As expressed in its 2006-2007 business plan, Transport Certification Australia Limited (TCA) has four organisational objectives. Under the fourth objective, to enhance product and service offerings, TCA is committed to commence, jointly with the National Transport Commission (NTC), investigating the feasibility of on-board heavy vehicle (HV) mass-monitoring devices for the intelligent access programme (IAP).
This task is simply one of many TCA will undertake on its journey to providing its members and the market it serves with a comprehensive set of certified parameters for monitoring HVs.
The set of parameters (location, time, speed, tamper-evidence, and proprietary trailer identification) monitored under IAP Stage 1 provides a robust platform on which Australia can commence providing a third level for regulating HV access: “intelligent access”.
On-board mass, along with interoperability between any IAP certified prime mover and trailer monitoring device, expands the range of applications to which IAP can be applied. This ultimately increases jurisdictional confidence in operational compliance and increases the negotiating power of the IAP for transport operators.
To this end, TCA’s fourth objective provides for two projects for enhancing the technical capability of the IAP, viz:– a project to provide a standard to ensure interoperability between any
IAP certified prime mover and trailer monitoring devices; and — a project to investigate the feasibility of on-board vehicle mass-monitoring devices for IAP use.
These new research projects will ensure the expansion and value adding of its services to the transport industry and road authorities. The projects have identified technical issues regarding on-board mass monitoring systems including:
— Determination of tare vs. payload using OBM system at an evidentiary level;
— Accuracy, robustness and tamper issues of OBM components (mass sensors, connections, power supply, display unit etc.);
— Potential use of data to cross-check measurement results from OBM systems; and
— Potential standardization of OBM components to achieve interoperability between trailers fitted from different suppliers.
Accordingly, one of these projects will provide a standard to ensure interoperability between any IAP certified prime mover and trailer monitoring devices. The other project will investigate the feasibility of on-board vehicle mass-monitoring devices for IAP use.
source: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/19606/