OTTAWA – Terminology may be at the root of recent confusion surrounding the use of a FAST card to qualify a driver to transport placardable quantities of hazmat loads in the U.S.

Some drivers have been reporting that they’ve been asked to report to a FAST operations centre to get a HAZMAT endorsement on their FAST cards.

According to Ron Lennox, vice-president of trade and security at the Canadian Trucking Alliance, the U.S. rule says nothing about a FAST “endorsement.” It just requires that a Canadian driver obtain the card in order to continue to haul placarded quantities of hazmat while in the US.

A glitch in CBP’s system falsely showed that Canadian
truckers needed a hazmat ‘endorsement’ to cross the border

“My understanding is that there was a bit of a glitch in ACE whereby the system — if it spotted hazmat on the manifest and a driver with a FAST card — would then search to see if there was information about the driver indicating he or she had received training,” Lennox says by way of an explanation of where the misunderstanding may have arisen. “I’ve been told by CBP that this has been fixed.

“My contacts at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Field Operations, tell me the only thing [they’re] looking for is to see if there is qualified hazmat on the manifest. If so, they want to see a FAST card, too,” Lennox told Today’s Trucking. “If the driver has one, he’s on his way — assuming, of course, that everything else [with the load] is OK.”

All the other requirements remain the same. Canadian drivers are required to carry proof of Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) training while hauling such loads. U.S. drivers, under their own rule, are required to have a hazmat endorsement on their state-issued commercial driver licence
(CDL).

The FAST card is supplemental; it is not tied directly to the hazmat credentials. It only provides proof that appropriate background and security checks have been carried out on the driver holding the card.

The CTA was able to convince U.S. regulators to accept the FAST card in lieu of a hazmat “endorsement” similar to the U.S. requirement earlier this month.

The rule officially took effect on Aug. 10, but CBP subsequently announced it would implement a period of “soft enforcement,” which would allow truckers without a FAST card until Nov. 13, 2006 to obtain one — a process that typically takes one to two months.

Possession of a FAST card for the purposes of identifying a hazmat-qualified driver do not grant FAST-lane privileges at the borders, nor does the FAST card — when used in this context — grant the driver or the carrier any FAST privileges on non-FAST loads.