To address what it says is “a significant increase in the occurrence of fraudulent” information being submitted by motor carriers who must register with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency is replacing its paper-based Unified Registration System (URS) with a new digital online biometric registration system it calls the FMCSA Registration System (FRS).
This new system will require all persons required to register with FMCSA to do so online using what FMCSA said will be “a secure and reliable process that utilizes an identity-proofing solution” that will likely require all new applicants to upload a picture of their driver’s license as well as a selfie that will be compared with biometrics to the government-issued ID to verify the registrant’s identity.
“Every individual registering with FMCSA will have to go through this identity proofing service and prove they are who they say they are before being allowed to continue,” explained Ken Riddle, director of FMCSA’s Office of Registration and Safety Information during an industry briefing in May.
The FRS “will consolidate all our forms into one online application, which will also allow us to retire some of our legacy IT systems,” Riddle said.
In July, FMCSA issued a “limited source justification rationale” document to support its intent to award a single, firm-fixed price contract to Idemia Identity & Security USA LLC (Idemia Public Security) for identification verification support services.
For some time now, FMCSA has been working to roll out its new online registration system to improve the transparency and efficiency of its registration procedures, as well as to implement the statutory requirements related to the registration program.
FMCSA provided additional details about its ID-proofing solution in a new Information Collection Request (ICR) that it submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. An ICR is a set of documents that describes reporting, record keeping, survey, or other information collection requirements imposed on the public by a federal agency. The Paperwork Reduction Act requires every federal agency to first obtain approval from OMB before collecting the same or similar information from ten or more members of the public.
FMCSA’s request to collect new information pertains to the specific new data it will collect when individuals and businesses have to begin using the FRS to register, as well as information about the nature and scope of registrants’ proposed operations; safety-related details; and information about drivers and vehicles used in regulated U.S. operations. The agency said “the data makes it possible to link individual trucks to the responsible motor carrier to ensure commercial motor vehicles are maintained and operated safely.”
FMCSA is the lead US federal agency responsible for regulating and providing safety oversight of commercial motor vehicles. It develops the standards to test and license commercial motor vehicle drivers, enforces federal regulations governing the safe transportation of hazardous materials, and identifies and investigates carriers of household goods which have exhibited a substantial pattern of consumer abuse.
The agency explained that “the current legacy registration system lacks the ability to validate identity before registration processing, which is leading to fraudulent registrations and theft,” a concerning portion of which has involved fraudulent activities by “foreign actors.” FMCSA said “a recent meeting with the FBI identified additional concerns beyond the monetary loss to the industry and public.”
FMCSA said examples of the kind of fraudulent activity that it’s increasingly seeing includes identity theft, the hijacking of FMCSA motor carrier accounts, selling of motor carrier numbers, personal identification numbers, and fraudulent or fake initial registrations.
In response, FMCSA says it has significantly increased its efforts to combat external fraud and to better understand the magnitude of the problem.
To that end, FMCSA has been working to deploy an “identity proofing solution” to reduce and/or eliminate “the increased fraud and freight theft” it says is occurring throughout the Commercial Motor Vehicle industry by putting in place a biometric system for verifying and securing individuals’ identities related to licensing and related credentialing and registration.
The agency says the new FRS “will improve the overall resilience of [its] digital ecosystems, promote user confidence, and ensure that only verified entities register with FMCSA and gain access to their data.”
FMCSA said it is working to “develop measures to verify and secure individuals’ identities in the digital space through an identity-proofing solution that supports omni-channel onboarding,” meaning that “customers may use different channels such as remotely using a smartphone, tablet, or personal computer, or alternatively, in-person assistance via agents, to verify their identity. The identity-proofing solution will interface with existing FMCSA applications using either application programming interfaces or lightweight connectors which do not require extensive development resources for FMCSA.”
The agency said that, based on its research, the identity verification system being deployed has a user-friendly interface and an “experience that allows for seamless interaction during the identity-proofing process – promoting ease of use for both administrators and customers.”
FMCSA said it will begin with the FRS to verify the identity of all new applicants, as well as the approximately 800,000 existing registrants, “within a designated timeframe” as yet undetermined because of delays in fielding the online registration process. Later, it said, it will initiate a process for verifying the business which is being registered by an individual. FMCSA said it “estimates that the government conducts approximately 3.5 million transactions annually for motor carrier registration and compliance-related purposes that would require identity proofing.”
To complete the verification process under the new FRS, an applicant must submit a photo of a valid state-issued driver’s license or other acceptable forms of identification and use their personal mobile device for facial recognition verification.
FMCSA said “the contracted vendor” will validate each registrant’s form of identification, confirm the person’s identity, and compare the results with data in existing databases.
Customers who are unable, or unwilling, to verify their identity using a digital device like a mobile phone or computer, will be able to go in-person to one of the agency’s “sanctioned support centers [to] undergo the process of identity verification with the assistance of an agent.”
Once the verification process is complete, any collected personally identifiable (PII) information will be deleted and only the transaction result will be filed with FMCSA, which said “the result will not include any PII” being stored.
This new ICR applies to new registrants applying for safety and/or operating authority for the first time; existing registrants who are subjected to FMCSA’s registration and certification regulations that wish to apply for additional authorities; Mexico-domiciled carriers that wish to operate beyond the U.S. municipalities on the U.S.-Mexico border and their commercial zones; registrants seeking to process name changes, address changes, and reinstatements of operating authority for motor carriers, freight forwarders, and brokers; registrants which are requesting to voluntarily suspend their safety and/or operating authority registration with FMCSA; and motor carriers, brokers and freight forwarders that must designate an agent on whom service of notices in proceedings before the secretary of transportation may be made.
Article Topics
biometrics | face biometrics | government purchasing | Idemia Public Security | identity proofing | identity verification | selfie biometrics | U.S. Government
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