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Some Truckers to Undergo Background Checks
Mon Mar 28, 7:02 AM ET U.S. National - AP
By ROSA CIRIANNI, Associated Press Writer
CRANBURY, N.J. - The truck drivers who haul cargo labeled as flammable, combustible, radioactive or poisonous are now going to be scrutinized as closely as the hazardous materials that fill their tankers and trailers.
In the coming months, roughly 3 million drivers across the nation will begin to be fingerprinted and put through FBI (news - web sites) criminal background checks. Their names also are cross-referenced with federal databases related to terrorist activity, a practice the U.S. Transportation Security Administration began last year.
"Some of us are against it and some of us are for it because of safety since 9/11," said Michael Johnson (news - web sites), a trucker from Mauldin, S.C., during a recent break at the Molly Pitcher Rest Stop in Middlesex County on the New Jersey Turnpike.
"The drivers that drive, they want to be safe," he said. "Some of them are against it because they say it's impeding their privacy."
The federal Transportation Security Administration and the FBI will conduct the "security threat assessments" as drivers renew their credentials allowing them to haul hazardous materials. Drivers who haul hazardous materials must attach a placard to the back of their tankers or trucks.
After a criminal record search, the TSA could either give drivers a green light to be recertified, or classify them as threats and prevent them from transporting hazardous materials. The TSA will notify the state where a driver is licensed of its findings. Drivers could appeal the decisions...
