ATA member testifies on behalf of TWIC as universal card
“. . . I’ve heard that there are some truck drivers currently carrying up to 23 ID cards around their necks. I wouldn’t want to pay that chiropractor bill." - Philip L. Byrd, president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express
The Trucker News Services
9/17/2008
WASHINGTON — A representative of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) has testified before a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security subcommittee urging — among other things — that truckers with TWIC cards be granted hazmat security clearance, something already afforded to Canadian and Mexican commercial drivers.
He asked that TSA be required “to immediately recognize U.S. commercial drivers who possess a TWIC as already compliant with the Hazardous Materials Endorsement Security Threat Assessment program, as allowed by statute and as TSA already does for Canadian and Mexican commercial drivers.“
In addition, TWIC or Transportation Worker Identification Credential cards should be used as the single, universally accepted security credential for transportation workers by preempting other security and access control credentials “required of motor carriers that operate in multiple jurisdictions,” stated Philip L. Byrd, president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express.
Byrd told committee members that in addition to the TWIC, “drivers must undergo separate STAs (security threat assessments) for the HME (Hazardous Materials Endorsement), air cargo and facility access, the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program for border crossings, access to U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) facilities, and a myriad of State and locally-administered STA programs (i.e. Florida Unified Port Access Card – FUPAC).
“The cost to drivers of these separate STA and credentialing programs is more than $400 in fees, not including the costs associated with drivers’ lost wages while traveling to and from enrollment centers, fuel costs, and the aggravation of providing fingerprints multiple times for each program.”
Further, he stated that “. . . I’ve heard that there are some truck drivers currently carrying up to 23 ID cards around their necks. I wouldn’t want to pay that chiropractor bill.
“Under the TWIC program drivers and other transportation workers will only have one card to deal with which would be acceptable across the United States.
“Unfortunately, the TWIC program/concept has not lived up fully to its promise and has become just another expensive, duplicative security credential that truck drivers must obtain to access port facilities.”
He testified before the Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism on Transportation Worker Identification Credential.