U.S. Transportation Security Chief warm to idea of expanded use of FAST Card (August 06, 2003)

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says the U.S. transportation Security Chief has indicated that its recommendation to use the FAST card for security credentialing of Canadian truck drivers is worth considering.

Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary, Border & Transportation Security, at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, likes the suggestion from CTA that the Free & Secure Trade (FAST) card process be used for security credentialing of Canadian truck drivers required by other U.S. programs such as cross-border movements of hazardous materials and the Transportation Worker Identity Card (TWIC) presently under development.

In a letter to CTA CEO, David Bradley, the U.S. transportation security chief says that one of his department’s objectives "is to build on the success of credentialing programs like Free & Secure Trade (FAST) and in furtherance of this objective, your recommendation to utilize the FAST process for cross-border security credentialing merits additional consideration by TSA and the TWIC program."

Says Bradley, "If we can use the FAST card as the platform for other security credentialing requirements for our drivers, it could solve a lot of problems for everyone concerned."

Bradley and Hutchinson have met twice in recent months at events where the two were speaking on border security issues.

With regard to the TWIC program (which at some point in the future all U.S. transportation workers will require but for which there is presently no mechanism for Canadian truck drivers to even apply for) Hutchinson says the program "has recently commenced its technology evaluation phase at sites in the Philadelphia/Delaware River and Los Angeles/Long Beach areas.

Concurrently, program personnel are developing the business processes relating to matters such as background checks, privacy, liability, and regulations. A seven-month prototype phase will follow to allow a more complete evaluation of the selected access control technologies and TWIC business processes."