Twic card

TWIC cards also keep you from having to wait or pay for an escort on some ports.It also helps you thru a background check for Haz-Mat endorsement on your license Very handy to have for security clearance at a Air Base.They do a full background check with fingerprints and all the assorted probings of your past.They are a little pricey as well.

 

It's still that way, for the TWIC Card at least. Haven't a clue about the HazMat.

 

I did my application and fingerprints in Cedar Rapids, Ia. a year ago. Had them mail it to the twic office in Kansas City where I picked it up a couple weeks later. They emailed me when the card was ready and also gave me an option on where I wanted to pick it up. Had to be at a twic office

 

OOops.... my mistake... the TWIC will not be sent via mail... I will have to go pick it up but not at the location where I applied. Asked them to send it to another place where I can pick it up in person 3 months from last week.

 

When I got my TWIC, I had to pick it up at the same location where I applied. The hazmat and TWIC are basically the same background check made by the same company for a two fees. If you can pass one, you can pass the other.

 

I wonder about this escort thing. How does it work? Is it just some guy who has a TWIC card standing at the gate and taking 40 bucks a pop to get you through, or is it a company that specifically does this? It sounds like a pretty good racket to get into. I'd bet that there's at least a dozen or more non-TWIC drivers that have to get into your average port on any given day.

You could make a nice little living if you were the only guy, or one of the few that could shepherd them through the gate.

 

I doubt that you can find an escort for $40. I have a friend who used to pay at least $85 for an escort to take him about 200 yards. He has had to pay over $100. Some of these escorts charge by the hour. It doesn't take but a couple of escorted loads to pay for the TWIC. I would not pay for a TWIC unless you plan on going to ports or shippers that require the card. But, if you do, then it would benefit you to have the card.

 

That doesn't surprise me; when you are the only person who can get someone through the gate, you can charge a pretty penny for the service.

But how does this whole escort thing work? Are there actual companies that do this or is it just some random guy who happens to have a TWIC card hanging out at the gate? Does the port authority/government regulate these people in some way?

I'm just curious as to how this little scheme works, and who all has their fingers in the pie, so to speak.

 

The escort is usually done by an employee or security personnel. Never heard of being charged to be escorted but thats probably being done now. Most ports in Cali wont even let you in without a twic. But if you applied for one recently, the receipt is just as good as the card itself. Some ports still require escort depending on the vessels cargo regardless if you have the card. The coast guard requires twic at all marine terminals but they dont accept it as a form of id on any of thier bases. Maybe things have changed since. The airport accepts it as id though.

 

Most of the ports in NJ/Philly. Holt, Packer Ave, POW, Elizabeth, etc it's $40 security from port provides guys, or of none available the company your picking up from can be send someone. Iwhat meetings in port of Houston and a few termials last week and had a few foreign nationals with us. I have a regular twic and had to sign extra paperwork and forms to be their escort. I work for a shipper/importer. This people were just visitors not drivers though and we were in a car, so probably different rules...