There was a thread about placard and I have a question for conductors and engineers. Do C & E have the background checks and fingerprints taken like truck driver do that haul hazmat loads?
I’m a driver and have a hazmat endorsement on my cdl. Trains haul so much hazmat today and I know rules change but have never heard that they have to have the background check. They might have this just to get hired.
I have never been fingerprinted. I do have to have a photo ID now.I think we get it easier cause well we are on tracks and havea lot more scrutiny from management and all that.
I also have my CDL for slowdowns, got the fingerprinting and I think its BS! Every time I renew my license Ihave to do this now? Plus pay the 60 bucks for renewal? I love it what a great way to make money.
All of my railroad T&E guys have been TWICed…read that as Twick,Transportation Worker Identification Card…includes our finger print, photo and a info microchip…we have to “scan” in at some refineries, and simply show it to guards at some locations.
No fingerprints taken in my career, but I don’t go into places like Ed does. No TWICs, nothing up my sleeve…just a photo ID.
Quite an extensive background check is made for new hires. I don’t know if they have to submit to fingerprinting, but checks of criminal and driving record are made, as well as drug and alcohol tests.
[In]Famously, last spring the ‘mule skinners’ = mule guides or drivers/ teamsters at the National Canal Museum in Hugh Moore Park at Easton, PA had to obtain the DHS TWIC cards, despite an attempted intercession by local Congressman Charlie Dent. They lead 2 mules that pull the Josiah White, a replica of a canal boat, with maybe 40 or 50 tourist/ visitor passengers on board for an out-and-back trip of less than a mile that lasts about 45 minutes at the staggering speed of around 2 miles per hour.
Now wait for it . . .
No, the mules did not have to get the TWIC cards.
But if they had, then an old railroad folklore story that Deggesty and I share about a carload of troublesome mules being needed to continue on its journey so that they could be made into conductors - no offense intended to any of the present company, of course - would then have a basis in actual fact, I suppose. [swg]
LOL Paul yes I know that story as well.
Our guys at the ICE never had fingerprints done, but I am sure a background check of immense proportions.Now none of us have TWIC cards. But like Carl I dont go anywhere like Ed does. Even when I was with the BN we didnt have to get a TWIC card ( not usre about the Santa Fe jobs working the refinery just before Joliet.)but I think the commuter guys had to have one? Not sure.
Give it time and who knows what will happen.
I thought the TWIC card was for the ports only. Most truckers I know have a TWIC card but I don’t yet as I never go to ports.
[swg] Been watching a few too many of the Bugs Bunny/ Elmer J. Fudd ‘Looney Tunes’ with the grandkids, Carl ?
The closest thing I come to carrying hazmat is ethyl alcohol, as a component of beer and wine, mostly being consumed by the passengers (who sometimes then become hazardous themselves).
I do know some folks who handle hazmat on a shortline. I’ll have to ask them when I see them.