View the January 13, 2021 seminar recording
Jennifer Symoun
Good afternoon or good morning. Welcome to the Talking Freight Seminar Series. My name is Jennifer Symoun and I will moderate today's seminar. Today's topic is Emergency Routing Activities For Improved Emergency Response.
Before I go any further, I do want to remind you to call into the teleconference for the best audio quality. If you are listening to the audio over the computer and experience any issues, I am unable to fix them as audio quality will vary based on your network connection, computer, speakers, and other factors. Please also keep in mind if you are calling into the teleconference for the audio, you will need to mute your computer speakers or else you will be hearing your audio over the computer as well.
Today's seminar will last 90 minutes, with 60 minutes allocated for the speakers, and the final 30 minutes for audience Question and Answer. If during the presentations you think of a question, you can type it into the chat area. Please make sure you send your question to "Everyone" and indicate which presenter your question is for. Presenters will be unable to answer your questions during their presentations, but I will start off the question and answer session with the questions typed into the chat box. We will also take questions over the phone if time allows and I will provide instructions on how to do so once we get to that point.
The PowerPoint presentation used during the seminar is available for download from the file download box in the lower right corner of your screen. The presentation will also be available online within the next few weeks, along with a recording and a transcript. I will send a link to the recording in the next day or so and will also notify all attendees once all materials are posted online.
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Today we'll have two presentations given by:
Jeff Purdy is a Transportation Specialist in the Federal Highway Administration Office of Freight Management and Operations. Jeff's responsibilities include freight performance measures, freight highway operations and bottlenecks, freight demand modeling and data, truck parking, emergency routing, bridge strikes, and connected/autonomous vehicles. Prior to moving to FHWA Headquarters, he served as the Technical Services Team Leader and Transportation Planner for the FHWA Wyoming Division, overseeing statewide and metropolitan transportation planning, air quality, non-motorized transportation, local public agency programs, right-of-way, and research.
Larry O'Rourke is a Senior Transportation Consultant with ICF. He has over 25 years of experience working with federal, state, and local governments on transportation and technology issues. He has supported FHWA and other public agencies on projects involving emergency routing, freight resilience, freight bottlenecks, environmental impacts of transportation and economic analysis. He assisted the Emergency Route Working Group in developing their report to the Secretary of Transportation and is currently involved in a number of projects to improve emergency routing.
Jeff Purdy
Thank you, Jennifer. Today what we are going to talk about is the resources being developed based upon recommendations of the Emergency Route Working Group. Following a major disaster such as a hurricane, wildfire, flood, major tornado outbreak, there is a need to move emergency supply equipment. Emergency response recovery activities are dependent upon the expeditious movement of utility service vehicles and other trucks carrying emergency supplies, medicine, food, fuel, generators, and infrastructure repair materials to the affected area. Immediately before, during, and after an emergency, there is an increased number of oversized and overweight loads that are required to move across multiple states to travel to the affected area. In order to better address this, the FAST Act provided for the creation of an Emergency Route Working Group to advise USDOT on best practices for expediting the movement of vehicles involved in emergency response and recovery. What I'm going to do is give an overview of the Emergency Route Working Group and the recommendations they came out with. And then Larry is going to talk more specifically about some of the efforts we have ongoing at Federal Highways and USDOT to implement the recommendations of the Emergency Route Working Group.
To start out, a little bit of background on the Emergency Route Working Group. The FAST Act required USDOT to create the Emergency Route Working Group. They were established to provide USDOT with advice and recommendations on best practices for expeditious approval or permits for vehicles involved in emergency response and recovery. The FAST Act spelled out some specific things they wanted the group to consider, and they are listed here. Number one, weather impediments currently exist that prevent expeditious state approval of special permits for vehicles involved in emergency response and recovery; whether it's possible to pre-identify and establish emergency routes between states to which infrastructure repair material could be delivered following a natural disaster, or emergency; whether state could pre-designate an emergency route as certified emergency route, if a motor vehicle that exceeds the otherwise applicable size and weight limits that they could safely operate along these predesignated routes. ; and also whether an online map could be created to identify each free designated emergency route including specific limitations, obligations, and notification requirements along that corridor.
