Don't look now, but there are plenty of folks looking over your shoulder--you just can't see them. They have actually been watching you for some time, but since 9/11, they are watching much more closely.

From the time you begin applying for a CDL, a number of state and federal agencies begin collecting data. And the collection never stops. If you change addresses, move to another state, get a ticket in the family car or have your CDL suspended--it's all recorded and added to your driver record.

Want to add an endorsement, get credentials for moving in and out of a port or get Customs clearance for cross-border trucking? That paperwork is also recorded in databases.

In addition, as your truck moves across the country, it leaves an electronic trail in its wake from automated toll collections and weigh-station bypass systems.

Except for the driver record, much of this information is collected and maintained in separate places by separate entities.

With the exception of state motor vehicle agencies, these entities do not share information and are not required to do so.

That may change, due to heightened security concerns. News reports last year revealed federal government initiatives to merge all sorts of data gained from private and public transactions, such as reserving airline tickets, Internet surfing and other activities.

Digging in

Thanks to the nation's heightened appreciation for security, the "enhancing" of CDLs with more background checks could be in the works. "Even just from a cargo-loss perspective," says Barry Wilkins, director of transportation security for Pinkerton, "it is very often the driver that is involved. That is why the National Cargo Security Council has urged more thorough background checks of all truck drivers." Indeed, carriers have even begun asking the government for more power to investigate drivers. In testimony before Congress last year, Tony Chrestman, president of Ruan Transport, called for new security measures, including granting carriers access to national databases to conduct criminal background checks on current and prospective employees. Chrestman would also like to see more federal personnel dedicated to overseeing CDL programs. And he wants any legislation that would curtail use of Social Security numbers as identifiers on driver's licenses rejected. Meanwhile, despite the national sense of urgency to fight terrorism, action on this front has been moving with the usual glacial swiftness found in Washington, DC. The USA Patriot Act did direct the Department of Transportation to write regs for background checks on hazmat drivers. But more than a year later, the Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) has shown little movement on this--perhaps because it doesn't know whether or not the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will inherit the task. "Nobody knows if it will shift to TSA," says an FMCSA official. "That's why we're not doing much on it." Other initiatives FMCSA has been loathe to take on because of states' autonomy over drivers include background checks or even federal licensing for all drivers. However, these approaches may get the green light once the Department of Homeland Security is fully operational.

For transportation, the move to consolidate data is already underway. "I think there are something like 72 agencies currently that require information from the transportation sector of various sorts," says Jack Legler, director of trucking security and operations for the American Trucking Associations (ATA). "They request information from you and some 110 agencies are taking information out of those varied databases."

Legler says creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will lead to a more centralized data source. "Anything that deals with security is going to be in TSA's purview," he explains. "And as they formalize exit agreements with the Department of Transportation and move over to the Department of Homeland Security, they will decide what goes with them and what doesn't. The big objective is to try to streamline that process so that data gets integrated and there's not so much redundancy and data submission."

For truck drivers and others in transportation, data gathering has long been a way of life. The Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 contained provisions requiring states to comply with all licensing and sanctioning requirements of the Commercial Driver's License (CDL) program.

While most of these provisions have been part of the motor carrier regulations for some time, the 1999 bill put some teeth in these requirements. States that do not comply can lose federal highway money.

When someone applies for a CDL, the issuing state must check the applicant's driving record with the applicant's home DMV. Then the issuing state must check the CDL Information System to see if the applicant already has a CDL from another state; if that license has been suspended or revoked; or if the applicant has been disqualified from driving a commercial vehicle. The National Driver Register gets checked for the same information. Then the issuing state requests driving records for the last 10 years from any and every state in which the applicant held a driver's license of any kind.

States are required to maintain records of all convictions or disqualifications as part of a driver's history. They must make some or all of this information available to other states that request it, the Secretary of Transportation, motor carriers, and the driver.

Drivers will face even more scrutiny in the future as federal agencies develop rules requiring FBI background checks for hazmat drivers and perhaps others. These moves are raising concern among some driver groups.

