Electronic Credentialing Off to Slow But Hopeful Start

TUCSON, Ariz. — Electronic credentialing, in which trucking operations connect directly with state agencies by computer, has been slow in developing. It has a long way to go to live up to its full potential, but regulators and the industry see the program as having significant long-term benefits.

Since 1994, the staff at John Hopkins University’s applied physics laboratory has been attempting to develop a system whose architecture will let states and trucking companies exchange information without worrying whether their computers are compatible. The goal is for truckers to submit regulatory forms to state agencies using a software package rather than filling out reams of papers.

Though a prototype of the Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Network was tested in Maryland and Virginia in 1997, designers decided to limit the scope of the project to reduce the complexity of implementation, said Kim Richeson, program manager for CVISN at the university.

VISN is being developed up to handle credentials under the International Registration Plan and the International Fuel Tax Agreement. But it probably won’t do much more than that for a long time.

Under IRP, trucking companies satisfy all their vehicle registration requirements for interstate operation and pay fees through a single base state. Similarly, IFTA apportions the carrier’s base-state fuel tax payment in proportion to the miles traveled in other states. Both require trucking companies to fill out substantial paperwork.

With CVISN, carriers should be able to submit the forms with a personal computer and get responses from the state in several minutes rather than in several weeks, Richeson said.

Kevin Holland, technology policy manager at American Trucking Associations, said in the long run, such a process for obtaining credentials electronically could have a benefit-to-cost ratio of 20 to 1.

For the full story, see the July 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.