Just a little bit of background on the Emergency Route Working Group. The group included representatives from federal, state, local, as well as private sector industry. It had representatives from state DOTs, different modal agencies within USDOT, as well as other federal agencies such as FEMA, emergency response, recovery expert safety groups, and then a lot of different entities affected by the permit requirements to move oversize, overweight loads during an emergency such as an electric utility organizations and other responders. There was also extensive outreach coordination with other groups. We worked closely with ASHTO, and I mentioned FEMA was involved, we had the Edison Electric Institute, the American Public Power Association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the National Utility Contractors Association, and the Electric Power Supply Associations. So, all of these groups provided input into the recommendations of the Emergency Route Working Group. You can see on this webpage that there is a link that takes you to the final report that was prepared by the Emergency Route Working Group. It provides the findings and recommendations for implementing best practices for expeditious state approval of special permits for vehicles involved in emergency response and recovery.
These are the recommendations; they came up with eight different recommendations that are presented in their report. The first was to incentivize states to modernize their permitting system to provide for auto-issue permitting that permits would be available or could be applied for online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The thought was that this would reduce the delays in obtaining necessary permits during evenings or weekend hours when companies are preparing to respond to the emergency. So, as part of this what they recommended we do is look at documenting what states have auto-issue permit systems where people can go online at any time of the day of the week and obtain a permit. To work to encourage states to create emergency permits in their automated systems. To continue to work with ASHTO on harmonizing and standardizing the oversized and overweight vehicle regulations to facilitate and expedited emergency permits. The second recommendation was for USDOT to conduct a multistate emergency route scenario for vehicles involved in emergency response and recovery. This basically was a study that would test different scenarios of emergency response and identify how delays in permitting, differences between state regulations, and vehicle routing would affect responses during times of emergency. The third recommendation was to encourage the development of a preclearance process that pre-identifies a set of vehicles that are part of a response and recovery convoy and provided expedited inspection, or pass-through permission at weigh stations. This could look at things such as having states designate an emergency coordinator that would be able to coordinate oversize and overweight vehicles and to also designate specific corridors on which the vehicles of a certain size would be preapproved to get expedited emergency permits and be able to travel. The next recommendation was to facilitate the collaboration between the International Registration Plan and the International Fuel Tax Assessment and utility representatives to discuss processes and procedures for obtaining permits. Whenever a truck is required to travel across state lines, or required to get permits under these different consortiums, and so they recommended we look at solutions such as special plates, waivers, faster processing for emergency permits to allow utility service vehicles to travel across state lines. The fifth recommendation was to develop an online resource with emergency permitting and regulatory information that could be accessed by those participating in emergency response and recovery operations. This could be a website one-stop shop for utilities, freight carriers, emergency management professionals, and other respondents to utilize during emergencies to get information. We are looking at different options such as developing interactive maps that could provide routing or traffic information or permit information, providing information on whether due to emergency declaration there are specific permit waivers, providing links to state permit websites as well as 24-7 contact information for emergency contacts at state DOTs and other organizations. As part of this they recommend we look at developing a guidebook on federal regulations and requirements for emergency response that would lay out and describe clearly all of the waivers and exemptions that are provided for during various different types of emergency or disaster declarations. They also as part of this recommended a checklist for utilities and others engaged in emergency response that would provide a list of actions needed to expedite movement of vehicles while ensuring compliance with all relevant permitting regulatory requirements. The sixth recommendation was for USDOT to collaborate with external stakeholders to identify opportunities to reduce impediments to the movement of utility service vehicles for emergency response and recovery efforts. An example of this would be to identify best practices for toll relief or expedited payment systems to speed up movement of emergency response convoys through tolls including nationwide inoperable toll systems such as what we have with EasyPass. The seventh recommendation was to study the feasibility of setting up a nationwide alert system to ensure state and local authorities are aware of the movement of emergency response convoys through the regions. This would ensure that once an emergency is declared in one state surrounding states would be notified and enforcement officials would be able to more easily plan for and expedite vehicles through weigh stations and inspections. And then the final recommendation they made was with regard to the map 23 U.S.C. 127 provided that special permits on the interstate system for vehicles with divisible loads were allowed where there was a presidentially declared major disaster under the Stafford Act. But it is only in the instance of a presidentially declared major disaster. The committee recommended that Congress look at expanding this ability to allow divisible loads receive emergency overweight permits based upon an emergency declaration by the governor. That's something that would have to be taken up by Congress. Federal Highways have to work under the current laws, so we don't have the ability to make that change, but that was a recommendation they made to Congress for consideration.