"We are very concerned with the data that is gathered and how the data can be used," says Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). "We feel that for the most part, it will have zero effect in discouraging terrorists."

While OOIDA supports additional background checks on drivers hauling hazardous loads, Spencer says those checks should apply only to new CDL holders or those applying for a CDL.

"We're not believers that mandatory background checks will have an impact against terrorists," Spencer says. "If the federal government believes that is one way they can fight terrorists, we can support it. But we think a better way is to focus on new drivers or those who obtained their CDLs within the last five years. It's a waste of time to do a background check on a driver who has been safely driving a truck for 20 years."

In the long run, moves to consolidate all transportation security functions within TSA could mean more efficiency for carriers, according to ATA's Legler.

"Right now within DOT, the various modes are siloed," he says. "Each mode has its own administrative agency, even though they are part of the same department. If you were a multi-modal carrier, you would likely deal with four or five agencies. Hopefully, we will end up with one-stop shopping for a carrier's security credentials through Homeland Security and DOT. That's nice in theory. We'll see what happens when everything works out."

On the virtual fence

It's no secret just about everybody wants to know where trucks are. A new high-tech method for keeping tabs on trucks, dubbed "geo-fencing," not only tells people where your truck is, but also when it goes places it should not. Systems using such technology may be seen as anti-terrorist devices because they can electronically report to a fleet or the authorities or both whenever a truck deviates from its appointed route or heads into an unauthorized area. While some carriers already monitor route deviation to alert customers of delays, geo-fencing for security purposes "would take it to a different level with automatic alerts that carry different layers of consequences ranging from simple notification to actually shutting down a vehicle," points out Marc Sands, vp and division counsel for Qualcomm's Wireless Business Solutions.

While a centralized point may boost efficiency, there are other concerns. "The big objective is to streamline that process so that data gets integrated and there's not so much redundancy and data submission," Legler says. "But all the agencies we are working with understand that next to the integration, the biggest long-term challenge is the protection of things that do not belong out there under the eyes of people who do not need to know. They have to address how to do this without compromising our proprietary information or our customers' proprietary information."

Business privacy is an essential issue. The personal privacy of drivers, though, is less of an issue with fleets. "There are a lot of things that can be done to protect personal privacy," Legler says. "But it's kind of a dual-edged sword because so much abuse of the system has slipped through in the interest of protecting individual privacy. For instance, drivers had multiple drivers' licenses or suspended licenses that were never reported to their employer, or people used fraudulent means to get legitimate documentation."

"Carriers have legal responsibilities for the people they hire," contends Robert Hirsch, president of the Truckload Carriers Association. "They need to get access to who these people are." Hirsch says privacy concerns may keep carriers from finding out what they need to know to make good hiring decisions. "The regulations require only that you do a background check," he points out. "They don't require the people you ask to give you the information."

According to ATA's Legler, the increased scrutiny is mainly on things that should be done anyway. "Drivers are supposed to have background checks. The more sensitive your cargo, the more thorough those checks are supposed to be. A lot of the system's problems have prevented more thorough background checks."

Increased security concerns, says Legler, "means there is going to be a lot more tightening up. If you are operating on the fringes of legality now, I think you are going to have a lot more problems. If you are doing things upright, just and proper, I think you don't have anything to worry about. In fact, it may get easier. They may actually make life easier for people who do things right."

OOIDA's Spencer, on the other hand, believes the extra checking and data-gathering will have a limited impact on terrorists and safety. "I think generally, background checks now are adequate. The hiring criteria are where the issues exist," as far as safety is concerned. As for stopping terrorists, "if a terrorist is going to use a truck for a weapon, the most logical way to get it is simply to hijack a truck. But if the government believes background checks will provide a disincentive to terrorists, then they should be done by the appropriate agencies."

Access to this data should be limited only to "those with a demonstrable reason to have access and then only with the permission of the driver," Spencer says.

In the end, data access is the camel's nose in the tent. "If there is information available, it's going to be information that can be subpoenaed," Spencer remarks. Then what was private information will become a matter of public record.

Don't look now. But someone--or likely, more than one--is watching you.