Under the program, the company has put into service about 1,300 new Freightliner Cascadia 2010 model trucks, each equipped with advanced driver alert and truck control technologies. These technologies provide rollover stability, front collision warning with adaptive cruise control, and lane departure warning.
The company said the replacement tractors represent an investment of about $100 million, with the safety technologies comprising $5.4 million.
Con-way Freight began testing the safety technologies in February 2009 in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute, which managed the U.S. Transportation Department-funded Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) program.
As a participant in the study, Con-way Freight bought 10 Class-8 tractors equipped with the IVBSS technologies. Eighteen of the company's drivers operated the trucks in regular commercial service from the Detroit service center. The program collected and studied data on the system's performance, as well as driver interaction and feedback. Results of the university's study will be released this summer.
