This report summarizes the deployment activities associated with the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA's) Hazmat Safety and Security Field Operational Test (FOT). The FOT was conducted over a 24-month period, beginning in September, 2002 and culminated in a six-month field testing of multiple technologies. The purpose of the FOT was to quantify the security costs and benefits of an operational concept that applies technology and improved enforcement procedures to hazmat transportation and was scoped to address the following risk areas: driver verification, off-route vehicle alerts, stolen vehicles (both tractors and trailers), unauthorized drivers, cargo tampering, and suspicious cargo deliveries.

The FOT was centered around deploying technologies that addressed the 23 separate functional requirements established by the US DOT.

As part of the Hazmat FOT, a risk/threat assessment (Task 1) was conducted to organize the safety and security risks and threats in the highway transportation of hazardous materials. That report framed the safety and security risks being addressed by the FOT and was the basis (along with the RFP requirements and the Battelle Team's proposal) for developing the Concept of Operations (Task 2).

The general approach to conducting the FOT was centered on breaking the FOT into four operational scenarios. Each scenario addressed different segments of the hazmat transportation market. As such, each scenario deployed a different "suite" of technologies. The technologies deployed by scenario were selected based on several key factors:

• The technologies selected must account for the unique characteristics of each segment of the hazmat marketplace (long-haul, short-haul, pick up and delivery, etc.)
• The impact of using the technologies (cost, security) must be appropriate for the operational characteristics of the market segment. For example, munitions and explosives carriers are typically long-haul, for-hire carriers and may be required to have communications and tracking capabilities. In contrast, the short-haul petroleum segment generally involves local fleets, working from a centralized dispatch and operating on thin profit margins and are not required to have the communications and tracking capabilities. Thus, technological solutions to the security issues must take into account the operating environment and the need to minimize the costs of the solutions.
• A goal to address all the functional requirements identified by DOT.

The installation and field testing of technologies was spread over nine months (six-month operational period with staggered start/stop dates at each carrier), involved participation of nine different commercial hazmat carriers, multiple shippers and consignees and law enforcement/ emergency responder agencies from four states (New York, Illinois, Texas and California). This report documents the activities, lessons learned and recommendations of the FOT deployment team. A separate independent evaluation was conducted (lead by SAIC) and a final Evaluation Report will be prepared and published separately.