Real-time tracking for greater safety

The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy Planning (OTP) has initiated a pilot project to track vehicles carrying dangerous substances throughout Bangkok and nearby provinces.

Chamron Tangpaisalkit, director of the Transport Safety Bureau at OTP, said there was a high risk of harm to people if these vehicles were involved in accidents without the correct way of dealing with the situation.

The objective of the project is to keep all vehicles containing seven of the nine dangerous substances listed in the United Nations' dangerous substances categories under real-time tracking.

The dangerous cargoes are gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidising substances and organic peroxides, poisonous and infectious substances, corrosive substances and miscellaneous substances.

One hundred pilot vehicles will be equipped with global positioning system (GPS) and mobile GSM technologies with labels containing numbers to identify the category of substances. These vehicles will be tracked via satellite by OTP officers 24 hours a day.

Information will include the company name of the vehicle's owner, vehicle identification, the current speed of the vehicle, the destination, route and time. To make the tracking more effective, apart from micro-controllers in the vehicles, the Transport Safety Bureau will have computer systems installed with 1:4,000 ratio maps of Bangkok and 1:50,000 maps of nearby provinces, and other software applications that enable the officers to track and develop reports in various forms.

"The project came from concerns about safety as there are many vehicles carrying dangerous substances on the roads. Each kind of substance, if released from the vehicle, requires a specific alternative substance to remedy the situation. It is important that we know what substance is in each vehicle in case it gets into an accident so we will be able to take effective action," said Chamroon.

"The system can immediately contact other emergency services to inform them and request cooperation."

The system also broadcasts alerts when a vehicle gets into an accident or when the driver breaks the speed limit or parks too long.

"With GPS and GPRS technologies the vehicles will always be in the tracking eye and that plays an important role in providing more safety for people on the roads," said Chamroon.

Almost 30 companies have joined the pilot project. All are small third-party providers of just a few vehicles for transporting dangerous substances.

Truck owners or the tracking service's clients can track only their own vehicles via the Internet at www.otp-tracking.com. They cannot see the vehicles of the others.

There are about 2,000 vehicles containing dangerous substances in Bangkok. This number excludes 10-wheel vehicles carrying oil for the oil companies and pickup trucks carrying liquid fuels or gas for cooking.

"We plan to expand the system to cover these vehicles in order to develop the most effective tracking system for public safety," said Chamroon.

The project will run for one year. He said that in the next couple of months, the OTP would propose a study of the pilot project to the Transport Ministry for consideration of regulations to handle the matter in the future.

The project also aims to develop further applications to allow officers to know the real-time status of a particular vehicle, such as the remaining oil and the current status of the vehicle's engine.

To turn this idea into reality requires more technologies, for example, radio frequency identification and sensor technology.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation