TSA Is Late Issuing TWIC Renewals, According to Drivers and Coast Guard

This story appears in the May 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

Some truck drivers and port workers say they have experienced long delays in receiving three-year extensions to their Transportation Worker Identification Credential that grants them unescorted access to U.S. ports.

The TWIC renewal delays are occurring at a time when the Transportation Security Administration is attempting to make it easier and cheaper for the 2.3 million TWIC holders to continue working at U.S. ports after their initial five-year credentials expire between now and Dec. 31, 2014.

“It appears that there have been such a massive number of application requests that enrollment centers have fallen behind,” said Martin Rojas, vice president of security and operations for American Trucking Associations.

TSA did not respond to a request for comment, but the U.S. Coast Guard, which enforces security at U.S. seaports, has acknowledged “significant delays” in TSA’s issuing the new TWIC cards to truck drivers and longshoremen.

Rojas said ATA has heard complaints from several state trucking associations about the delays that threaten to block drivers from entering the port.

“We started hearing from people who had applied for their TWIC, and it never came,” said Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association. “Some of them actually have been turned away at the port gate.”

While TSA is encouraging TWIC holders to phone in their renewal applications, the agency still is requiring workers to pick them up at enrollment centers.

“But the problem is, first you have to try to get someone to answer the phone,” Toth said, referring to driver reports of being put on hold for hours.

Toth said that while it’s unclear how widespread the delays are, there is anecdotal evidence that some truckers working the Port of New York and New Jersey, the busiest port on the East Coast, have waited as long as four months after applying for their TWIC extension.

The extension process should take only seven days to complete, according to a Coast Guard memo sent to ports in December.

“These are vetted drivers,” Toth said. “It shouldn’t affect them from making a living. If they’re not working, they’re not getting paid. The whole thing is sickening.”

A Port of New York and New Jersey spokesman said that port officials are concerned about potential future delays.

“The port is a major generator of jobs and economic activity, and it’s unacceptable for any port workers to be denied access, and not get paid, due to delays in processing TWIC card renewals,” port spokesman Steve Coleman said. “We strongly encourage the TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard to take steps to expedite the process.”

The three-year extension, which costs $60 but does not require an FBI background check, was devised by TSA as a stopgap measure to address delays in deploying biometric TWIC fingerprint readers at ports most vulnerable to terrorism events.

The Coast Guard memo authorized ports to allow workers and drivers with expired TWICs to be given an extra 37 calendar days to be admitted to ports if “through no fault of their own they are not able to take possession of their TWIC due to a significant delay in the application, production, issuance and/or activation process.”

Delays have plagued the TWIC program since it was first implemented in 2007. Since then, the delays have been the target of criticism from truckers, longshoremen and some members of Congress.

This time, TSA said it planned to streamline the renewal process and cut in half the processing fee for the new three-year biometric credential.

A five-year renewal still requires a $129.75 enrollment fee and a background check.

Jill Taylor, homeland security manager for the Port of Los Angeles, said that so far the port has not denied access due to TWIC expirations or noted any excessive delays.

Taylor recently renewed her TWIC and said she experienced no delay, but she has heard stories of TWIC holders waiting on the phone for hours.

She said the enrollment station in nearby Carson, Calif., had only three service stations serving customers last month. In the past, there was an enrollment center inside the port that had 18 service stations, she said.

“I did notice a number of people in the waiting room, in the hallway and out in the parking lot,” Taylor said.

Taylor said she spoke to some of those in line who told her the wait can be as long as eight hours.

Taylor indicated that some of the delays can be attributed to a transition of the enrollment program from one contractor, Lockheed Martin, to another, MorphoTrust USA, a subsidiary of the Paris-based Safran Group. The transition is due to end this month.

Neither of the contractors responded to a request for comment by press time.