TSA to Allow Truckers to Extend TWIC Cards by Three Years at Lower Cost Due to Delays

This story appears in the June 25 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Truckers and maritime workers soon will be allowed to extend their expiring Transportation Worker Identification Credential cards by three years at a reduced price because federal officials are facing delays in deploying biometric card readers.

Amid growing pressure from Congress, the Transportation Security Administration announced that beginning Aug. 30, it will allow a three-year extension to TWIC holders whose five-year cards expire on or before Dec. 31, 2014.

TSA will charge $60 for the new biometric credentials, less than half of the normal $129.75 TWIC enrollment fee.

The extension process calls for only one trip, rather than two, to a TWIC enrollment center, and also extends the expiration date of a cardholder’s security threat assessment background check by three years.

TSA said it was offering the extension because cardholders paid a high cost for sophisticated tamper-resistant cards that feature an embedded fingerprint. However, the cards have yet to be widely used because the required readers have not been deployed. The readers are important because they verify that the card holder is the same as the person who was issued the card.

“We’re glad they did the extension,” said Martin Rojas, vice president of security and operations for American Trucking Associations. “But to be honest with you, we are more concerned by the lack of readers than the extension. Even at $60, we continue to pay for a high-end, costly smart card with little actual utility without the readers.”

Spokespeople for TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard did not return requests for comment by press time.

The TWIC program so far has enrolled about 2 million maritime workers, ranging from longshoreman to drayage truck drivers. However, TSA and the Coast Guard, which both operate under the Department of Homeland Security, have already missed an April 2011 congressional mandate to issue the final regulations for the TWIC readers.

A rule is not expected until later this year, and the readers may not actually be deployed until 2015, TSA said. The agency also has suggested the readers might initially be deployed only at the highest-risk installations.

Until the readers are deployed, TWICs generally will be used only for visual inspection, making them essentially a “flash pass.” That reduces their value as a security measure and adds to the cost and time required to inspect them, according to a June congressional report.

When the biometric readers are in place a trucker will need only to insert his TWIC card in the reader and press his index finger on the reader for verification.

A pilot project conducted at several ports and other facilities completed last year yielded mostly positive results in testing.

In a report to Congress in February, however, officials revealed moisture problems that caused malfunctions with some of the more than 30 different TSA-approved readers tested. There also were challenges noted due to inadequate training of some of the security officers.

A June 15 report of the House Homeland Security Committee said that the committee was pleased that readers are now validated and ready for use, but added that “it is ridiculous that a final rule has not been issued, particularly as there are over 1.9 million individuals currently enrolled in the TWIC program, many of whom  will need to re-enroll this year.”

“The committee asserts that 10 years is more than enough time for this action to occur and, therefore, directs the Coast Guard . . . and TSA to take all necessary action to expedite the completion and publication of a final rule,” the report said.

One of the pilot program participants was the Port of Los Angeles, which installed TWIC card readers at a port liquid bulk terminal, large container terminal and the port’s passenger cruise terminal.

“We had a really positive experience,” Jill Taylor, homeland security manager for the Port of Los Angeles, told Transport Topics. “I would say it is one more step in security. But of course it’s not going to be foolproof.”

Taylor said the port is still deploying the pilot readers, and is working on plans to install infrastructure for additional card readers after the card reader rule becomes final.

Taylor said she is not concerned with the card reader delay.

“We have so many security projects,” she said. “This is just one of many. We have a lot of other capabilities in place to secure the port. But obviously, since we’ve expended so much money and time in this we’d like to get a final rule out so we can implement this security process as well.”