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Florida Department
of Transportation
ITS Office
605 Suwannee Street, MS 90
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0450
(850) 410-5600
| Florida CVISN Team Update |
The Florida CVISN Team is made up of members from Florida state agencies (FDOT, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Department of Revenue, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS), and the State Technology Office), FHWA and the private sector, including several representatives from the trucking community such as the Florida Trucking Association (FTA). Each month the team meets to share and discuss program activities and commercial vehicle operations (CVO)-related issues. Cross education still continues even though the team has been together for more than two years.
| CVISN Team Members Visit I-75 Agriculture and WIM Inspection Sites |
In January 2002, members of the CVISN team visited the Agriculture and Weigh in Motion (WIM) inspection sites located outside of White Springs, Florida on Interstate 75. The purpose of the visit was to get a first hand look at programs and technologies being deployed by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) and the FDOT Department of Motor Carrier Compliance.
CVISN team members, from the Department of Agriculture, explained the Bill of Lading (BOL) Program to the visitors. The BOL program, which is operated by DACS, assists the State of Florida with collecting approximately $12 million per year in user fees owed to the state for goods purchased outside of Florida (without paying
Florida’s sales tax) and then brought into the state.
During the visit, team members were able to see agriculture officers perform their duties, many of which have changed significantly since the September 11th terrorist activities. In addition to regular duties, inspection officers are now required to inspect 100% of the rental trucks that pass through their facilities.
DACS perform approximately 11.5 million inspections per year within the state. Due to this large volume of commercial vehicles and the throughput of the inspection station, it becomes necessary to close the facilities from time to time and allow vehicles to by-pass. Although this allows some commercial vehicles to avoid inspection, it is necessary to allow the trucks to pass rather than back up onto the Interstate, which could create a danger to the traveling public. To address this, DACS is in the process of implementing an electronic screening program at the agriculture inspection sites.
The electronic screening program will allow carriers that do not carry agricultural products the majority of the time and that have agreed to supply copies of their Bills of Lading to the Department of Revenue, to apply for participation
in the program and, in certain circumstances, avoid pulling into the DACS inspection station.
The benefits of the pre-screening program reach all of the users. Commercial operators can limit the amount of time their fleet spends waiting in an inspection queue, thus increasing the efficiency of their operation. By removing those trucks from the inspection queues, the inspectors can target their resources toward the trucks that are more likely to have cargo that could negatively affect the traveling public, the environment or the economy of the state. The State of Florida benefits by the cost savings associated with targeting limited resources toward those commercial carriers that are high risk or have cargo problems.
CVISN team members then visited the FDOT Motor Carrier Compliance Office's inspection station. The site incorporates state of the art technologies for weighing commercial vehicles and electronically checking the credentials of the motor carrier. The site uses weigh in motion (WIM) technology that allows commercial vehicles to be weighed at highway speeds. WIM technology also allows commercial operators to increase their operating efficiency while allowing FDOT to target resources where they are most needed.
Team members were also able to see the Help/PrePass electronic screening system in operation. This is the same system that will be implemented at six of the agriculture inspection sites later this year.
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