Carding The Truckers

By Viveca Novak

National ID cards aren't here yet, but the Federal Government is about to give us a foretaste. Soon to appear: Transportation Worker Identity Cards (TWICs). Envisioned as a universal credential to be carried by everyone in the transportation industry, from airport ramp workers to truckers and longshoremen, they are a response to complaints that despite new security measures, the various IDs that many ports and other facilities use are too easy to steal or fake. The agency is ready to begin testing several types of cards at the ports of L.A.--Long Beach, Calif., and Philadelphia--Wilmington, Del., according to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesman Robert Johnson. If all goes well, the card could go nationwide next year.

The card will carry personal information about the holder, including at least one form of biometric data, probably fingerprints. "We think a national approach is best rather than each port or state developing its own system," says Don Wylie, managing director of maritime services at the Long Beach port. The new system will standardize the background checks that some transportation workers already undergo. But objections are brewing. Nobody's enthused about the government having a database of their personal information, and the TSA fears the new card will be seen as a test run for a national ID card, a controversial idea. Workers are concerned that background checks be fair and appealable. "We want to be sure there's due process," says Ed Wytkind, executive director of the transportation trades department of the AFL-CIO. "And that they single out not the person who committed a crime 20 years ago but the person who is a security threat today." Yet even those who are wary appear resigned. "We're not 100% behind it," says Mike Russell of the American Trucking Association. "But we realize it may come to that." --By Viveca Novak