Skip to main content

Texas receives national transportation award

ITS America has awarded the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) a Smart Solution Spotlight Award for a new web-based tool that allows truck owners to self-issue the permits and routes they need to move oversize and overweight loads on the state’s highway system. The Smart Solution Spotlight award is made to companies and organisations that use innovative technology to create a safer, cleaner, more efficient and sustainable transportation system. The
September 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
560 ITS America has awarded the 6524 Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) and the 375 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) a Smart Solution Spotlight Award for a new web-based tool that allows truck owners to self-issue the permits and routes they need to move oversize and overweight loads on the state’s highway system.

The Smart Solution Spotlight award is made to companies and organisations that use innovative technology to create a safer, cleaner, more efficient and sustainable transportation system.

The Texas Permitting and Routing Optimization System (TxPros) earned the award in recognition of its use of “smart” technology to improve service, save time and resources and keep loads and motorists safe.

Trucks carrying loads that are taller, longer, wider or heavier than legal limits must get a permit and, for many loads, a route from the TxDMV that avoids obstacles such as low overpasses, or bridges and roads that could be damaged by the load. TxPros is the first system to generate a route in real time using GIS, along with a map and turn-by-turn driving instructions, customised to the size and weight of the load.

TxPros allows trucking companies to apply for oversize/overweight permits, pay the fees, and route their trucks on the best roads for a load’s size and weight, all online, 24/7. The system is said to be the first of its kind in the US and so easy to use that customers have self-issued more than half of all permits since its launch in August 2011.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Asecap Days 2024: Getting used to the new normal
    August 27, 2024
    Asecap Days 2024 in Milan focused on environmental protection of road infrastructure, digital twin-based maintenance and monitoring of highways as well as the impact of electric vehicles, reports David Arminas
  • Esri maps cause and effect
    September 26, 2024
    The work of the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center means engineers can concentrate on developing more effective safety measures, rather than having to sort out raw crash data
  • Small toll agency adopts big city thinking
    December 5, 2014
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at a novel option for new toll road authorities. While somewhat politically controversial, outsourcing has gained traction in the business world as a model worth investigating for its efficiency and cost saving benefits. Lean start-ups tend to employ independent contractors instead of full-time employees in an effort to remain flexible and avoid costs associated with pensions, retirement places, health insurance, office space and benefit packages.
  • Green Light WIM
    July 30, 2012
    Beginning in the 1990s, Oregon was one of the first US states to use weigh-in-motion scales and transponder-based systems to enable trucks to avoid having to stop at weigh stations. Its Green Light preclearance system soon became a model for similar deployments throughout the country. Today, Green Light annually weighs and screens 1.6 million trucks as they approach 21 Oregon weigh stations and it preclears 1.5 million of them.