Port of Memphis to start ID program

The Port of Memphis will begin enrolling its port and longshore workers, truckers and other employees in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential program.

Through the program, the port hopes to ensure that an individual with unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat. More than 1 million workers with such access will apply for TWIC between the rest of this year and the next.

Memphis is among the first 40 U.S. ports to begin enrollment in the nationwide program. Ultimately, fixed enrollment centers will be in place at 147 ports along with mobile enrollment centers at dozens of other locations as needed.

"The United States Coast Guard's Sector Lower Mississippi River and the Port of Memphis' Area Maritime Security Committee have conducted TWIC outreach during monthly meetings and via Homeport (an online service)," Phil Boruszewski, Coast Guard port security specialist, said in a statement.

The enrollment center is located in Memphis at 3865 Viscount Ave., Suite 2.

The Port of Memphis is the fourth largest inland port in the U.S. It covers the Tennessee and Arkansas sides of the Mississippi River. Products such as petroleum, tar, asphalt, cement, iron, steel, coal, salt, fertilizers and other chemicals, rock, gravel, limestone and food products such as wheat, corn, rice, oats, soybeans, vegetable oils, animal feed, rubber, plastic and equipment are distributed in and pass through the Port of Memphis daily.

Approximately 1,458 towboats, 7,480 barges with dry cargo and 2,345 petroleum and chemical tank barges pass through the Port of Memphis every year with more than 16 million tons of cargo.

Source:RamblerNews