Industry Waits for Guidance on Fingerprint Deadlines

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ith less than three weeks before the Transportation Security Administration’s extended deadline for states to begin background checks of truckers hauling hazardous materials, industry officials said the government had yet to release any information about the process.

“Right now, the carriers know something’s down the pike, but they are in limbo,” said Cliff Harvison, president of National Tank Truck Carriers. “They have seen nothing yet from [TSA] that would give the states directly or the motor carriers indirectly any guidance on implementation of the program.”

Harvison told Transport Topics that questions of who would fingerprint drivers and how that information would be sent for background checks were still unresolved.

“To the best of my knowledge, none of these very vital questions have been answered as far as the public is concerned,” he said. He said he believed TSA might back off from its fingerprint requirement for background checks.

For the full story, see the March 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.