ALEXANDRIA, VA—The American Trucking Associations’ Highway Watch® program today announced that a report to its Highway Watch® call center has prompted an investigation within the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“This is reflective of how the intelligence community and the private sector can work together,” said Bill Graves, ATA President and CEO.  “With Highway Watch® we’re able to do our part in keeping the trucking industry and our nation’s highways safe and secure.”

The incident in question involved one of ten men participating in truck driver skills testing at a truck driving school.  Although the group possessed requisite Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) and claimed truck driving experience, only one was capable of completing the most basic truck driving skills. 

Suspicious of their intent, the school’s training director, a trained Highway Watch® participant, checked the group’s paperwork with the trucking company that had sent them to the school for examination of their safety knowledge and driving skills.  Together, they determined that most of the purported drivers’ credentials were incomplete or unverifiable, including their CDL’s and home addresses.  Talking further with the contractor who had referred the drivers to the trucking company, they learned all were foreign nationals who had illegally entered the United States. 

Acting on his training, the truck driving instructor reported the information to the Highway Watch® national call center.

After evaluation by Highway ISAC analysts, the Michigan information was distributed to the federal intelligence community.  An investigation continues.

Highway Watch® participants--transportation workers, commercial and public truck and bus drivers, and other highway sector professionals--are specially trained to recognize potential safety and security threats in their industry and avoid becoming a target of terrorists or to spot a terrorist threat to others.  After completing training, participants use cell phones and other telecommunications equipment to contact emergency and law enforcement personnel through a special Highway Watch® hotline.

The federally-funded transportation sector security program has the support of U.S. Representative Harold Rogers (R-KY), Chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Homeland Security Appropriations.  Rogers said, "America's highways are where truck drivers report to work each day.  With more than 3 million on the road, they are the best at spotting homeland security threats to their industry.  This case perfectly illustrates that Congress has made a good investment in national security.  Without the collective efforts of the Highway Watch® program and its participants, law enforcement officials would not have access to this critical national security information."

 When a security call is made to the Highway Watch® hotline, a report of the incident is forwarded to the Highway Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) where a team of transportation security professionals assess and analyze the report.  Incidents that may pose a threat to national security are then shared with government intelligence officials and other law enforcement agencies.

 In March 2004, ATA entered into a $19.3 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expand its Highway Watch® program on behalf of the highway sector.  Under the agreement, Highway Watch® is providing instruction for hundreds of thousands of highway transportation professionals--including commercial truck and bus drivers, school bus drivers, state Department of Transportation (DOT) workers and others.  Highway Watch® received another $21 million from DHS in March 2005 to continue the program.