National Tank Truck Carriers has urged the federal government to “indefinitely postpone” its plan to include fingerprint screening as part of its background-check process for drivers seeking authority to haul hazardous cargo.

Several states may not be fully ready to meet the Transportation Security Administration’s Jan. 31 deadline to begin fingerprinting new drivers of hazardous materials, according to comments filed with the agency by state and industry groups.

New rules issued by the Food and Drug Administration last week that require companies to maintain records of food transportation should not have much effect on food haulers as they closely resemble regulations already required by another part of the federal government, an industry representative said.

Some major trucking companies and industry associations offered the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration conditional support for mandating the use of electronic onboard recording devices to monitor driver hours-of-service rules..

The Transportation Security Administration offered some long-awaited guidance on its proposed background check program for hazardous materials drivers, but industry officials said TSA still left many aspects of its program unclear.

The federal government agency responsible for hazardous materials safety, the Research and Special Programs Administration, unveiled an online system for reporting of hazmat incidents.

The Transportation Security Administration announced it was delaying until May 31 its requirement for states to conduct fingerprint-based background checks for drivers renewing or transferring their hazardous-materials endorsements.

Preventing commercial-driver-license fraud is among the top issues the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration must deal with, said a recent report outlining the major challenges facing the Department of Transportation in the coming year.

The Transportation Security Administration said Nov. 10 that the fee for fingerprint-based background checks for drivers hauling hazardous materials would be about $100 per person, and that implementing the program could lead as many as 20% of existing commercial driver license hazmat endorsement holders to forgo seeking permission to carry dangerous goods.

Advocacy group Public Citizen said in a recent report that the government agencies charged with securing hazardous material transportation have not done enough to prevent a possible terrorist attack.