I'll really quickly summarize some of the activities Federal Highways has ongoing with regard to implementing recommendations of the Emergency Route Working Group. Larry O'Rourke is going to go into more detail on each of these items but let me just quickly summarize these activities. The first thing we have going is we completed an assessment of the status of automated permitting systems and put together a summary of the height, length, width, and weight thresholds for the automated self-issuing permits that the various states have. I'll also mention that FHWA will be convening a peer-to-peer exchange to facilitate awareness and expand the use of these types of automated permit systems particularly for use during emergencies. We've also conducted a multistate emergency route scenario study to identify the types of delays, how the delays impact transit time, the number of vehicles affected, and what types of impacts these delays have on emergency response and recovery efforts. We have also reviewed the National Bridge Inventory to identify information on vertical and horizontal clearances that can enhance further automation of permitting and having this information built into this database for the permitting and routing systems. We've also conducted a review of the preclearance process that is followed by the United States military to pre-clear military convoys and examine practices that they use that could be transferred to nonmilitary emergency response and recovery vehicles including a preclearance process that could pre-identify and expedite emergency response convoys. We are conducting a feasibility study of a nationwide emergency response and recovery vehicle alert system that would provide state and local authorities with advanced notice of emergency response recovery convoy movements through their area to allow law enforcement officials to expedite these vehicles. Next, we are conducting a feasibility study on developing emergency routing web tool that examines options for improving vehicle permitting and routing information can be shared with drivers so that people have that recommendation that the Emergency Route Working Group had for an online one-stop resource to assist in routing these emergency route convoys. And then finally, we have developed a resource guide for commercial vehicles involved in emergency response and it provides comprehensive information on legal and regulatory requirements for moving equipment and supplies for emergency response and recovery operations. Now, Larry is going to go into a little more detail on each of these items we've been working on. So, I'll turn it over to you, Larry.
Larry O'Rourke
Alright, great. So, I am going to start off talking about the assessment of auto -issue permit system, this was noted as one of the recommendations that came out of the working group - was to improve and encourage auto-issued permit systems. The reason why this is important is because permits are often required for multiple states for oversize and overweight vehicles responding to an emergency and obtaining permits for the entire route can be delayed by a single state that doesn't have automated permitting. The key source of delay is that emergencies don't only happen during the weekday, they happen on holidays, over the weekend. In some cases, it may be difficult to get a permit you need if you need to get a manual intervention from the permitting official. Even though in some cases there are emergency numbers available, people may not always know about them or know how to get the help they need to get permits. A very simple solution is permit automation that can provide auto-issued permits, you can log in and get a permit. A key thing with permit automation is that there are different levels of permit automation. So, accepting information, automation of that on the website, but sometimes a manual process may be required. Ultimately, what people responding to an emergency want is the ability to log in to a website and get the permit right away. So, in our assessment of the current state of auto-issue permits there are different thresholds for automation and different types of permits that can be automated. Extreme loads typically require some kind of manual intervention because the risk level is complex and higher, but things that are closer to the legal limits are easier to automate and so most states have. So, as part of our assessment we documented which states had automation at different levels of thresholds for permits for different weight, height, length thresholds and so forth. In the ideal world, to the extent it's possible, auto-issue permits, when they are available, provide the ability for 24 hour access to permits. There are a number of states that have done this. There are about 30 states that have automated permitting. The Illinois permit system (ITAP) is one model that has been considered very good, but there are many other states that are doing great things. So, that was the first task, to really just document the lay of the land and what's the current state of permit automation.
