Terror Attack Changed Truck Security's Focus

Before Sept. 11, security in trucking meant protecting equipment and cargo from accident or criminal activity. Since that infamous date, security also has come to mean keeping potential terrorists or other bad guys from turning your truck into a bomb.

The war against terrorism has taken on a human face, not only in the grainy images of suspected al-Qaeda members passing through airport security or film of helmeted soldiers roping to the ground from Blackhawks, but also in the photographs of truck drivers laminated on newly issued identification badges that shippers, some maritime ports and carriers themselves are increasingly ordering up.

More and more, people want as much assurance as they can get that the driver behind the wheel of a big rig poses no threat as a terrorist. As a result, employee background checks are taking a central role in the industry’s efforts to prevent its trucks from being turned into mobile weapons. The role of background checks, however, has yet to be fully defined by legislators, and one important tool that trucking managers say they desparately need — access to the national database on criminal histories — is not available to them.

For the full story, see the Feb. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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