Your June 13 Pre-Trip: International unveils DriverFirst initiative

Here are five things worth knowing today.

June 13, 2016

2 min read

Here are five things worth knowing today: 1. International Truck has unveiled a new design that emphasizes driver needs and aims to help combat the truck driver shortage. According to the company, the DriverFirst initiative gives customers a product line that focuses on the driver perspective. Driver-centric features include comfort, safety, productivity and efficiency. 2. Indiana’s Department of Transportation has launched a pilot program that takes pictures of trucks’ license plates and identification numbers on I-94. According to the Chicago Tribune, cameras are mounted on the overpass just west of the Indiana State Police weigh station between Chesterton and Michigan City. Trucks’ weight, length and width are captured by sensors embedded in the highway, according to the report. The Tribune has more.3. The U.S. Department of Transportation has designated the Texas Gulf Intracoastal Waterway between Brownsville and Port Arthur the M-69 Marine Highway in an effort to improve traffic flow on I-69 by reducing truck traffic, The Monitor reports. According to the report, the designation makes the waterway eligible for federal funding, “with the aim of spurring waterborne transportation that ultimately would improve the flow of traffic on I-69 by reducing truck traffic.” 4. Southern California’s anti-smog regulators have joined a coalition of agencies to lobby the EPA to require that all new trucks emit near-zero emissions by Jan. 1, 2024, according to a Daily News report. Their strategy includes eliminating the diesel engine and replacing it with compressed natural gas truck engines, according to the report. The Daily news has more. 5. A National Cooperative Highway Research Program report has developed a Truck Freight Reliability Variation Model to estimate the value of travel time reliability for truck freight system users to assist in evaluating proposed infrastructure and operations investments, the Transportation Research Board reports. According to TRB, the model provides a research approach to conduct a more detailed survey to collect delay and cost information. TRB has more.