Opinion: Virginia Increases Availability of TWICs at DMVs

This Opinion piece appears in the March 6 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

By Richard D. Holcomb

Commissioner

Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles

As reported in Transport Topics in early December 2016, (12-12, pp. 4, 43) American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear told a roundtable of lawmakers at a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C., that the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, represents the future of secure transportation.

Richard D. Holcomb

Spear said at that hearing, “Adopting a ‘one credential or screening, many uses’ policy would fix this problem” by eliminating the need for drivers to undergo a multitude of background checks to access different types of secure facilities. He added, “Absent this policy, ATA’s highest security priority will continue to be the multiplicity of background checks and their associated costs and burdens.”

In Virginia, we agree that the TWIC is an invaluable tool. That is why the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles became the first DMV in the country to partner with the Transportation Security Administration’s vendor MorphoTrust USA to offer TWIC enrollment services at eight DMV locations across the state, with more sites to come.

Prior to the partnership, truck drivers could access TWIC services only at a limited number of TSA enrollment centers in Virginia, concentrated in Northern Virginia, Richmond and the Norfolk-Virginia Beach areas. For truck drivers in the rest of the state, these offices were hours away, making them difficult to reach. To solve this problem, the Virginia DMV, with its statewide footprint and proven record of forging partnerships to deliver products and services, approached MorphoTrust to discuss a potential partnership to expand service points.

DMV and MorphoTrust drew up and signed a contract, and on July 21, 2016, our governor, Terry McAuliffe, rolled out the first Universal Enrollment Services, or UES, center at DMV headquarters in Richmond, Virginia’s capital, offering TWIC, TSA PreCheck and hazardous materials background check enrollment services.

In the following months, UES centers opened at DMV offices in Abingdon, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Newport News, Roanoke, Stephens City and Tyson’s Corner. These offices are strategically located to serve truck drivers in all parts of the state, including western and southwestern Virginia, which contains a 300-mile stretch of the vital Interstate 81 trucking corridor, and central Virginia, where interstates 85, 95 and 64 converge.

We will further enhance this service during the first six months of 2017 by adding a work station in the Richmond office and new service at our Lorton and Williamsburg offices. As of this writing, DMV has assisted nearly 1,500 customers in obtaining or managing their TWIC.

The story of one customer, a merchant mariner from the Roanoke area in southwest Virginia, is a perfect illustration of the benefits of increased access to TWIC services. This particular customer was preparing to travel from Roanoke to Greensboro, North Carolina, to conduct a TWIC transaction, a round trip of about 250 miles. This year, he checked the TSA website and found to his delight that he needed travel no farther than the Roanoke DMV office. His obvious appreciation when he showed up at our office was confirmation that our TWIC partnership with MorphoTrust is paying off for our customers.

ATA President Spear has further suggested that a background check performed for a TWIC should relieve a DMV from having to conduct a second and identical background check to issue a HazMat endorsement to a commercial driver license, or CDL, and Virginia DMV agrees. This concept is provided for in Sen. John Thune’s (R-SD) Surface Transportation and Maritime Security Act. While Virginia DMV currently administratively waives the fingerprinting and background check for the holder of a TWIC when issuing a HazMat endorsement, thereby reducing the burden and cost on the customer, we see the benefit of requiring that consistency across the board.

I am proud to say that Virginia is one of the most TWIC- friendly states in the nation. If Spear is right and TWIC is the credential of the future, then Virginia is poised to lead the way in getting TWIC into the hands of drivers nationwide. I am further pleased that my colleague from Maryland followed suit and has signed an agreement with MorphoTrust to begin offering TWIC — and TSA PreCheck — services at a number of the state DMV offices. I expect other progressive DMVs to follow our lead.

Holcomb has been DMV commissioner under four different Virginia governors: Bob McDonnell and Terry McAuliffe (2010 to present) and George Allen and Jim Gilmore (1994-2001). Holcomb also was ATA’s general counsel and senior vice president of law and regulatory affairs from 2001 to 2010.