If we move to the next slide here, I am going to talk through a number of different slides. I just sort of introduce a lot of these different studies; it was kind of a program of research. And this first study, this Emergency Route Scenario Study's purpose was to document and quantify what the cost of delays are for emergency routing. We looked at a number of different scenarios. And the real issue is, if you have a major disaster, emergency, a hurricane for instance, and you have utilities requesting mutual aid assistance from states potentially all over the country, you have a very complex routing environment; vehicles and equipment coming from all over the place. And you have very complex permitting environment, too. Permits being required from every single state loads go through. So, this study tries to capture some of that complexity. We basically looked at a number of different disaster scenarios. We had an East Coast tropical storm. Each scenario was loosely modeled on a real world disaster. So, the East Coast tropical storm was modeled after hurricane Sandy, we had a hurricane modeled after hurricane Michael, we had a Midwest tornado which was modeled after the Joplin tornado in Missouri, and a West Coast wildfire modeled after the Tubbs fire in Northern California, and then we also had the Colorado flood modeled after the Colorado Front Range flood. For each of those scenarios we tried to use as much realistic information as we could, identifying the number and types of vehicles involved in the emergency, estimating where they might come from and where there are going to. So, they are being drawn from all over the country potentially. Obviously, more vehicles are being drawn closer in depending on what types of mutual aid are being requested. Then we estimate baseline routing conditions: What routes are they going to take? How long is it going to take to get there? Assuming free flowing conditions. And we did this for a number of different vehicle types. For instance, digger trucks, bucket trucks, or fuel trucks. Also, different types of equipment, temporary housing units, transformers. So, different types of equipment traveling different routes. Then we identified what delays would occur. Those are basically permitting delays caused because in some states you may be able to get a permit immediately, and in some states, you may be delayed. And depending on when an emergency happens, it may occur over the weekend, there may be a delay involved. So, based on average time it takes to get a permit in certain locations, we came up with delay times and then we estimated the impacts of those delays. If utility trucks are delayed, then obviously there are delays associated with getting the power back on. And then there are cascading impacts from that, too, in terms of impacts on residences and businesses, human health impacts. So, based on all that information we came up with some estimates for what the impacts of these delays are. This is sort of a starting point for understanding the problem in emergency routing.
I am going to run through some solutions here, so the recommendations of the Emergency Route Working Group. Really, we are looking at examining potential solutions. One of the solutions to emergency routing are improved processes for routing vehicles, and the military - we looked at the military because they have very well developed processes for moving equipment and so forth. We examined those to see if they are applicable to routing emergency response and recovery vehicles in the civilian world. If you look at the military system they have processes for each step of the way. For convoy communications. They typically have State Defense Movement Coordinators to centralize the function of developing routes to the convoys, getting permits. They have communications procedures for communicating with relevant state authorities, or transportation management centers, or emergency operations centers. They have that all laid out. Then they have convoy planning, which they identify oversize, overweight convoy vehicles. Typically, one benefit the military has that may not necessarily be applicable is they know exactly which vehicles will need to be deployed, then typically they know which routes they are going to go on. They have databases of vehicles with oversize/overweight status, they identify the convoy routes they will be traveling on, and also identify any kind of preclearance that they can get. There is a planning phase. In terms of convoy movement organizing the vehicles for movement and identifying convoy vehicles. They have well-developed procedures for how many vehicles they should send in one convoy to avoid tying up traffic and so forth. The other thing is that typically they identify vehicles, they number their convoys. Often, they'll send someone out ahead who will communicate with the relevant enforcement people on the route to let them know they're coming. And then they may centralize the paperwork, someone in that convoy is responsible for maintaining paperwork and so forth, having all the relevant documents and interfacing with the relevant officials along the way. They have well-developed procedures and many of these aspects are things that are relevant for routing emergency vehicles, disasters, and so forth, even in the civilian world.
