OTTAWA, (Feb. 2, 2005) — There is still no plan in place to fingerprint Canadian hazmat drivers travelling to the U.S. despite a rule requiring biometric scans of American drivers taking effect this week.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration began the second phase of the Hazmat Threat Assessment Program with the fingerprinting of U.S. commercial truck drivers applying to obtain a new hazardous materials endorsement (HME) on their state-issued commercial drivers license.

During phase one, TSA ran name-based security checks on all 2.7 million Hazmat drivers to determine if any presented a potential terrorist threat. Phase two augments this effort by adding an FBI fingerprint-based checks of criminal and immigration history records. The third and final phase of implementation begins May 31, 2005 when drivers, who currently hold hazmat endorsements and wish to renew or transfer the HME, must undergo the fingerprint-based background check.

Contrary to some media reports, for now this rule does not apply to Canadian truck drivers and would not include drivers holding a commercial licence, says the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

The CTA has been lobbying for the use of a FAST card as the hazmat security mechanism for Canadian truck drivers, since many of the relevant background checks and biometric recording required for a hazmat endorsement are also covered when applying for FAST.

“We believe the security process (for FAST) is as rigorous as TSA hazmat security checks,” said CTA CEO David Bradley in a press release. “We remain hopeful that both TSA and the Canadian government will reach agreement on this issue to remove uncertainty over how the security process will apply to Canadian drivers.”

The CTA has been negotiating with U.S. officials for over a year on the issue. During that time CTA has indicated that the U.S. is very open to the idea.