For those of us in the transportation industry just mentioning the term TWIC will get you all kinds of heated responses. From the lack of information put out by the Ports and the Federal Government to the six to eight weeks it takes to get a TWIC Card, this is one of the worst implementations of a government program you will ever find.
First the deadline to register was set and then not announced. It was left to the individual ports to inform Port Employees, Contractors, and Transportation Providers. What the ports did was tell all the Port Employees and Contractors, and then posted a note on the bulletin board with 20 other notices for the Transportation Provider’s employees to read and inform their respective companies. Big surprise, very few trucking companies even knew about the program until less than 60 days until the deadline.
Then once a trucking company knew of the program, getting correct information was even harder. There was nothing on my state DOT web-site, or on the Port of Savannah web-site, or most of the web-sites of the ports my company frequents. Even my state trucking association had no information. So I had nothing, not who the program belonged to, no congressional committee, nothing. Finally I started looking at the web-sites for posts I don’t usually go to, and eventually found a link on the Port of Charleston to the TWIC Program. Three cheers for Charleston, which I must add the Port of Charleston was the only port to properly inform the trucking companies of the TWIC Program.
I then went to work on Washington to get help with expediting the process. Thank you to Congressman Jim Marshall and staff for their assistance in getting me in contact with Denise Krepp at the Sub-committee. Denise was very instrumental in getting my employees enrolled in the program.
Now several weeks later my employees are getting their TWIC Cards, and now I have hit a new problem. It seems that the State of Florida not only is going to require the TWIC Card, but they are also requiring that all truck drivers going into Florida ports will half to have a Florida Port Identification Card. Without both you will not gain entry to any Florida port facility. O Great three to five more weeks of waiting to get this card. And between the two cards I will spend in fees, travel expenses and wages more than $500.00 per employee for the two cards. Talk about REDUNDENCE.
This program has many problems which congress refuses to address. Let them know as I have that it is time to bring this program under control and to address the issues it has caused.
Take friends.
Gerald
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Children's Products
Update on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
Over the weekend many Bloggers and Homeschoolers posted about the CSPC granting a one year stay on the implementation of this Act. Be not deceived my friends, this is a “Trojan Horse” offering by the CSPC and Congress to give you and me a false sense of victory. Read the fine print. This so called Stay, only applies to testing of new products imported by large retailers, and does nothing to address Second-hand Stores or the issues involving books.
The Stay states and I quote;
“The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.”
When you check the guidance you will find that the only protection this Stay gives these stores is to exempt them from Civil Action. But, what the CSPC fails to state is that these stores will still be at risk of being fined and imprisoned by the Federal Government for non-compliance.
Do not think we have won. This is a simply the Federal Government making a change to help large retailers during the economic crunch. If Congress really cared they would do the responcible thing, scrap the current Act and start over.
Take care my friends,
Gerald
Over the weekend many Bloggers and Homeschoolers posted about the CSPC granting a one year stay on the implementation of this Act. Be not deceived my friends, this is a “Trojan Horse” offering by the CSPC and Congress to give you and me a false sense of victory. Read the fine print. This so called Stay, only applies to testing of new products imported by large retailers, and does nothing to address Second-hand Stores or the issues involving books.
The Stay states and I quote;
“The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.”
When you check the guidance you will find that the only protection this Stay gives these stores is to exempt them from Civil Action. But, what the CSPC fails to state is that these stores will still be at risk of being fined and imprisoned by the Federal Government for non-compliance.
Do not think we have won. This is a simply the Federal Government making a change to help large retailers during the economic crunch. If Congress really cared they would do the responcible thing, scrap the current Act and start over.
Take care my friends,
Gerald
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