Following completion of the Wide Area Vehicle Monitoring (WAVM) project which resulted in the successful introduction of a Canadian satellite-based vehicle message communications and location system, known as Road KIT commercially, for use by the trucking industry, a project was undertaken to investigate and plan for a highway environment information system for fleet management applications in Ontario.
When real time highway information could be made available to the commercial fleets, fleet operators equipped with two-way communications and vehicle location system could then respond to adverse highway conditions by rescheduling the trip, or advising drivers to take alternate routes to avoid being caught in a congestion queue. The benefits would be increased transportation industry productivity and reduced congestion and incidents on the highway.
This paper will describe the project background, the trucking industry and inter-city bus industry interests in highway information service, the trucking industry needs for highway information service, the type, frequency, and coverage of highway information required, results of a industry focus group discussion, the marketability of the highway information to the trucking industry, and the study conclusion.