Freight Traveler Information Clearinghouse: Mississippi Valley Freight Coalition

Timely and reliable traveler information is essential for efficient and safe commercial vehicle operations, which place a significant role in the Mississippi Valley Region. Despite the variety of information available, the inconvenient decentralized structure of the region's information infrastructure remains a barrier. A centralized, one-stop shop for information wold allow freight-travelers to make more accurate and up-to-the-minute adjustments in their routes and schedules, thereby bolstering efficiency and lowering freight movement costs across the region. The primary audience for this concept are motor carriers. The scope of this project includes exploring intelligent transportation system (ITS) architectures among the ten member states and other multi-state organizations, collecting input from motor carriers and regulators on their ideas for better travel information, exploring the feasibility of an information clearinghouse, outlining a concept of operations, suggesting next steps, and developing a web-based prototype mock up. A key objective for this project was to explore the current state of traveler information useful to motor carriers. An important finding from the study is that motor carriers - the primary customer envisioned - are overall generally less interested in a new or enhanced traveler information portal than they are interested in improved regulatory and permitting service.