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Comment by olefoo | Hacker News Reader

I'm mildly surprised that requiring trucks to file travel plans has not become a more widespread practice. What with terrorism concerns, and the widespread use of GPS monitors on trucks it's both feasible and plausible. It seems like major metro areas could institute a slightly tighter control of large load vehicles; which could actually benefit from coordinating with traffic control signals in some cases.

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I'm also surprised that the drivers or their company failed to check a truck atlas when planning the route. I imagine the company has just as much incentive to prevent incidents.

Did you notice the truck in the video was overloaded way above the normal height of the bed? The truck could have easily passed any checks on paper, but the load itself is what causes the interference.

Yeah, in theory they would check the heights in the atlas versus the effective height of a given load, not just the height on paper. Why the truck was overloaded also begs a look at company policies. If this particular site is experiencing this issue 2 or 3 times a month then I wonder if the cost of guessing wrong and congesting the tunnel isn't high enough compared to just sending two trucks.

Since Garmins and other GPS devices have lane information and speed limit information, you'd think you could punch in your load height and get a route that worked for it.

Anyone want to go collect 500K bridge heights for the database?

In the US at least the state DOT's have that information and have a GIS office that would make it available for a nominal fee. You'd still need to check a lot it in cities. Big worry would probably be liability; if your database of overpasses has an error (inevitable) can the truckers insurance company hold you financially responsible for relying on your app?

Garmin already offers a specific product line for truckers and bus drivers, that deals with these kinds of issues - beyond vertical clearance you have issues of turning radius and maximum load.

I've seen them being sold at major truck stops in the US. You're not suppose to use a normal consumer GPS if you're driving an oversize / multi-axle vehicle.

http://sites.garmin.com/dezl/

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