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ITD State Spotlight: South Dakota

February 2024

South Dakota said a successful ITD project begins with planning for its entire life cycle, including initial funding, implementation, and maintenance. Successful investments by the State include detection systems to spot missing, mismatched, or underinflated tires and thermal sensors that detect brake problems.

Keys to Success

South Dakota has maintained a pipeline of ITD projects since achieving Core Compliance in 2012 and thanks to long-term planning and strong interagency relationships. ITD Core Compliance includes deploying all three Core capabilities: safety information exchange, electronic credentials administration (e-credentialing) and electronic screening (e-screening).

• Strategic planning and evaluation. South Dakota's ITD Team is a collaborative group consisting of the State agencies of Transportation, Public Safety, Revenue, and Information Technology, and participation by officials from FMCSA, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the trucking industry. The team sets priorities, suggests ideas, champions ITD projects, reviews their results, and meets two-to-three times a year to strategize and evaluate progress.
• Project life cycle strategies. From the start, the ITD Team considers every part of the project, including deployment, operations, maintenance, and closeout. South Dakota continually invests in system upgrades and enhancements.
• Interagency coordination. The multiagency ITD Team uses funding from FMCSA, FHWA, and the State Highway Fund and coordinates project implementation across agencies when possible. The team uses ITD grants for new systems and deployments related to data exchange, e-credentialing, and e-screening, and Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) funding for operation and maintenance of those systems. A recent project integrated the deployment of an e-screening system funded by an ITD grant with the construction of a new port-of-entry facility paid for by FHWA and State highway funds.
• Prioritizing communication among agencies and vendors. Roadside inspection personnel and the State's e-screening vendor have met monthly for the past four years to discuss and address problems, resulting in less down time and improved operation of e-screening sites.

The Technology

South Dakota's integrated e-screening system identifies and weighs trucks approaching the inspection station. The system also checks tires, registration and fuel tax status and safety information. Trucks that meet requirements and safety standards are allowed to bypass the facility 95% of time, which is an incentive for motor carriers to follow the rules since stops cost time and money.

Tire anomaly and thermal brake systems detect missing, mismatched, or underinflated tires and brake issues. After tire anomaly systems were installed at several weigh stations, identification of vehicles with uninflated and underinflated tires rose. South Dakota says that detecting tire anomalies leads to inspections that often identify other violations related to drivers and equipment including brakes, exhaust systems, lighting, wheels, and frames.

Another example of South Dakota's ITD-funded technology is its Automated Permitting system. Deployed in 2002, the State has maintained the system for 22 years by reinvesting in upgrades and enhancements. The system issues all commercial vehicle permits on all State highways, routes oversize and overweight loads, collects all permit fees, and informs permit holders of road closures or other interruptions that require route or permit changes.

In the future, South Dakota may invest in a truck parking information system and in-cab notification of work zones, closures, and accidents. In collaboration with their e-screening vendor, the State is considering an AI-augmented visual inspection tool that would provide a full view of a truck before it arrives at the weigh station.

Lessons Learned

The problem: South Dakota temperatures can range from very cold to very hot ( 40 F to 118 F) making weigh-in-motion (WIM) less accurate for e-screening.

The solution: Continuous calibration of the WIM technology, based on comparison with truck weights at certified static scales at the weight stations, significantly increased accuracy across extreme temperatures.

Fun Fact

After a tire anomaly system was installed at a South Dakota weigh station, a nearby tire shop had to add staff to respond to the increased number of calls for onsite repairs for trucks put out of service because of tire issues.