Moving on here I'll talk a little bit about a technological solution, The Nationwide Alert System Feasibility Study. Most of the products I'm talking about now are in various stages of review at Federal Highway Administration. One of these studies is a technological concept development study that looks at the feasibility of setting up a nationwide alert system to ensure state and local authorities are aware of the movement of emergency response convoys through their region. This will include pre-deployment, deployment, redeployment, and return of responders to and from declared emergencies. Essentially one of the functions of the system is to allow enforcement officials to more easily take steps to expedite these vehicles through weigh station inspections or other types of roadside inspections if they know in advance if they are coming. I think that's an important point. Enforcement officials often have a lot of discretion in terms of which vehicles they inspect, they can expedite some. So, an alert system that alerts the right people and lets them know that these vehicles are coming - in this time window - That'll help enforcement officials understand who they are dealing with. Then they can have the information they need to use at their discretion to help expedite the vehicles. The idea of the alert system is that it is a nationwide system to ensure state and local authorities are aware of emergency response convoys, and typically it's based on distributing information geographically. So, obviously, for emergencies in a particular area, convoys may be on certain routes, notifying the correct people, getting information in the hands of people that can do something with it, but then not telling other people that don't need to know; that's a difficult task. Streamlining communications with state and local authorities about the movement of emergency convoys. Again, to the extent that you can provide current information on the location of the convoy and timely information so the enforcement officials that need to know about it are aware of it and can provide the timely information. Our study provides a high-level framework of emergency response alert systems. Any type of system of this kind would need to build on top of other information available. There is a number of other systems out there that distribute emergency information. Potentially one concept would be to piggyback on top of many of these other systems. So, there is Integrated Public Alert Warning System, there's Emergency Alert System, there is a variety of other systems, there's a Declaration of Emergency System out there. So, the idea would be to build on top of these existing systems to monitor alert status and share alerts and data, and ultimately disseminate to the right people.
Moving on, I will go to the next item here. Another project we looked at was the Emergency Routing Web Map Feasibility. Similar to the alert system I was just talking about, we conducted a study looking at what types of routing maps can we provide to those who need it. And in this case, we are looking at drivers of emergency response convoys, or we are looking at fleet managers, dispatchers who might need this information. The idea is we are providing a high-level feasibility assessment for setting up a web tool in the form of a map that can improve how information is shared to drivers of emergency response convoys through specific regions. The map would provide necessary information to drivers that travel to and from declared emergencies. There are several different concepts for doing this, different levels of complexity you can try to execute. One idea was that the tool can provide links from which drivers and dispatchers can obtain different types of information. For instance, even just linking together the available information state 511 websites and provide information on road and traffic conditions, state permitting websites which provide information on how to request necessary permits, state emergency declarations, centralizing and pointing out where all that information is, FMCSA declarations, as well. So, this information could be useful. I think the idea is that it would be flexible as conditions evolve. For instance, in many cases drivers and emergency response equipment is deployed ahead of time based on where they think the hurricane will hit. Well, the path of the hurricane changes and suddenly it needs to be redeployed somewhere else. So, providing information that can help drivers or fleet managers do that can be important. The tool itself has several different levels. There is one level that would be a simple database table that can query states' information. Another one will be an interactive map built from the static database. Another could be an interactive map that has some routing capability. Then maybe further up the scale of complexity would be some kind of interactive tool that could be an interface with different permitting websites. Again, our study looked what are the possibilities for doing this, what kind of information you can provide, and how feasible would it be.
