Transportation to test hazardous material shipment technologies

The Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced Wednesday the start of a field operational test designed to evaluate the costs and benefits of transportation security technologies to safeguard hazardous material shipments.

The test is set to involve 100 trucks equipped with a variety of existing security technologies. The test will evaluate the capabilities of technologies such as driver verification, vehicle tracking, off-route and stolen vehicle alerts and remote vehicle disabling in the event of a terrorist attack, according to a Transportation Department press release. A prototype test is scheduled to occur later this month, with full-scale testing set to begin in August and to be completed by late 2004, the release said.

"We must build on our continuous efforts to ensure the security of the more than 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials hauled on U.S. highways every day," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said. "This operational test will help improve security and will help spur innovative technologies for safeguarding hazardous materials in the future," he said.