web-site, encrypting the information and transmitting it to the server to be added to the central database. Shippers consult a separate web-site to search a database for an available truck to haul their cargo. Access to the database eliminates the problem of empty truck miles and reduces trucking operating costs. RFID Transponders, Toll Tags, and Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) -EVI refers to systems that use radio waves to transmit information from a truck at mainline speeds for remote vehicle identification, toll payment, and equipment inventory.22 Toll tags are among EVI uses that are gaining rapid market acceptance in the trucking industry, with an estimated 5 million toll tags currently is use by the US commercial trucks. Several ITS/CVO test sites have deployed integrated applications of EVI with Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) and Automatic Vehicle Classification (AVC) linked to regional computers. Mobile Communications - An estimated two thirds of the large-fleet, long-distance trucking companies use mobile communications devices for load dispatching and scheduling. These systems include conventional two-way radio, wide area pagers, digital text communications, and cellular telephones. Increasingly, the range of coverage for these devices has been extended. Whereas conventional two-way land mobile radio has a limited range (typically 40 miles) and is heavily oversubscribed in urban areas, mobile radio services are now able to share frequencies and use networked transmission towers to significantly expand the range of mobile radios. Similarly, cellular telephone companies are able to offer greater coverage as the cells (each covering an area with a radius of roughly 16 miles) are interconnected by a central switching station that automatically reroutes calls as trucks move from cell to cell within the system. With a shift in technology in the direction of digital radios and telephones, it is expected that the capacity of mobile communications will increase significantly, while costs decline over the next decade. 23 |
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