The next product is a Guidebook of Federal Regulations and Requirements for Emergency Response. This guidebook is a product in review at FHWA now. The purpose of it is to provide information to assist the movement of large scale relief equipment during an emergency and the intended audience is emergency responders and agencies that support them. Responses to disasters rely heavily on receipt of equipment and manpower from other states. One of the big issues is that in many cases the commercial regulatory environment is designed for typical operations. So, if you're a business and you know you are going to start doing business in a state or across state lines you can take a week or two to get the permits you need or to register your vehicles with the right authorities and so forth. That's perfectly reasonable. But in an environment where a utility might be called upon to move a vehicle across state lines that doesn't typically move across state lines, having the same types of delays for those vehicles is much more problematic. So, this guidebook tries to help people navigate a complex regulatory environment.
Basically, the first part of the guidebook provides legal and regulatory requirements including size and weight restrictions, international registration plan, international fuel tax agreement, motor carrier identification numbers, hours and service regulations, Federal hazardous material regulations. So, it provides a background on what the requirements are sort of tailored for somebody who might not have familiarity with those on a regular basis, such as a fleet manager who needs to know about these for emergency purposes. Then a second part of it is understanding waivers. There are a number of different types of waivers that can be provided. There are immediate waivers, nonexempt regulations, oversize/overweight waivers, and blanket permits, the IRP exemptions, hazardous material waivers, special permits, toll waivers, truck weigh station bypass. During an emergency, many different types of emergency permits, or these types of waivers can be issued by different agencies of government. The guidebook provides an overview of what these things are and where you can find out about them. In some cases, they are issued by state level organizations and in some cases federal organizations. In some cases, like a blanket permit, it's available for anybody with a certain type of vehicle configuration, but you still need to go on the website and print it out. You have to have it with you, versus a waiver where they may just waive the requirement for everybody, like a toll waiver. There are some differences, and we are helping people understand what waivers they are eligible for can be useful. The guidebook also provides tips for planning including non-regulatory ideas and other things to consider when planning an interstate trip. So, understanding the scope of the disaster area, identifying sources of information, and securing the route or supplies. In many cases some of the problems associated with emergency routing can result from very simple things. For instance, you may have utility trucks coming from a region of the country where they may not have tolls out there and they are traveling some place where there are some toll roads and even something as simple as being ready for that, having cash available to pay for that or some way to pay. And some of the tolls for the bigger equipment is pretty expensive, so that was something that happened, I think it was hurricane Sandy where they had the big tie up with a bunch of trucks getting delayed at tolling facilities. So, again, basic tips for planning. Be cognizant of availability of fuel in some areas. Obviously, if the power gets knocked out you have a lot of issues associated with that. And then, obviously, being ready to face whether your truck has a federal motor carrier identification number, is there a way you can get one on short notice, how you can deal with those types of issues. And then we did some case studies with examples providing stories of actual response efforts and lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Harvey. And then provide some state-level policies that might expedite response efforts as well. Many states provide exemptions in law that can be useful. For instance, for pole trucks or different types of utility trucks, that are exemptions for certain types of equipment. They may have a pole truck exemption for moving utility poles in certain states that exist. So being aware of those types of exemptions and so forth. I think that pretty much concludes my description of some of the products and I guess I will turn it back over to Jeff.
Jeff Purdy
Thanks, Larry. This is an overview of the items we are working on to implement the recommendations that came out of the Emergency Route Working Group. This is an ongoing process. Here at Federal Highways, we are going to continue to work to enhance a permit automation, emergency routing best practices, looking at harmonization of permitting between states, ways of improving communication related to emergency routing. And we are going to continue to convene stakeholder meetings to share information, best practices, to provide more information on effective emergency routing planning and decision-making. This is the first of a series of webinar presentations that we are going to do. We are planning for a second one that will be this winter. What we will have at that webinar, we will have representatives from FEMA, from a utility consortium, as well as a state to be able to talk about some of the issues that they have with implementing emergency routing and some of the practices they have, so be looking for that this winter. But, as we continue to work to implement the recommendations that came out of the Emergency Route Working Group report, we are going to continue to consider feedback that we received for additional actions are ways that we can enhance new ideas for enhancing emergency routing. But the reports and the feasibility studies for the various recommendations we talked about on today's webinar is going to be posted on a new webpage we are creating Federal Highways Office of Freight Management and Operations website. So, in the near future you will be seeing information that will get published on our website. Again, be looking for that second webinar we are going to have later this winter. I believe that concludes our presentation for today. Jennifer, I can turn it back over to you to maybe run through some of the questions.
