While working to upgrade its fleet management system, Wayne County, Mich. found a way to keep the public informed about road conditions during inclement winter weather.
Department of Public Services staff members visited a number of Canadian cities in 2010 and found promise in Webtech Wireless’ Interfleet system.
“It was immediately a huge upgrade over the aging system we had,” said Cindy Dingell, the department’s deputy chief operating officer. “Because the system runs through the cell phone towers, you can get real-time updates about where the trucks are, how fast they’re going, and if their plows are up or down.”
As the department waded through the flood of statistics now available, personnel from the county’s department of technology looked for a way to reduce the flood of information down to a manageable amount that laymen and residents could understand and appreciate.
“We’re always looking for more ways we can interface with the public, and the technology staff saw all of that information as a way to advance that,” she said. “It was really a sidebar to our basic fleet management upgrade.”
The technology department developed Wayne County Compass, a variety of filters that can be overlaid atop a Google map of the county. They include traffic, county service trucks, a weather radar and road closings for events. It all contributes to a system that will help motorists navigate the county in snowstorms, not an uncommon event during Michigan winters. With 1,900 lane-miles of road under county responsibility, keeping track of the plowing and salting status can get hectic.
The map shows the locations of 149 of the county’s 158 salt trucks and the roads that had recently been plowed. Traffic cameras give users the option of viewing the road conditions in real time, as do 18 trucks equipped with dashboard video cameras.
The Interfleet system also gives the Department of Public Services a wealth of information to draw upon when faced with complaints and inquiries from the public.
“We’ve gotten complaints about people driving too fast in county trucks,” Dingell said. “Now we can refer to that truck’s data to see just how fast the driver was going at the time. The same with complaints alleging that we didn’t salt roads. We know how long and where the trucks have their plows down and disperse salt.”
The system’s real-time qualities will make truck management a lot easier and faster. With instant truck tracking, public service department supervisors can redeploy nearby trucks to assist in problem areas and make direct contact with drivers, something that wasn’t possible with the old system.
The more precise measurement of how much salt is spread will also help eliminate waste and oversalting, saving money and wear on the roads. Installation of the Interfleet system costs approximately $360,000, and the Compass development was done in-house by the Department of Technology.
Although much of Michigan was belted with a rapid snowfall early in January, as of the publication deadline, Wayne County had not seen a storm dramatic enough for the Compass to show off what it could do.
“I’m sure people will appreciate it a lot more after we have our first storm,” Dingell said. “They might not even realize it’s operating yet.”