TRB's Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 10: Alternative Truck and Bus Inspection Strategies explores the characteristics of the various types of alternative commercial truck and bus inspection strategies currently being used by law enforcement agencies. The synthesis examines how vehicles are selected for inspection; how, when, and where vehicles are inspected; and the consequences of violations. The synthesis also provides information on the effectiveness of the inspection strategies, documenting benefits such as reduced costs and improved resource allocation.

The objective of this report is to identify known relationships between commercial vehicle safety and crash causation factors and to prepare a synthesis of safety implications of oversize/overweight (OS/OW) commercial vehicles. This information can be used to support commercial vehicle enforcement and permitting practices and justify expenditures and investments on size and weight enforcement to enhance safety. In producing this report, insight was gained into the impacts of truck size and weight (TSW) regulations through three case studies. The state of practice in estimating large truck crash rates is complicated because of the many configurations and the wide range of possible weights for any particular configuration. This report highlights four primary findings regarding the contributions of OS/OW to commercial vehicle crashes found by its researchers.

February issue includes Appendix entitled Directory of United States Government periodicals and subscription publications; September issue includes List of depository libraries; June and December issues include semiannual index

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 314: Strategies for Managing Increasing Truck Traffic documents recent efforts by transportation organizations that construct, operate, and manage the transportation system and identifies truck-related challenges, planning activities for goods movement being undertaken, truck management strategies being considered, factors that have influenced the selection of particular strategies, and benefits expected from selected strategies.

Technologies and Approaches to Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles evaluates various technologies and methods that could improve the fuel economy of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, transit buses, and work trucks. The book also recommends approaches that federal agencies could use to regulate these vehicles' fuel consumption. Currently there are no fuel consumption standards for such vehicles, which account for about 26 percent of the transportation fuel used in the U.S. The miles-per-gallon measure used to regulate the fuel economy of passenger cars. is not appropriate for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which are designed above all to carry loads efficiently. Instead, any regulation of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles should use a metric that reflects the efficiency with which a vehicle moves goods or passengers, such as gallons per ton-mile, a unit that reflects the amount of fuel a vehicle would use to carry a ton of goods one mile. This is called load-specific fuel consumption (LSFC). The book estimates the improvements that various technologies could achieve over the next decade in seven vehicle types. For example, using advanced diesel engines in tractor-trailers could lower their fuel consumption by up to 20 percent by 2020, and improved aerodynamics could yield an 11 percent reduction. Hybrid powertrains could lower the fuel consumption of vehicles that stop frequently, such as garbage trucks and transit buses, by as much 35 percent in the same time frame.