Jennifer Symoun
Sure. Thank you, Jeff. I do see three questions typed into the chat pod. I will go ahead and start off by reading those and then feel free to type in additional questions if you think of more and we can also open the phone lines. The first question, and I think this came in when Larry was presenting, but I will open it to either of you. Why weren't earthquakes examined as a scenario?
Jeff Purdy
Ok, I can take that first, and then maybe Larry you can add to it anything I miss. The intent of the scenario study we did wasn't necessarily to look at every different type of disaster, but it was more to look at disasters that have occurred in different parts of the country to try to get a sample of a variety, but not necessarily every different type of disaster. We are more focused on trying to understand what equipment was moved cross country to respond to those various major disasters, where did that equipment experience delays, and where were locations we can focus on trying to improve procedures for moving equipment across multiple states. So, it wasn't as much focusing on different types of disasters as well as it was to focus on what are the issues with moving equipment across multiple states. We had a sample of different disasters, but we could have obviously picked up other things like earthquakes or winter events like what we had in Texas with the freeze there, or some of the blizzards we've had in northern states, flooding on the Missouri are the Mississippi River could have been another scenario we looked at, but our focus was to look at examples of where there were complications or delays in the movement of vehicles across the country or across multiple states.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you. The next question is what about local DOTs and local emergency management agencies? Were they included? Often they are the ones doing the bulk of the work.
Jeff Purdy
I think with the Emergency Route Working Group the focus was probably more on either state or federal level representatives as well as representatives of utility companies and the trucking industry. But, with regard to the implementation of a lot of the recommendations that came out of that group, we would be looking at coordination and communication from the federal down to the local jurisdiction. For example, the Emergency Routing Alert Feasibility Study, that type of system would likely involve alerts that go out to enforcement officials in states where you have emergency convoys that would be moving through to address a regional disaster. Those alerts would go out through the first responders or police or emergency services communications, which would include state, county, and local enforcement officials. So, that would be comprehensive from federal all the way down to the local level. Another example would be the Emergency Route Web Mapping tool. If we looked at developing a system that provided information about real-time information for routing emergency vehicles to different areas we would be drawing on information not only at the state level with regard to traffic conditions, but it would also, let's say if you have local or urban area traffic management centers, it would be drawing information from those more local sources with regard to roadway conditions. Then when it comes to routing emergency vehicles obviously, we need to consider local roadways as part of that, because a lot of times while the vehicles moving across country may be the bulk of their travel on the interstate system or national highway system, at some point they are going to need to get off of the more higher-level systems and get onto the local road systems. So, information on the suitability of the road to be able to carry heavier truck loads, bridge posting, bridge clearances, those are all going to be relevant particularly when you get on the local systems and particularly when you're in the location, the state where the disaster has occurred. If you're dealing with a hurricane or flooding you have closures, so it is important to get the information about what roads are open or closed due to the disaster to be able to route equipment in that area. So, obviously, drawing from local roadway conditions is vital in that regard.
Larry O'Rourke
Actually, if I could just add quickly, too, I would say that some of our products touch on communicating with the relevant local agencies, emergency response centers and so forth, and that is very important. Of course, a big problem is that often times the problem isn't in the locality where the emergency occurred because everyone already knows about it, the problem occurs a number of states away where the awareness may be lower, it's less of a priority, and basically reducing regulatory permitting enforcement delays further away from the disaster is sometimes where the problem lies.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you. Another question. For emergency response activities has there been coordination with FHWA's Office of Operations Traffic Incident Management Program?
