Heavy weight technology is light on traffic flow: in a global village where transportation systems equal economic opportunities, highway traffic management technology is big business. A recent $3.3 million contract awarded by Transport Canada re-affirms International Road Dynamics Inc. (IRD) as a leader in traffic data collection systems.

In July, Saskatoon-based IRD announced that it would supply "weigh-in-motion" and traffic data collection systems at 80 sites throughout Canada. The contract is part of Transport Canada's initiative to investigate the full costs of transportation.

"Understanding traffic flow--the types of vehicles, mix of vehicles, and speed--is standard information that highway planners and designers need," says Terry Bergan, CEO of IRD. "Typically, cars cause congestion. Trucks cause highway damage, especially overweight trucks."

While trucks for transporting goods are vital to the economy, illegal overweight ones are not. In fact, they are an expense item in terms of highway maintenance.

It is an international reputation. In 2005, the company won the contract to collect data on all vehicles throughout the United States as part of the country's long-term pavement performance program.

"The backbone of any economy is the ability to ship goods and materials," says Bergan. "The primary way of doing that is by truck."

"Why would you invest money in roads that are going to fall apart in a couple of years? Highways are built to last for 10 or 15 years."

On a typical day, 1,200 trucks might go past a truck weigh station. It's not feasible to stop to weight and inspect every truck. IRD's weigh-in-motion (WIM) weighs the truck on the highway, the automatic vehicle ID on the truck identifies the truck so that its safety and operation records, and credentials are checked, and if all is okay the truck is allowed to carry on without delay. This allows inspectors to focus on the violating trucks and saves the truckers and the economy time and money. Typically, over 98 per cent of the trucks are not stopped.

"You keep the trucks out on the highway," says Bergan. "It saves everybody time and money." Not to mention the environmental aspect of reducing emissions produced from starting and stopping.

Fleet management systems and other vehicle-based technologies are also important to IRD's global markets.

Under a joint venture, IRD is the North American supplier of onboard vehicle systems for the German electronics and electrical engineering company Siemens AG. Precision Drilling, IRD's largest deployment worldwide, uses the company's fleet management systems to improve driver safety.

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"In its simplest form, the system is a black box underneath the dash, hidden from view, and it monitors the performance of the driver" says Bergan.

Bergan says, "IRD is a proud Canadian company. Over 90 per cent of our business is exported from Canada." IRD has offices throughout the United States, and in Chile, Brazil, and India.

IRD's claim to fame, says Bergan, is the ability to weigh vehicles at highway speeds, in motion.