New Plan Will Help Speed Truckers Over Border

In an early practical use of “smart” highway technology, a group of public agencies and California technology companies will announce today their plan to develop an electronic system to speed commercial trucks across the U.S.-Mexico border without stopping.

Trucks planning to cross the border would be cleared in advance by inspectors, with cargo information stored in an electronic system on the vehicle.

As a truck approached the border, the driver could transmit that information electronically to inspectors and pass through nonstop.

The Federal Highway Administration, after passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, has sought to expedite commercial traffic across U.S. borders.

Currently, trucks may wait hours or longer--at as much as $1.50 a minute in operating costs--to cross the border at San Ysidro.

Launched by Calstart, the public-private consortium attempting to build an advanced transportation industry in the state, the effort is a joint project of the Port of Los Angeles, U.S. and Mexican customs services, Oakland-based American President Lines, Hughes Aircraft Co., San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. and Caltrans, the state transportation agency.

“A lot of people look at this as pie-in-the-sky stuff,” Calstart spokesman Bill Van Amburg said. “Actually, California is the leader in developing these technologies and none of them are esoteric.”

Calstart has launched $21 million worth of advanced transportation projects so far in 1995.