Hawaii Implements Port-Security System

New Requirements for Hawaii Ports

Hawaii Requires TWIC card

A new federal security system for access to Hawaii commercial ports was implemented Thursday. Most employees who do not hold a Transportation Workers Identification Credential, or TWIC card, will not be allowed access to the ports unless they are escorted.

The TWIC requirement applies to an estimated 25,000 workers in Hawaii, including port employees, longshore workers and truckers.  Merchant mariners and others who work aboard vessels have until April 15 to enroll in the TWIC program.

What is a TWIC card

The tamper-resistant TWIC is a “smart card” with name, photograph, expiration date and a bar-coded serial number. Harbor personnel use hand-held readers to either scan the bar code or swipe a magnetic strip.

The TWIC program was launched in October 2007, and Honolulu was one of the first cities on the list.

SMSH Partners Arthur Schechter and Matt Shaffer have represented TWIC card-carrying transportation workers for years.  If you are a merchant mariner, port employee, or other longshore or maritime worker who has been injured on the job, please contact us at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers so that we can help you get the compensation you are entitled to.

Update 9/18

The House of Representatives Bill, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential Accountability Act (H.R. 5729), passed this year by the Senate demands that the U.S. Coast Guard asses the success of the biometric readers and the Transportation Security Administration’s Transportation Worker Identification Credential program until a report of the effectiveness is submitted to Congress. The bill was recently approved by President Donald Trump.