WASHINGTON — Canadian hazmat haulers not able to get FAST-approved in time to meet US Customs and Border Protection’s new security rules for foreign truckers will get a 90 day reprieve from enforcement.

According to the American Trucking Associations, CBP will treat the next 90 days as a period of “informed compliance,” where Canadian and Mexican hazmat truckers that do not produce a FAST card at the border will be handed an informational notice advising them of the new rule. Phase 2 enforcement and full compliance with the rule now kicks-in November 13, 2006.

The rule, a clause in the Patriot Act, has already been in place for about 3.5 million U.S. drivers since last year. Canadian truckers were slated to comply with the same background checks, which basically mirrored the protocols for FAST compliance.

But, as the Canadian Trucking Alliance has argued for years, the problem from the outset had been to find a mechanism for Canadian drivers to comply with the system since one does not exist in Canada.

CBP and the Transportation Security Administration jointly agreed to institute the phased-in approach to provide sufficient time to register drivers in the FAST — a process that can take as long as two months to complete.

Some truckers and carriers not aware of the rule ran the risk of being turned away at the border if a driver was not FAST-approved.

While trucking groups like the CTA welcomed the decision to allow FAST in lieu of America’s security requirements, many questioned the timing of the official announcement.

“It is difficult to understand why this announcement came less than three weeks from a legislated deadline, when the process to obtain a FAST card typically takes 6 to 8 weeks,” said CTA chief David Bradley at the time.