To get a gun permit in my home state of Massachusetts, you need to be fingerprinted. Given the connection between firearms and crime, gun owners in the Bay State must accept that intrusion on their personal liberty. Thanks to the USA Patriot Act, hazmat truck drivers will be subject to a similar intrusion now that the federal government will require their fingerprints for a background check.

As of this month, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is requiring fingerprint-based criminal background checks for holders of commercial drivers licenses with hazardous materials endorsements. In other words, if you want to drive a truck carrying hazardous materials anywhere in the good ol' U.S.A., you'll have to get fingerprinted.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon four years ago, fingerprinting operators of trucks that could be used as "bombs" might make sense at first thought. But there are problems with the government's proposal that call into question the entire scheme.

For one thing, the TSA plans to require this identification method only for U.S. drivers. But the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has opened our borders to Canadian and Mexican truckers—what about them? According to the Canadian Border Services Agency, some 90,000 Canadian drivers cross the U.S. border each year. (Mexican drivers have been granted access to U.S. highways, but legal challenges and regulatory holdups still restrict them to special zones along the border.)

Since foreigners carried out the terrorist attacks of 9/11, doesn't it make sense to fingerprint non-U.S. drivers? Moreover, if NAFTA was meant to level the playing field between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, shouldn't Mexican and Canadian truck drivers be subject to the same requirements as their U.S. counterparts?

Many in the trucking industry have raised questions about how fingerprint verifications will be carried out. In its comments on the TSA proposal, the National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC), an organization representing more than 200 motor carriers that haul liquid and dry bulk products, expressed doubts about whether the mechanisms and the resources are in place to conduct background checks on as many as 400,000 drivers.

State authorities will perform the background checks, yet CNN has reported that California has only three sites for fingerprinting and some other states, including Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, have only one. Based on a survey of its members, NTTC found that authorities in some states aren't even sure how and where they'll do the fingerprinting.

The NTTC has made a counterproposal that should be given serious consideration—and be endorsed by all hazmat shippers. The group has proposed that the federal agency use name-based background checks instead of fingerprinting.

Name-based checks would allow the government to search immigration records and criminal databases for outstanding warrants. The tanker organization also notes that name-based checks were deemed sufficient under the "Brady Bill," a federal law that requires background checks on purchasers of certain types of firearms. If you can get a handgun with a name-based clearance, shouldn't the same standard be used to get a license to drive a tank truck?

Although the NTTC asked the government to postpone the fingerprint rule, the TSA has gone ahead with a poorly designed plan that gives little thought to the ramifications for the freight market. As the rule is now implemented, shippers will face service disruptions when there aren't enough lawful drivers available to move their hazmat loads. Shippers who want to prevent that from happening should contact their congressmen right away.