Training in Transportation Security for Hazardous Materials on Motor Carriers

This scientific work is devoted to the development and improvement of information protection methods to counteract unauthorized access to information activity facilities and their telecommunication networks. The conclusions of the study indicate the need to implement innovative solutions to increase the level of security in modern cyberspace. An improved algorithm for determining and transferring node hosts in the Blockchain system is proposed, which uses floating hosts to increase the adaptability of the network to external attacks. This allows to automatically close ports during scanning, making it difficult for attackers to access the system and increasing the overall level of network protection. A study of GPT models has shown their high efficiency in detecting cyberattacks on information activity facilities and their telecommunication networks. GPT-4.0 has demonstrated increased efficiency in processing and detecting various types of attacks compared to GPT-3.5, which provides faster response time and improves the overall level of security. The developed method of collecting event logs from decoys based on Blockchain provides high fault tolerance and reliability of logs, which is critically important for protecting information objects and telecommunication networks. The decentralized nature of Blockchain prevents unauthorized editing of information, creating a reliable system for storing attack data. The developed model of a dynamic system of active traps based on software decoys using Blockchain technology integrates decentralized and automatically updated attributes of traps. This increases the effectiveness of network protection, reduces the load on the infrastructure and the response time of services during attacks, which increases the channel throughput and data transfer rate. The developed mathematical description of the calculation of dynamic attributes of software decoys takes into account the capabilities of Blockchain Solana, which made it possible to model and optimize the distribution of network resources. This increased the effectiveness of protection and ensured a quick response of services during external attacks. The method of using Blockchain-based software decoys obtained in the work increases the resources required by the attacker to carry out an attack, which increases the response time of cybersecurity specialists. The use of dynamic Blockchain-based software decoys demonstrates better performance compared to static and other dynamic analogues, increasing the overall level of computer network security. The proposed cybercrime research system detects known attacks 31% faster and is able to detect unknown attacks thanks to training the Isolation Forest model. The time for analyzing cybercrimes has been significantly reduced thanks to the use of the GPT model, which provides an effective and fast response to threats.

This paper presents a variant of vehicle routing problem, incorporating factors of transportation costs in conjunction with adverse situations. The effects of hazardous materials (HazMat) transportation are examined on air-pollution exposure levels, as well as the risk and damage in the case of accidents. In an urban network, the various weights that can be are assigned to each road of a route are associated to the following factors: time, cost, pollution exposure levels, and the risk of damage in HazMat transportation. These weights express the travel cost and the estimated provoked adverse consequences at each road of a vehicle transit route between two disparate points of the network concerning the pollution and risk of unforeseen accident during hazardous materials transportation. The sum of the weights assigned to every road of a route represents the route value according to the corresponding factors. We introduce an optimization criterion in order to select the optimal route among all vehicle transition routes joining any given pair of the network points that does not surpass a predefined threshold route value for each factor. The predefined weights for each factor are a percentage increment of its corresponding shortest route value. The optimal location of a central depot is determined where each vehicle serves a customer using one specific route with respect to the posed restrictions. Subsequently, a suitable partition into sub-networks is carried out in the case of large urban areas and a depot is assigned to each sub-network by applying a specific optimization criterion. A branch and bound tree search algorithm is developed for the determination of the optimal routes while the locations of the depots are investigated within the framework of graph theory. Finally, small numerical examples are given.

In 1995, the planning and building processes began to design and develop a mobile demonstration unit that could travel across the nation and be used as an effective outreach tool. In 1997, the unit was completed; and from June 1997 until December 2000, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) mobilized the Technology Truck, also known as Demonstration Project No. 111, ''Advanced Motor Carrier Operations and Safety Technologies.'' The project featured the latest available state-of-the-practice intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies designed to improve both the efficiency and safety of commercial vehicle operations (CVO). The Technology Truck was designed to inform and educate the motor carrier community and other stakeholders regarding ITS technologies, thus gaining support and buy-in for participation in the ITS program. The primary objective of the project was to demonstrate new and emerging ITS/CVO technologies and programs, showing their impact on motor carrier safety and productivity. In order to meet the objectives of the Technology Truck project, the FHWA/FMCSA formed public/private partnerships with industry and with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to demonstrate and display available ITS/CVO technologies in a cooperative effort. The mobile demonstration unit was showcased at national and regional conferences, symposiums, universities, truck shows and other venues, in an effort to reach as many potential users and decision makers as possible. By the end of the touring phase, the ITS/CVO Technology Truck had been demonstrated in 38 states, 4 Canadian provinces, 88 cities, and 114 events; been toured by 18,099 people; and traveled 115,233 miles. The market penetration for the Technology Truck exceeded 4,000,000, and the website received more than 25,000 hits. In addition to the Truck's visits, the portable ITS/CVO kiosk was demonstrated at 31 events in 23 cites in 15 states.

A traffic-responsive signal control to enhance road network resilience with hazmat transportation in multiple periods

Within the U.S. Department of Transportation and among U.S. motor carriers, there has been increased interest in the potential benefits of electronic logbooks to improve the safety of trucking operations. This paper investigates the specific contribution of electronic logbooks to improving firm safety performance (as measured by the number of crashes and hours of service violations). The models presented demonstrate that electronic logbooks contribute positively to crash reduction and to decreases in hours of service violations, particularly among carriers with poor overall safety records. Moreover, hours of service violations fully mediate the relationship between electronic logbook use and number of crashes. These results have policy significance as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed a rule that would require the use of electronic logbooks for some carriers.

