Project 8.7
Corridor-wide Commercial Vehicle Portal Feasibility Study
North/West Passage commissioned this study to determine the feasibility of implementing the Commercial Vehicle Operations Portal (CVOP) developed by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) across the North/West Passage states. The CVOP is a website and program through which road-weather impact forecasting services tailored to Commercial Vehicle Operators (CVO) are provided. This project was completed in conjunction with Project 8.3: Freight Task Force.
There are many sources of traveler and forecast information available to the public and to CVO provided through agency-sponsored websites and tools, regional aggregations, and private sources, many of which are interlinked back to private forecasting services or the National Weather Service (NWS). Feedback from the CVO community suggests that detailed weather forecasts are needed to make routing and schedule judgments, such as those provided through the CVOP, which are not available through most other sources.
The CVOP system is populated once per day through the summer and twice per day through the winter by a contract forecasting service. The system provides 12 hour forecasts over a 72hour period that includes wind, road surface conditions, and visibility.
The conclusions of the analysis are that implementation of the CVOP throughout the corridor is feasible from a technical perspective; however doing so would require all NWP states to provide forecasting services at the same level as WYDOT to populate the CVOP. There are currently no other existing alternative sources that can provide the information detail or frequency that would satisfy the specific needs expressed by the CVO community. From a strategic perspective, the North/West Passage should consider how the CVOP fits into and overlaps with existing traveler information efforts, including OTIIS, as well as, other private and agency-sponsored sites.
Related Links
- Technical Memorandum: Corridor CVOP Feasibility (PDF, 2510K)