Is John Doe more likely to be required to show his TWIC if hes a longshore worker than a truck driver? Recent poll results raise an important question on TWIC enforcement.

In a recent trucking magazine’s survey, two-thirds of truckers say they are “rarely” or “never” asked to show their TWIC when entering a port.

A year ago, truck driver Gary Carr enrolled in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, which includes a biometric ID card with a computer chip that stores his fingerprints and U.S. documentation.

Carr said he is rarely asked to show his TWIC card, with port security typically allowing him to drive within 10 feet of water and sometimes close to cargo and cruise ships by merely flashing his driver’s license.

“I don’t understand where it’s totally required and where it’s not,” Carr said. “I like the idea of TWIC. It holds a lot of information to clear you to do a lot of different things. It just amazes me that what the government required me to pay $132 for, I’m not using.”

It appears Carr isn’t alone.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents in a recent landlinemag.com Web poll said their TWIC cards were checked always or “most of the time” at ports they visit. Twenty-nine percent said rarely, and about one third of respondents in the unscientific poll said their TWIC cards were never checked at ports they visit.

Read what the TSA and the Coast Guard have to say about the discrepancy .– which is not much — at Land Line Magazine’s April 2010 issue online.

Tell us your TWIC story at longshorenews@gmail.com.