MC&E: Food Haulers Urge Background Checks

(Michael James - TT) Bud Wallace, chief executive officer for Wallace Transportation Inc.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Food safety concerns can be alleviated if criminal background checks are performed on manual laborers who prepare bulk food shipments for transportation by truck, said a member of the Agricultural Transporters Conference.

The conference, made up up of 260 companies, is part of the American Trucking Associations, which is holding its annual Management Conference and exhibition here.

Bud Wallace, chief executive officer for Wallace Transportation Inc. of Planada, Calif., told Transport Topics the laborers have free access in food distribution warehouses, performing jobs no one else wants to do.

“Someone might come in and want the food on the pallets stacked five-high, instead of seven-high,” Wallace explained, “and a worker, called a lumper, would do that.”

“These people are not given any background checks, show up when they want to and leave when they are done,” he said at the ATC’s board of directors meeting Sunday. “That’s an area that needs examined.”

td align=center bgcolor="#0066cc">MC&E Coverage

td height=1 align=left>

/tr>

	Anti-Terror Law Could Stifle Commerce Trucking to Pay More for Insurance in January Truckload Carriers Eye Security Costs More MC&E Coverage

ATC members felt that other safeguards already in the system were adequate to prevent contamination by terrorists, Wallace added.

Another issue the agricultural conference dealt with was that motor carriers have been faced with sharply higher insurance premiums this year.

That has already led the American Trucking Associations to alert state insurance commissioners.

“ATA needs to look at it in all aspects, where they can help members against these significant increases and what the options might be,” said Fletcher Hall, ATC executive officer.

8062