Jeff Purdy
Yeah, the Office of Freight is part of the Federal Highways Office of Operation, so we fall into the same office as the Traffic Incident Management Program group, so we work very closely with them. We are also working closely on this project with the emergency response group USDOT, so we've got the Federal Highway Administration Emergency Coordinator, the Federal Motor Carrier Administration Emergency Coordinator, so we are coordinating with a variety of groups at USDOT that work with emergency response activity and incident management.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, thank you. Another question. Did the Emergency Working Group coordinate with the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN)? They do a lot of work coordinating with freight carriers on delivering supplies to areas impacted by a large scale emergency event.
Jeff Purdy
That group, I don't think they were necessarily included. Larry, do you recall if that group was specifically included in the stakeholder outreach?
Larry O'Rourke
I'm trying to remember. We had some groups that came in and gave presentations, others that called in at various times. They were open public meetings. I think there was opportunity there. So, I don't remember them presenting and I'm not sure if they provided other feedback like email or something like that. I'm not sure about that.
Jeff Purdy
Yeah, I know we had the American Transportation Research Institute, which is the research arm of the American Trucking Associations. We also had specialized carriers and rigging associations, as well as a number of groups that represent utility companies, and the All Hazards consortium were some of the groups involved, as well as state DOTs and other emergency management agencies. But that group I'm not sure to what extent they were involved.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, and another question. With the military looking to update their guidebook with FHWA in regard to transportation security are there any synergies that can be done to better assist both initiatives?
Jeff Purdy
Yes, actually, one thing. When we were doing our study where we were looking at the military convoy procedure to find out best practices that could be transferred to the civilian side for emergency response we worked very closely with DOD. And, actually, they were in the process of updating their manual also. So, we provided review of their material and they provided review of our material simultaneously as both sides were working on their updates. One of the things we talked about with DOD that would be helpful would be to have almost like a catalog standard vehicle dimensions and weights. If you have typical vehicles that are being used in different situations for different emergency response, to be able to have those pre-identified so states can quickly identify routes that those standard size vehicles are permitted on. That would be something that would be very helpful. So, if you had a standard vehicle weight, standard vehicle envelope. Maybe it's a little bit more than what the standard regulations are for something that does require a permit, but it is something that is typically found and typically permitted on a wide variety of routes, that we could put that information together to make it easier and quicker to be able to permit those types of vehicles.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, thank you. I don't see additional questions typed in. I'm going to see if we have any questions over the phone at this point if the operator could give instructions for asking questions over the phone.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question press * followed by number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are calling from a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is off to ensure your signal can reach our equipment. A voice prompt on your phone line will indicate when your line is open, and you may state your name before the question. Again, *1. I will pause for just a moment to give everyone a chance to signal. Again, *1 if you would like to ask a question.
Jennifer Symoun
And feel free to continue typing in questions as well if you prefer to do it that way.
Operator
We have no questions on the phone.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, thank you. I don't see any additional questions typed in as well, so we'll go ahead and end early. If you continue to think of questions, feel free to type them in and ask while I'm going over a few last things. I want to thank everyone for attending today's seminar. Thank you to Larry and Jeff for presenting. I will send out a link to the recording of today's webinar, most likely later today or tomorrow. The December talking freight is not available for registration, but once it is an announcement will be sent through the listserv. The listserv is the primary means of sharing information about upcoming seminars and I encourage you to join if you have not already done so. The link at which you can join is shown on the slide on your screen right now. I also encourage you to submit the form for certificate of participation that may be used for 1.5 PDH credits. The link is up on the slide, and I'll put it in the chat box in a second as well. For a AICP members you can obtain 1.5 AICP CM credits. With that, we'll go ahead and end for today. Thank you, enjoy the rest of your day.
