Security’s New Age
9/11 changed trucking security. Some changes go too far.
Deborah Whistler
Editor
My first big assignment as a trucking journalist was a major series of articles dealing with trucking industry security issues.
For research, I attended ATA’s Security Council meeting. There I met hundreds of trucking security experts along with cops and FBI agents assigned to deal with truck transportation crime.
Not only were they interesting, they gave me access to some pretty interesting characters. Like Pokey White, who I interviewed from the pokey. When Mr. White was on the outside, he ran one of the most notorious hijacking enterprises in the country. Behind bars, he was a mentor to his peers, running the equivalent of a hijacking school from prison.
Much of the trucking security threat in the early 1980s was hijacking. There were no on-board vehicle tracking devices, and robbers knew that sticking up a big rig was easier, safer and more profitable than robbing a bank. The booty was on wheels with no surveillance cameras to capture the dastardly deed.
Fleets couldn’t rely on many driver screening services. One fleet security guru told me he quit working for a driver screening service when he discovered that his partner was falsifying negative reports on good drivers to impress his customers with the necessity of professional screening services.
Throughout the years, screening has obviously become more sophisticated. Commercial Drivers License requirements have curtailed the practice of drivers obtaining multiple licenses from several states to hide bad records. Sophisticated tracking devices have deterred hijacking. More centralized driver record-keeping has helped keep bad apples out.
Some fleets have devised interesting, although not so practical, strategies to prevent pilferage and hijacking. One carrier ships Nike shoes in separate trailer loads – right-foot shoes in one, left in another. It makes for a lot of work putting all the pairs back together again, but it has reduced theft. Who wants a pair – or a trailer full – of left-foot shoes?
Since 9/11 though, truck security has entered a new age. Truckers have been identified as the first line of defense against terrorists since trucking is considered a likely mode of conveyance for a terrorist attack. To reduce the possibilities, the government is throwing its regulatory clout at the issue.
One controversial program is fingerprinting of all drivers seeking to obtain or renew CDL endorsements to haul hazmat materials. The obvious intent of the regulation is to prevent terrorists from becoming licensed to haul dangerous materials.
There are some flaws in the thinking here. First is the idea that a terrorist would bother getting a CDL.
The terrorists who attacked the Pentagon and World Trade Center may have learned to operate a commercial aircraft, but they didn’t apply for a job at American Airlines. They hijacked the planes. Terrorists who want access to a truckload of explosives would most likely do the same.
The earlier attack on the World Trade Center by truck was accomplished by terrorists renting a vehicle and hauling in their own explosives, not by becoming employed as commercial truckers.
The fingerprinting requirement is further eroding an already sparse driver pool. Drivers are balking, not because they are terrorists, but because many states don’t have facilities or resources to handle the procedure quickly and efficiently.
Many outside the trucking industry don’t understand that all hazardous materials aren’t equal. An LTL load with a pallet of hairspray is considered a hazmat load. So is soda pop syrup. Hardly weapons of mass destruction.
The new fingerprinting rule is prompting many carriers to refuse to haul any load labeled hazmat, just so they can recruit and retain drivers.This will drive freight rates for many non-dangerous loads through the roof.
The feds need to be more practical about which drivers hauling which types of hazmat loads really need this kind of scrutiny. Explosives, OK. Soft drink syrup, no.
These requirements are over the top. The system needs to be improved.
E-mail Deb Whistler at dwhistler@truckinginfo.com
