I am so sick of every branch of government, from the Fed down to the local level, sucking money out of the pockets of truckers. The Transportation Workers Identification Card program is a Federal program which presumably is supposed to help screen those who go into our nation's ports. Very soon now truckers will not be able to enter a port to pick up or deliver a load with this TWIC card.

In order to get this card you must go into an office near where you live, present documents such as a birth certificate and proof of residence address, and submit to a criminal background check. The cost of doing this is well over $300.

Here's the thing though. You have to present the identical documents in order to get a damn CDL in the first place. If you have a hazmat endorsement on that CDL then the exact same background check was run then. Does this make any difference? Nope. Ya have to go through it all again for this stupid card (and pay again).

It's duplication of effort at our expense. Nothing more. A source of revenue for them on the backs of the truckers, yet again. The whole thing is pointless and won't add a single iota of additional safety at the ports. In order to get into a port now you have to be checked at the entry gate by a cop who runs, guess what?, a criminal check on you right there on the spot to see if you should be allowed in.

I can see such a card if you're someone who hauls into and out of the ports on a daily basis, such as container haulers, just to speed things up at the gate, but for someone who only goes to a port a few times a year it's an absurd waste of time and money.

Oh, and do they mail you the card after all this bullshit? Nope, you have to waste another trip to the office to pick up the damn thing. In my case that's a forty mile round trip from my house to their office and back. For someone who doesn't even own a car that's a major pain in the ass.

I find it impossible to believe that they can't manage to combine all of this document and background checking in such a way as to not be costing us an absurd amount of money. I know damn good and well this process can't possible cost that much, so where the Hell is all that money going?

Oh yeah, to pay for all of the additional people needed to do all this duplicate work for no good reason.