On April 18, 2012, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced plans to develop a National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. The new plan requires all medical examiners who conduct physical examinations for interstate commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers to meet the following criteria: (1) complete specific training about FMCSA's physical qualification standards; (2) pass a test to verify understanding of those standards; and (3) maintain and demonstrate competence through periodic training and testing. By May 21, 2014, all certified medical examiners must be in the National Registry database, after which all drivers must receive a medical examination from a certified medical examiner. Health care practitioners who wish to become certified medical examiners must meet the training and testing requirements set forth by FMCSA. After training and testing requirements are met, health care practitioners are added to the National Registry. In addition, certified medical examiners must complete refresher training every 5 years and recertify every 10 years. Medical examiners who fail to meet and maintain federal standards will not be included in the National Registry. This article provides information related to U.S. Department of Transportation driver medical certification regulations. These changes impact drivers, employers, medical examiners, and occupational health nurses and safety specialists who manage the certification of drivers.

Hazardous materials truck transportation problems: A classification and state of the art literature review

Population-based risk equilibration for the multimode hazmat transport network design problem

Truckers with OSA, Should They Be Driving?

The shipments of hazardous materials (hazmat) which are indispensable for economic and social development have increased; accordingly, a rising number of incidents involving hazmat transportation may inflict more dread damages to both people and environment. This severe situation has prompted the need for deep mining trip purposes using trajectory information in order to enhance the hazmat-transportation regulatory. This paper presents an unsupervised two-phase framework for inferring multiple trip purposes (i.e. loading, unloading, in-yard, and other stops) based on the passive global positioning system (GPS) data during the hazmat-transportation process. In detail, a scalable ordering points to identify the clustering-structure mixture algorithm (SOMA) is first developed to group hazmat vehicles trip ends into hotspot places in phase I; In phase II, a two-stage trip-purpose identification approach is proposed with a combination of the fuzzy c-means (FCM) method and the point-of-interest (POI) information. The effectiveness and efficiency of the designed two-phase framework are evaluated through the real-world datasets, which are generated by more than 12,000 vehicles in Liaoning Province, China. The results demonstrate that the method can infer four types of freight trip purposes with an accuracy of 82.1%. The proposed approach framework can help analyze the vehicle trips associated with the loading states, which will provide effective decision-making support for the hazmat-transportation regulatory.

In the last years, numerous accidents have made to lift the level of attention related to the safety in the road transportation of hazardous materials. Also in absence of serious wounded, the dangerousness of the interventions requires very long times for the restoration of the normal road circulation causing huge damages economic and strong discomforts to the users. The hazmat transportation is disciplined for a long time by the ADR. However it only concerns passive measures related to the vehicles, to the packing and the labelling of materials, but it does not prescribe provisions to adopt during the trip. The purpose of the present job is to furnish a wide overview of the risk forecast and prevention and of emergency activation measures resorting to the employment of technological and operational systems and especially to the decision support systems tools.

A risk assessment model is constructed for the hazardous materials (hazmat) road transportation combining features of TransCAD traffic forecasts, and based on traffic planning network of spatial analysis and attribute process, the database for path planning of hazmat transportation was set up. Based on the TransCAD platform, this research analyzes the risk value of hazmat transportation in each section of the network, and found the optimal route for hazmat transportation. The rationality of the model and the feasibility of the algorithm are proved by the research.

A time-based model and GIS framework for assessing hazardous materials transportation risk in urban areas

Utilizing state hazardous materials transportation data in hazardous analysis

The trucking industry is the largest freight sector, making up about 70 percent of all domestic shipment in the United States and contributes greatly the American economy. About 10 billion tons of goods are shipped annually and of that, about 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials are transported in the United States each day by trucks, resulting in 300 million annual shipments (Federal Motor Carrier Security Administration). These hazardous materials (HazMat) range from relatively harmless products, such as hair spray and perfumes, to bulk shipments of gasoline by highway cargo tanks, to transportation of poisonous, explosive, and radioactive materials. The complexity of this commodity makes them of particular interest, especially to carriers, shippers, consignees, emergency responders, and government officials. However, at both the national and state levels, the transport of HazMat shipments has not been analyzed to the degree necessary to completely understand the operational logistics. To assist strategic planning on the development and expansion for highway infrastructure and to mitigate security risk due to HazMat shipment, it is necessary to understand their shipment/flow characteristic, and more broadly, the current awareness and preparedness of shippers and carries of risk mitigation. Therefore, more research is necessary to help federal and local government to make efficient regulations regarding risk mitigation of HazMat highway shipments. The objective of this project is to understand the risk involved with HazMat shipment and the mitigation strategies/tools used in an effort to lessen the impact of HazMat-caused incidents on people, property and environment through actions taken before a disaster strikes. To accomplish this objective, a survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to HazMat shippers/carriers. The questionnaire mainly consists of three parts: part 1, background information of survey participants including company name, size, and location; part 2, commodity flow characteristics including HazMat type, shipping tonnage, and shipping mileage, etc.; and part 3: the state and future of risk mitigation including current precautionary measures and technologies, and future plans on strengthening security, etc. Inland waterway (IWW) is another important mode of transportation in the U.S. The inland waterways networks consist of nearly 12,000 navigable miles which makes it vast in geographical area and ability to carry high tonnages of goods (U.S Army Corps of Engineers, 2005). The direct access to large ports makes it a very beneficial for carriers using this mode of shipment. The inland waterways accounts for over 624 million tons of freight annually and create tremendous cost