Query Central to Create Motor Carrier Border Defense

Borders of the United States are under heavy use daily by international and United States motor carriers. The front-line operators at those sites need to know critical safety information on each vehicle as it enters the country. Enter Query Central - a system being developed to consolidate border inspection queries on drivers, vehicles and carriers into an "intelligent" request.

Brenda Lantz with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University recently received a contract from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and North Dakota Highway Patrol. Lantz will work with the FMCSA Field Systems Group on the design of Query Centeral.

Processing of the request will internally obtain data from several sources, and analyze and build a prioritized report to identify any past safety or operational problems. The query response will reduce confusion and expedite decisions to deny entry or to initiate safety inspections.

Ultimately, Query Central will interface with information systems operated by United States Customs, Departments of Agriculture, various states, and Mexico and Canada to provide all information available on a local situation.

Query Central will use the latest web-based technologies. It will be developed through North Dakota State University with the expected basic phase one system operational by September 2001. The research is supported by an initial $500,000 grant.

Early deployment will be on the southern border states but Query Central will eventually see widespread use across the United States.

This system will enhance the work done in the last decade on motor carrier safety by the law enforcement community. Query Central will use the latest web technology and be optimized for wireless operation. It will also be able to deliver information to a variety of devices. Operating through browser-based secure, virtual private networks on the Internet, users need make a single, simple query. The system itself will make secondary internal queries to assemble the requested information.

For more information contact Brenda Lantz at (720)238-0070 or brenda.lantz@ndsu.edu.

Intermodal Sites on Short Line Railroads Could Quickstep Rural Marketing

As Class I railroads pull away from less-than-trainload freight, short line railroads with adaptability to intermodal facilities may present a solution to the dilemma faced by farmers, rural manufacturers, other shippers, and product specialty operators. Mark Berwick, North Dakota State University and Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute researcher, outlines the potential for intermodal facilities in a new study.

Berwick created an economic engineering model to estimate start-up and operating costs of an intermodal facility located on a short line railroad. His model has several useful features. Costs can be estimated for different equipment configurations and sizes of facilities. In using sensitivity analysis, Berwick provides insight into investment decisions. The Berwick model provides information for shippers, short line railroads, economic developers and Class I railroads.

North Dakotans are already well-versed in the importance of short line railroads as an alternative for continuing rail service on lines deemed unprofitable by Class I railroads. Short line operators may also enhance their traffic base and customer service by adding an intermodal option.

The relative importance of a single value-added venture is much greater for a short line carrier than for a large Class I railroad, his research shows. Partnering rural communities, producers, producer-initiated value-added processors, rural manufacturers, and a local short line carrier in the start-up and operation of a rural intermodal loading facility presents opportunity for economic expansion of the rural community and surrounding area.

People in the agriculture community are pursuing value-added ventures and exploring the value of identity-preserved products. To be able to have the option of shipping less-than-trainload quantities with reasonable transportation rates, Berwick points out, is increasingly critical.

Intermodal is used in domestic and international shipments. While the domestic movement is usually truck-rail, internationally it can be a truck-rail-ocean combo or any viable mix. The popularity of containers has increased in international trade. Containers would ensure North Dakota producers that their organically grown wheat or soybeans for export would arrive intact, preserving the quality of these identity-preserved commodities.

In analyzing intermodal traffic originating in North Dakota through the Public Use Waybill, volume decreased from 1995 to 1997. This decreasing volume reveals North Dakota shippers do not have the opportunity to participate in the intermodal growth enjoyed by most of the United States. Application of information from Berwick's research could invite investment in intermodal prospects.

An intermodal loading facility would be needed. Berwick's base case scenario used an 80-acre facility with 5,000 feet of track, two powered switches and two internal switches. To fence the perimeter on three sides required 3,960 feet of fence. Forty acres would be paved with six work lights and six reefer hookups. A 1,500 square foot building would be built for office and storage space. With a manager and four yard employees, the facility would need one lifter, one hustler, two chassis and no forklifts.

His analysis shows the relationship between equipment investment and total annual costs, and track investment and total annual cost is that as investment increases in these items, total annual costs increase at a relatively smaller rate.

Actual demand for intermodal service is difficult to quantify. Trade-offs exist using rail versus truck including shipping time, door-to-door delivery, and control of the container or trailer and the contents. Shippers also assess costs of shipping a distance to an intermodal facility, performance of the facility and the railroad serving the customer.

North Dakota has the Class I Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and the regional short line railroad Red River Valley and Western, and two local short lines, Missouri Valley and Western, and Northern Plains.

The development for intermodal facilities in North Dakota awaits application of Berwick's research. A positive environment exists to move North Dakota products to local, regional, national and world markets.

To obtain the full report "Potential for Locating Intermodal Facilities on Short Line Railroads" MPC Report No. 00-111 contact the Mountain-Plains Consortium at North Dakota State University, Fargo.