Seaports and their customers nationwide face the challenge of rolling out the federally mandated Transportation Worker Identification Credential. A handful of ports implemented TWIC in 2008, but April 15 will bring new challenges to the ports and their users when the card will be required at all U.S. ports.
Seaports face the challenge of complying with TWIC to meet Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard regulations, while maintaining the uninterrupted flow of commerce. Our customers are concerned about having to account for this new out-of-pocket cost (TWIC costs $132.50 per employee and is good for a five-year period) and how best to limit the card to only those employees who absolutely need unrestricted entry into designated secure areas. They are especially concerned about the impact on seasonal workers, contractors working on specific projects and other workers with high turnover rates.
Transportation workers have been clamoring for a single, uniform security identification badge that would be accepted at all seaports nationwide. TWIC is not the solution they had hoped for. Too many questions remain about its distribution to the nation’s estimated 1.2 million transportation workers affected, the installation of card readers, implementation and monitoring, and overall value. Ports with existing ID badge programs face the additional question of how to implement TWIC while potentially being required to maintain a separate ID system to meet state or local requirements, such as those in Florida. And, to compound problems, the TSA’s computer system has had serious glitches that have delayed workers’ ability to obtain their cards.
Port Everglades continues to support a single, uniform identification card. We hope the TWIC rollout at Port Everglades, scheduled for Jan. 13, where more than 27,000 port ID badges are processed annually, is efficient and that TWIC implementation problems are taken into account by the Coast Guard as it begins to enforce this new requirement.