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    Snow Plow Cameras and Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL)

    PennDOT maintains more than 96,000 snow-lane miles statewide, enough to circle the globe nearly four times. To accomplish this task, PennDOT uses approximately 2,200 department plow trucks, operated by approximately 4,700 on-the-road workers, braving the worst of winter to keep roadways passable and safe. To increase real-time situational awareness of road conditions and better allocate its resources during winter weather events, PennDOT is using forward-facing cameras in plow trucks, which are integrated with its existing Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) system. 

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    PennDOT dump truck plowing snow covered road

    How Does It Work?

    The AVL system enables PennDOT to track the movement and location of every plow truck. The AVL unit in each truck sends a cellular signal through the system showing where a truck is located, whether material is being spread and how much. 

    Integrating forward-facing cameras, which work with the Geotab GPS already installed in the trucks, enhances PennDOT’s existing AVL system to provide maintenance and traffic management personnel with better situational awareness of actual road conditions during winter weather events. Rather than relying solely on traffic cameras that are primarily installed on the interstates, the footage from the cameras can be viewed through PennDOT’s existing AVL system, providing a real-time look of road conditions across the entire network. 

    screenshot of snow plow camera in the front of a PennDOT truck

    This allows PennDOT to better manage and reallocate its resources accordingly and can also assist districts in deciding whether to implement speed and/or lane restrictions. In addition to using the cameras to improve winter operations, PennDOT is also leveraging the cameras for non-winter maintenance activities, such as line painting.

    What Are The Benefits?

    This innovation provides real-time situational awareness of road conditions during winter weather events and allows PennDOT to better manage and reallocate resources as needed. In addition to increasing on-the-ground situational awareness during winter weather events, the cameras can also be used as evidence in claims against PennDOT. Use of the cameras has already helped to resolve accident and line painting disputes.

    Innovation In Motion

    As part of a pilot deployment, PennDOT Districts 10 and 11 initially installed the cameras in late 2022. The pilot included installing cameras in 40 snowplows, three paint trucks and 27 assistant highway maintenance manager vehicles across both districts. 

    screenshot of snow plow camera showing snow-covered road.

    Due to the pilot’s success, PennDOT District 11 outfitted its entire Allegheny County dump truck fleet with cameras and purchased cameras for the remainder of its dump truck fleet, which includes Beaver and Lawrence counties, for a total of 208 cameras. Additionally, as of spring 2024, PennDOT District 10 has 34 of its vehicles outfitted with cameras, and PennDOT District 2 installed the cameras for use with its line paining operations. District 6 is also installing the cameras on trucks in Philadelphia County.