Pursuing the Universal Transponder Standard

There has been little resistance to the Department of Transportation’s recent decision to promote a national standard for transponders and other short-range radio communications equipment.

But that doesn’t mean the Jan. 28 announcement that the department would promote a "sandwich protocol" — a system that operate on multiple frequencies — as the basis for this standard has not raised questions in trucking and other industries.

The agency was pushing to get dedicated short-range communication — used in transponders for such functions as checking the credentials of trucks in motion and collecting tolls electronically — under one umbrella. A national standard is considered essential to creating equipment that the trucking, travel and toll industries can share.

For the full story, see the Feb. 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.