Con-way Freight Goes High-Tech for Road Safety

For more info visit newsinfusoin.com

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — June 29, 2010 — Con-way Freight, a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier and subsidiary of Con-way Inc. (NYSE: CNW), today announced a major safety initiative in which it has installed in new trucks a broad range of advanced technologies designed to prevent accidents and improve safe driving performance.

Under the program, the company has put into service nearly 1,300 new Freightliner Cascadia 2010-model tractors, each equipped with an integrated suite of advanced driver alert and truck control technologies. The suite includes technologies that provide for rollover stability, front collision warning with adaptive cruise control, and lane departure warning. The suite also includes factory-installed in-dash AM/FM/Satellite radio units which replace portable radios and are designed to minimize driver distraction.

The replacement tractors represent an overall investment of just over $100 million, with the integrated suite of safety technologies comprising $5.4 million. All three technologies are important advancements for reducing accident frequency and are aimed at prevention of the most common accident situations in which trucks are involved: front-end collision, inadvertent lane change or lane departure, and vehicle rollover.

“Advanced technologies that have proven safety benefits hold great promise for making our highways safer,” said Bill Graves, president and CEO of American Trucking Associations. “Con-way Freight’s significant investment illustrates their leadership and commitment to further developing and testing these technologies.”

The company began testing these and other technologies in February 2009 in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), which managed the Department of Transportation-funded Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) program. Over the next 10 months, UMTRI, as program manager, conducted field testing and evaluation of a new, integrated crash warning system for commercial trucks. As a participant in the study, Con-way Freight purchased 10 Class-8 tractors equipped with the IVBSS suite of technologies. Eighteen Con-way Freight truck drivers operated the IVBSS-equipped trucks in regular commercial service out of the company’s Detroit service center. The program collected and analyzed data on system performance as well as driver interaction and feedback in real-world operating conditions. Results of UMTRI’s study will be released this summer.

1. By: NewsInfusion
2. Categories Wheels & Wings
3. Views 130
4. Added :07-Jul-10
   Report This Video