High-Tech Trucks Breeze Through Ports of Entry

The nation’s major trucking fleets haul toward the 21st century with a host of high-tech military spinoffs designed to make their $165-billion-a-year industry more efficient and profitable.

The big diesel tractor-trailer rigs are becoming more streamlined and getting better mileage. They also have higher torque engines and drivers’ areas that resemble an F-16 fighter cockpit.

The big-rig tractor units range from $80,000 to $110,000, said Mal Highland of Denver Peterbilt. A luxury sleeper cab with all the conveniences of home can quickly add an additional $30,000.

Whether an owner-operator or fleet owner, drivers who survive in today’s deregulated era are making a profit margin of 2% to 2.8%, according to the American Trucking Association.

So the high tech add-ons are being phased in slowly, said Greg Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Assn. and the person the ATA regards as its high-tech expert.

One new device that is starting to gain a following is a pre-clearance system that allows a truck equipped with a transponder the size of a cigarette box to clear its paperwork and weight while traveling at highway speeds past states’ ports of entry, Fulton said.

A pioneer in the pre-clearance systems, now provided gratis by Lockheed-Martin out of California, is Leprino Foods of Commerce City, which has installed them on 250 long-haul Kenworth tractors.

Leprino pays Lockheed-Martin a $2 fee each time a transponder is used.

“We did it as a means to save our drivers time,” said Leprino transportation chief Jerry Sheehan.

“You’re looking at three to five ports of entries per state. You have to pull off, go in, stop, get weighed and have your credentials checked,” he said. “I’ve seen these ports stacked up with trucks a mile down the road.”

And, he said, getting a truck loaded with 75,000 to 80,000 pounds of cargo back onto the highway at proper speeds “creates a safety hazard.”

Sheehan said the transponders save 15 to 30 minutes per port of entry.

“We only make money when we’re moving. We don’t make money sitting still,” he added.

The transponder is mounted at the top right of the truck’s windshield. Along the highway is an electronic reader that checks the truck’s identification and relays it to the port of entry. If an OK is sent back, the transponder flashes green to let the driver know it’s all right to continue on.

The system also checks for fuel tax forms, registration and any special load permits. If any special fees are required, they can be paid through an electronic transfer of funds from the truck’s home office.

Sensors in the highway measure the truck’s weight at driving speed. If it’s over the acceptable limit, the transponder flashes red and indicates to the driver to head into the port.

“Down the road we may save millions in state personnel costs and highway reconstruction costs” when the pre-clearance systems become widespread, said R.J. Hicks, director of the state revenue department’s Motor Carrier Services, which handles the 300,000 trucks registered in Colorado’s database.

But the pre-clearance system is still a patchwork rather than a national system.

Along the East Coast, transponder-equipped trucks can travel Interstate 75 from Canada to Florida without having to stop at a single port of entry.

A similar interstate network has been set up for the Oregon, Washington, Utah and Idaho ports of entry.

Fulton said California soon will join a similar network including Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming.

And the pre-clearance system is only one of the new gizmos on the market.

Other high-tech devices include global positioning--great for locating a stolen or overdue truck; electronic logs that note drive and rest time; computers that keep the truck from speeding; and collision avoidance systems to alert the driver to vehicles moving into blind spots or if he or she is closing too fast with another vehicle.