What is a twic card?

Here is the link to its Wiki

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Worker_Identification_Credential

 

TWIC stands for Transportation Workers Identification Card. If you do a google search or go to the TSA.gov website you should find what you want to know. In order to get a TWIC you will need to go through a background check. It is required to get into most ports and some power plants. There are some shippers who also require the TWIC in order to get on their property or haul their freight. I would not worry about getting one unless you really need it. Most drivers don't need a TWIC.

 

Post 9/11 paranoia at it's finest.

 

all the big fishing boat piers in Gloucester and New Bedford
we needed TWIC cards to get to our boats
like any of the crew could pass a background check or a pee test
we used to call fishing offshore detox
in Hampton Roads VA the drug dealers and hookers would catch the lines when the boats docked..........sigh

 

Another wasteful gov't boondoggle which did nothing for security and added another hoop for business to jump through. I'm still waiting for them to cancel it.

 

It can speed you through airport security lines [in some cases] too. I'm just trying to find the positive instead of being negative about the concept of TWIC cards.

But for trucker wannabe's, if you're dispatched to somewhere a TWIC is needed and you don't have one, you will generally have to pay an escort fee and wait on an escort and this can be a long wait in places from what I've heard. And no, this is not the same escort you can hire in Vegas.

 

Here's a funny, can't get across border into Mexico with TWIC. Customs looked at card, which was all I brought over from parking lot (need nothing to cross border on foot, need proper ID to get back), called all the other customs officers over to look at the card and its neat plastic case.

We need your birth certificate or passport, they told me. It's in the car on the other side (birth certificate was, didn't have my passport renewed yet).

Bring it next time, they told me. CDL isn't proper ID to cross border either.

You need passport or passport card. Have both now.

 

Fast card works very well for this.


As for TWIC, don't bother unless you're going to ports or military installments. After 3 years OTR it hasn't paid for itself yet...

 

Lots of port loads around. I was a meat hauler and still used it numerous times inside of a few years getting pineapples and papayas for Walmart.