PrePass Debuts New Safety Data Visualization Tool

HELP Inc. Vice President and COO Mark Doughty offers up details of PrePass's new service InfoRM during a Saturday press conference in Las Vegas. Photo: Evan Lockridge

LAS VEGAS – The provider of PrePass unveiled a new business intelligence tool on Saturday, before the start of the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition, that is says revolutionizes the way carriers look at their safety data.

Called InfoRM, the service gives carriers the information they need to understand the anatomy of Inspection Selection System (ISS) scores. This score is the key factor enforcement agencies use to determine which trucks to inspect.

According to HELP Inc., InfoRM provides an unprecedented level of data and helps fleets quantify fleet safety trends to improve safety scores.

“Fleets now have a tool that allows them to create a plan for immediate safety improvements,” said Mark Doughty, vice president and chief operating officer of HELP. “Carriers can clearly identify the issues that are adversely affecting their safety scores. These new data dashboards enable fleets to create awareness across their organization and facilitate changes in areas such as vehicle maintenance and driver behavior.”

PrePass safety and bypass data has always been available to HELP's customers, but InfoRM takes all that information and aggregates it into a user-friendly dashboard to create a one-stop shop of information for carriers, according to HELP Inc.

InfoRM provides a carrier with a company snapshot that includes:

PrePass determines a carrier's ability to bypass a weigh station based in part on a fleet's Inspection Selection System score determined by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety ...Read the rest of this story

HELP adds data-mining platform

LAS VEGAS. Users of the PrePass weigh station bypass system are being offered a new business intelligence tool that lets them gain detailed, customized views of the data impacting their Inspection Selection System (ISS) and CSA Basics scores. HELP Inc., the public/private non-profit partnership that provides PrePass, announced at the new data tool called InfoRM will be offered free of charge to all fleets subscribing to PrePass.

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Driver Fatigue, Distraction Detected by Guardian System from Seeing Machines

LAS VEGAS -- Seeing Machines now offers its Guardian technology in the United States to detect and alert drivers who have fatigue-induced microsleep incidents or driver distraction.

At the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Seeing Machines reported on the success of three fleets running trials of the technology in the U.S. Those results show:

Guardian works in real-time, using advanced sensors and image processing technology. A camera and sensor system installed in the cab tracks micro-movements of the driver's eyes and head to identify a fatigue or distraction event. When an event is detected, the driver receives in-cab audio and optional seat vibration alerts that provide immediate intervention to prevent an incident.

A slow eye close that lasts for 1.5 seconds triggers the alert. Regular eye blinks are ignored. For distraction, that is configurable and typically requires four or five seconds before triggering.

Guardian's camera views just the driver's face and only starts recording when it detects a fatigue or distraction event. Then data is transmitted to its 24/7 SafeGuard Center in real time for verification by trained analysts.

This technology has been in use in off-road mining trucks in the U.S. for about five years, according to Mirza Kozarcanin, senior vice president of global business development for Seeing Machines, and in fact Caterpillar is making it available to customers and working on plans to embed it in new vehicles. The company also is working with a rail company and an auto maker.

When asked how the company would position Guardian against active systems that offer collision avoidance and lane departure warning, Kozarcanin said, “There ...Read the rest of this story

Fiery introduction for new International LT Series on-highway tractor

LAS VEGAS. With Las Vegas style pyrotechnics and soundtrack, Navistar rolled out its new International LT Series Class 8 tractor for dealers and the media. The all-new tractor is being offered in day cab and four sleeper configurations and has already garnered 2,000 orders, according to the company

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International LT Launched Loudly, Described Enthusiastically

International LT625 sleeper-cab tractor appears amid clearing smoke at Navistar's 'Vegas-worthy launch event on Friday. Photos: Tom Berg

Navistar unveiled its new International LT series in Las Vegas on Sept. 30 with speeches, videos, hard rock music, and fire-and-smoke effects – a launch befitting a "Vegas" production and a vehicle range that will become the company's flagship model and, executives hope, the most popular highway tractor on the market.

At the event at the World Market Center, dealers and customers applauded and some trade press reporters nodded approvingly as three tractors drove onto a platform from which top executives had previously spoken. All emphasized the customer research and meticulous design and engineering work that had gone into the new model. It will begin replacing the nine-year-old ProStar series when it enters production in November.

The initial version has Cummins power, and several Navistar execs remarked that their company's strong relationship with Cummins will continue, notwithstanding the recently announced alliance with Volkswagen Truck & Bus of Germany.

The Internationl LT (for Linehaul Transport) was publicly announced Friday morning. It is the first model that stems from Navistar's Project Horizon, a three-year effort to update and improve the ProStar. Horizon affects steel-cab models, and the WorkStar and DuraStar trucks are now being worked on for introduction in 2017.

The HX premium vocational truck, introduced eight months ago and now in production, uses an aluminum cab, so was not part of Horizon.

During development, several Navistar executives rode with fleet drivers to learn what they want in a highway tractor. Drivers' comments and the execs' experiences were chronicled in a video. Those drivers -- Kenneth Stiltner of Cowan Systems, Jose Reyes of Mesilla Valley Transportation and David Spore of J.B. Hunt -- were present at the launch in Las Vegas.

The LT has ...Read the rest of this story