Which brings us to the two most important issues in using AVL in winter maintenance, which can fortunately be captured in one single question. What are you going to do with all that data? The first sense of the question concerns how you are going to store all that information. And it rapidly becomes a large quantity of information—we are talking things like petabytes and exabytes, not gigabytes here. Seriously large stuff! Your agency may already have a data management policy in place, but if not, you will need to create one. This policy will state how long you maintain which pieces of data. For example, a number of agencies that collect visual images from their snowplows using their AVL systems keep those images for only a few minutes, while others may keep them for a number of years. Any data that you collect may be subject to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, so you need to be quite clear about how long you store your data, and how you dispose of it once that storage period is concluded. The second sense of the question of what to do with all that data goes back to an old but important issue with any new technology. Put simply, if you get a new technology for your operations, but you do not change anything once you have it, you have not gained anything really (other than nice shiny new technology). Technology for its own sake is not a wise investment. So how can you make use of all the data you are collecting with your AVL system, presumably with the end goal of improving your operational efficiency and effectiveness overall? One way in which a number of agencies have been very successful using their AVL systems is to share the visual images that they get from their snowplows with the public, their customers. While a number of agencies now do this, I believe the first was the Iowa DOT, which created their “track a plow” website that allows anyone to see where their snowplows are (during storms) and also, on most
Typically, AVL systems provide information both on where trucks are (most often displayed in map form), and on certain of the activities that they are carrying out. An agency may choose to share some of that information with the public in near-real-time if it provides added value to their “customers.”
of those plows, to see an image captured by each plow that is no more than five minutes old. That gives road users a really useful sense of just how much the weather is impacting driving conditions, and the feedback that the Iowa DOT (and the other agencies implementing this sort of system) has received indicates that the traveling public really values this information. Another very helpful use of the data is to use it to replace all the forms you used to need to track personnel hours, vehicle hours, material applied, and so on and so forth. I have seen a fair number of time sheets, many of which were completed at the end of a long shift, often at some ungodly hour of the morning. The accuracy of such time sheets is often at best approximate. However, if you get the correct systems and sensors in place on your trucks, you can get rid of the need to complete those forms entirely thus ensuring not only one less chore for your operators, but also a higher degree of accuracy (presuming you calibrate your sensors, of course—you do calibrate your sensors, don’t you?!) in the data that you collect. These sorts of systems also allow you to track the effectiveness of any part of your operations, so that if you are, for example, trying out new cutting edges for your plows, you can track their www.apwa.net
performance very effectively using the data collected by your AVL system. There is an old saying that you can only manage what you can measure. The real benefit of AVL is that it allows you to measure a whole bunch of things that you are doing as part of your winter maintenance operations. And once you have got a handle on all those measurements, then you can begin to manage things effectively. Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is intended as general information only. It does not constitute an attempt to establish industry best practices or guidelines. The Salt Institute and its officers, personnel, agents and members disclaim any and all liability for any harm, injury or damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, direct, indirect, consequential, incidental, or punitive) arising out of the use of, or inability to use, any of the information in this publication or the materials, information or procedures or referenced therein. Readers should use their own independent judgment with the assistance of professionals and experts when appropriate, to determine the practices and procedures that they decide to follow in their ordinary course of business. Wilfrid Nixon can be reached at (239) 231-3305 or wilf@saltinstitute.org.
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June 2018
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APWA Reporter
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