Behavioral/Agent-Based Supply Chain Modeling Research Synthesis and Guide
APPENDIX C. A CASE STUDY IN SUCCESSFUL PRIVATE SECTOR DATA SHARING WITH GOVERNMENT
Approximately 15 years ago, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approached the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) about obtaining sensitive industry data in the form of truck Global Positioning System (GPS) position data. FHWA had earlier attempted to obtain this information using a consultant, but was unsuccessful. After several meetings with FHWA to understand the purpose and outcomes of providing such industry data, ATRI felt comfortable that the objective to populate national freight transportation planning products with real-world empirical data was an appropriate use. At that time in 2002, ATRI obtained data from approximately 25 large carriers, and began building and beta-testing the "freight performance measures" initiative. Since then, the number of carriers that ATRI receives data from can be counted in the thousands.
ATRI has now managed FHWA's Freight Performance Measures (FPM) initiative – originally titled "Real-Time Performance Measures in Freight-Significant Corridors" – since 2002. In that time, ATRI worked closely with multiple FHWA personnel to expand and refine the FPM system into a large, well respected freight data architecture program that has been used by hundreds of entities for freight planning, management, and research. While substantial credit goes to FHWA for its guidance and sponsorship, dozens of universities, public sector agencies and subject-matter experts have also contributed to the development and utility of the FPM program and its various components.
UTILIZING TRUSTED THIRD PARTIES
As background, ATRI, an award-winning leader in transportation-related research, was first created by the trucking industry in 1954. ATRI is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia with regional offices in California, Georgia, New York, and Minnesota.
As an autonomous member of the American Trucking Associations Federation, ATRI benefits from the broad support of the trucking industry and its members. The Federation represents over 40,000 motor carriers through dozens of affiliated associations in all 50 states. Because of ATRI's prominence within the trucking industry, public sector agencies turn to ATRI for trucking-related research, particularly when industry insight and cooperation is essential to the success of the project. For this reason, ATRI could initially assist FHWA in obtaining sensitive industry data, anonymize that data, and design/generate multiple data products.
FHWA NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR A TRUSTED THIRD-PARTY INTERFACE
ATRI has now received a dozen data-related contracts or subcontracts to support FHWA's freight planning objectives. In both sole-source and competitively bid contract processes, ATRI met the following requirements:
Data Access
The FPM program must ensure access to industry data over an extended period. A transportation data program such as FPM requires a stable and consistent data source. FHWA's existing program has maintained, and increased, its data access through ATRI for nearly 15 years. Continued and sustainable data access is a paramount objective for FHWA and other agencies who require data stability and consistency in pursuit of long-term planning and operations. Two critical sustainability factors should be considered when making a public-sector investment in truck GPS probe data.
A key factor is "institutional access." Simply put, the rules and policies governing data use can change overnight, which can create challenges for a program that seeks to utilize GPS probe data for long-term analysis and decision-making. While data streams today may generate from secondary communication providers, the current legal landscape confirms that raw data from the "probe vehicle" marketplace ultimately belongs to the data generators (e.g., truck owners and operators), as they are the legal owners of the data that generates from their communications equipment. Consequently, motor carrier support/consent becomes a critical component of data access. Every few years, ATRI formally contacts trucking industry executives to reconfirm their support of ATRI accessing their data as a "trusted third-party" interface.
Considering the requirements, ATRI is uniquely qualified to access proprietary industry data, and ATRI's carefully designed "DSAs" go far beyond truck GPS data. ATRI also maintains large and sought-after data relating to safety, insurance costs, commodities, technology utilization and industry financial data. Thus, ATRI can access and cross-reference highly sensitive data because ATRI will ensure that the data is both protected and used for appropriate performance measurement, planning and research purposes.
Data Continuity/Sustainability
The truck GPS data feeds, which are now typically delivered in real-time, are based on complex but technically sound and proven DSAs or nondisclosure agreements that allow parties to candidly discuss and strategize on FPM requirements. Recognizing that data access could be endangered from the unauthorized use of FPM data by outside parties, ATRI worked closely to have its raw data classified as "trade secret" by three different States' legal authorities. This additional firewall further protects the raw data from State "sunshine laws" and other FOIA-like requests.
FPM System Design and Management
The freight performance measurement program requires sophisticated hardware, including terabytes of space, to store and analyze significant amounts of data. Backup and restore services, data and virtual machine archiving, storage array setup and management, remote desktop services, firewall and Internet Protocol networking and data transfer services have all been proven to be critical components of the FPM system architecture. Ongoing technical and maintenance support is also necessary. Additionally, GIS software is essential for managing, analyzing, and reporting spatial data in a manner that is useful to the public sector.
ATRI has spent the last 15 years building, managing, and evaluating hardware and software components for the FPM program. While many existing commercial GIS software packages are used for FPM processing, in several instances, ATRI worked with vendors to develop customized tools such as the truck GPS "snapping tool" or developed its own formulas, algorithms, and processing tools for conducting the myriad different analyses that have become key components of FPM.
System development and management are not the core responsibilities of the U.S. DOT, nor the many other entities that utilize the FPM data; this function is most appropriately contracted to the private or not-for-profit sectors.
Converting Proprietary to Public
To ensure that transportation planning agencies can fully benefit from private sector data, FPM outputs and services must not be proprietary. While nearly all "raw data" is protected by ATRI, FPM's processed outputs should be made publicly available. For example, a product such as an aggregated truck trip table that shows the most common origin and destination locations in a given geography/timeframe would not have the same protections as the individual trips that were aggregated to produce the table.
Understanding Public Sector Transportation Planning Activities
To design and package FPM products and services for transportation planning purposes, a trusted third party must have more than a rudimentary understanding of the public-sector planning process and its related data needs. At all jurisdictional levels, there are unique and discreet planning requirements and products;
Industry Expertise Needed to Analyze Outputs
National freight performance measurement, freight system planning, and freight transportation research are data-driven activities. These activities are also indicators/surrogates for freight activity, truck flows, commodity flows, truck impediments, air quality impacts and truck parking requirements. Intimate familiarity with freight systems and data will provide maximum utility to FHWA and its customers.
FPM Users
ATRI's expertise in the above-referenced requirements, with an emphasis on transportation planning and freight systems, has resulted in long-standing FPM-oriented relationships with the following range of customers:
- Federal government:
- U.S. Department of Transportation, FHWA.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- State government:
- Local government:
- Private sector:
- Consultants.
- Technology vendors and suppliers.
- Trucking companies.
- Site selection and engineering firms.
- Academia:
- More than 20 national and international academic institutions.
