proposed alternative to assist current overload operations in south africa

Proposed alternative to assist current overload operations in South Africa 4 July 2016

Arno de ConingPost graduate student

Presentation overview

• Introduction• Deficiencies in existing overload control measures• The role of law enforcement• Verification of the nature of current overload behaviour• Discussion of results• Incentivising road users to become compliant• Proposed improved overload control system• Conclusion and recommendations• Acknowledgements

Introduction

• Overload used for general road management

• Minimize damaging effects on the road

• Impact of the overloaded vehicles is not limited to road surfaces but have large economic impact as well

• Current procedures can cause delays for legal vehicles

• Some extreme cases can some vehicles to bypass

• Deliberate bypassing can take place

Introduction

• Overload may occur to increase competitive edge

• Industries have multiple approaches to reconcile productivity with overload compliance and vehicle design

• Road Transport Management System (RTMS) for self regulation as an example

• Objective to lower illegal activity and increase accuracy of overload control and minimize large economic impact on road infrastructure

Deficiencies in existing overload control measure

• Lack of uniformity across different region

• Lack of integration of subsystems

• Traffic control centres (TCCs):– Static scales– Weigh-in-motion (WIM) – High Speed(HS) and Low Speed (LS)– Screener lanes– Traffic officials with alarm and image based system from the

WIM– Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)– Piezo-electric vehicle counters and axle configuration

identifiers– Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) – Manual enforcement


• Pros and Cons of common TCC configuration

• Static scale used in isolation– Legally and illegally load vehicles forced to visit static scale

• Combined WIM and static scale– Threshold can cause multiple reweighs of vehicles loaded close

to the legal limit– Illegal vehicles can evade the operation and traffic officials

may miss the vehicles trying to evade the system

• Screener lane WIM– Help prevent vehicles not driving over WIM– Can still drive incorrectly over the WIM– If no officials are present this can go unnoticed


• ANPR cameras– Over all lanes can be linked to eNATIS– Loopholes if illegal number plates

• RFID at the WIM– Higher levels of integrity of linking vehicles– Need RFID tag deployment over entire vehicle population

• Limitation do occur with each configuration

• WIM screener lane, ANPR for non-compliance, and static scale currently most effective

Role of law enforcement

• TCC are in some form dependent on manual supervision and enforcement

• Road agencies and toll road operators suffer when enforcement is lacking

• Common occurrences– Traffic officials at WIM cubicle wrongly identify vehicle that

triggered the WIM– Daily quota reached as soon as possible– Overloaded vehicles in some cases bribe officials– Vehicle ignore the WIM signaling and official may not pursue

the vehicle on route

Role of law enforcement

• Traceability of actions of the traffic officials and no formal record of systematic law enforcement evasion by specific fleet of vehicles

• Stationed officials can have difficulty identifying WIM triggered vehicle

• Reach daily quota as soon as possible

• Financial gain can take place when a vehicle has been declared overloaded

• Official dispatched in some cases are hesitate to pull off vehicles when a HSWIM is triggered, or they can pull off these vehicles and accept bribes to not impound the vehicle

Verification of the nature of current overload behaviour• Lack of economic incentives to comply

• Limitation of current technology integration

• Non usage of systems that are in place

• Self-enrichment opportunities

Verification of the nature of current overload behaviour• Verification of the extent of these issues need to be

investigated before a proposal for improved overload control can be made

• Historical data analysis is conducted – Behavior of road user during certain periods of the day– Performance of existing overload control systems

• Data represented– Durban to Johannesburg– Johannesburg to Beitbridge

Discussion of results

• Vehicle movement as function of time of day

• 40 to 80% of traffic is heavy vehicles between 19:00 and 07:00


• Overloaded statistics for eight (8) WIM stations

• 78 to 82% of heavy vehicles weighed• 7 to 9% was overloaded

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Total vehicles weighed Total vehicles not overloaded

Percentage Weighed Heavy vehicles Percentage of Overloaded of Weighed Vehicles


• Current TCCs with WIM and static scale lack a reliable linking method that triggered WIM vehicle and if it was spotted at static scale– Static scale data can be analyzed – WIM triggered at a 10% threshold and fully functional– Static scale should have vehicles within the 10% threshold in

an ideal situation– Vehicles did not trigger the threshold was incorrectly directed

to the static scale


• Static scale visits that could have triggered the WIM

• 60% of statically weighed vehicles should most likely not have triggered the WIM


• Triggered WIM that was overloaded

• 90% of WIM triggers were not overloaded


• Analysis of WIM and static scale data to determine if the vehicle likely triggered the threshold– These vehicles would not voluntary visit the static scale– Directed deliberately to the static scale for daily quotas– Prove of inefficiencies in the system

• Isolation of TCC static data to the next scale will ensure a repeat weigh

• 6 to 8 reweighs can potentially occur from Durban to Beitbridge


• Heavy vehicles (fly by night) tend to travel after hours when traffic officials presence is low

• On average 9% of vehicles weighed by the WIM is overloaded

• Around 30 to 40% of vehicles weighed at the static scale should have been directed to the scale

• Around 10% of vehicles that should be directed to the static scale was overloaded

• 3 to 4 % of vehicles were overloaded

Incentivising road users to become compliant

• Overload control in some cases are ineffective and penalizes compliant road users without deterring road users to break the law for financial gain

• RTMS self-regulation used as starting point towards preferential treatment and proved successful in specific industries with effective enforcement

• Efficient system can grant tangible benefits to compliant road users, implement severe penalties for offenders and increase traceability of law enforcement

• Effective way to differentiate between compliant and non compliant road users

Proposed improved overload control system

• Phase 1– Extended system of certification of compliant heavy vehicle

operators– RFID tagging of vehicles– RFID readers to identify certified vehicles at WIM and ANPR

identification on non-WIM lanes– Integrate WIM scales with some level of intelligence– Automated directing of vehicles with booms if WIM was

triggered– Uncertified vehicles can be seen as a high risk– Link with vehicles with eNATIS if they evade WIM lane– A task force can be used when an illegal number plate or

overloaded vehicle is detected – Long term track record can be determined and compliant

behavior of certified users can gain preferential treatment

Proposed improved overload control system

• Phase 2– Road user internal scales certification– GPS tracking integration to provide summary of movement

from internal weigh to final destination– Electronic declaration before dispatch of origin and destination,

intended route, nature of the load, and TCC to be passed– Combined electronic dispatch with GPS data can determine

overload risk– GPS data to determine when the vehicle traveled past a TCC

and verify by WIM or ANPR on which lane they traveled– Reconcile WIM and static scale measurements with submitted

weights– GPS based electronic tolling to deter vehicles to take

secondary routes

Conclusions and recommendations

• Deficient in some respects

• Non-uniform configuration at different TCCs

• Loop holes in the system to exploit

• Lack of integration and information sharing between TCC and stand alone WIM sites

• Proposed alternatives to have a more uniform design of control infrastructure, integration of datasets, incentives for compliant road users, and on-going real time system supervision

• Increase automation with a dedicated task force

Future work

• Complete pilot site installations

• Overcome resistance to change

• Intelligence development for the TCCs from historic data and pilot sites

• Benefit quantification for multiple stakeholders– Road agencies– Transporter / Road users– Toll concessionaires

• Implementation cost analysis

• Full cost benefit analysis for multiple stakeholder

Acknowledgement

• SANRAL

• Mikros Gauteng

• Mikros KZN

• KZN DOT

• CSIR

Questions?

Thank you

proposed alternative to assist current overload operations in south africa

Automotive