U.S. Motor Carrier Agency Seeks to End Fraud and Theft with Idemia IDV Solution

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has released a “limited source justification” document to support its intent to award a single, fixed-price contract to IDEMIA Identity & Security USA LLC (Idemia Public Security) for identity verification support services.

The FMCSA is the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing commercial motor vehicle safety. It develops standards for testing and licensing commercial motor vehicle drivers, enforces federal regulations governing the safe transportation of hazardous materials, and identifies and investigates household goods carriers that have demonstrated a significant pattern of consumer abuse.

FMCSA is working to deploy an “identity verification solution” to reduce and/or eliminate “the increase in fraud and cargo theft” it says is occurring throughout the commercial motor vehicle industry by implementing and integrating a reliable system to verify and secure individuals’ identities with respect to associated licenses, credentials, and registration.

FMCSA said it is imperative that these services be secure to mitigate any opportunities for fraud and theft, which it said include identity theft, hacking of FMCSA accounts, sale of motor carrier numbers (these numbers identify carriers that transport regulated goods for hire in interstate commerce), PIN numbers, fraudulent/fake registrations, and more.

The FMCSA said that “the fraud occurring today also includes foreign actors,” adding that “a recent meeting with the FBI identified additional concerns beyond monetary loss to the industry and the public.”

Fraud and identity theft occurs when entities use another motor carrier’s U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) assigned number when they are not authorized to do so, or when someone acts as a broker and is not registered with the FMCSA.

The FMCSA earlier issued a warning “that the identities of certain motor carriers have been compromised and independent owner-operators are being provided with fraudulent leases, insurance certificates and fictitious temporary registrations,” leading some drivers to unknowingly operate without proper operating licenses, registrations and insurance.

In other cases, drivers and carriers intentionally obtain and use false vehicle registrations, including International Fuel Tax Agreement and International Registration Plan documents, and display a USDOT number without the knowledge or consent of the motor carrier to which the number is registered. In these cases, the driver is typically the perpetrator of the fraudulent activity and the motor carrier is the victim.

The objectives of the IDEMIA contract are:

• Verify legitimacy: Ensure that the person claiming an identity is who they say they are, preventing unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, and protecting individuals from unauthorized use of their personal information for fraudulent purposes.
• Prevent Fraud: Identify and mitigate fraud, including account takeover, creation of false identities, and other deceptive practices.
• Improved security: Mitigate the risk of unauthorized access, data breaches, and fraudulent transactions by implementing robust identity verification processes and enabling trusted and secure digital transactions by ensuring that individuals participating in online activities are authenticated and authorized.
• Protect sensitive data: Prevent exposure of confidential data by ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to specific resources or services.

The full range of services required by FMCSA includes identity verification accessible both through biometric-enabled mobile devices and at in-person credential request, registration and testing locations.

The FMCSA said IDEMIA is the only company capable of fulfilling the contract because of the “unique or specialized nature of the work” and “because of the urgency” for the FMCSA to “implement the services.”

Additionally, FMCSA explained that IDEMIA has more than 1,500 physical locations across the United States and U.S. territories for any applicant who requires in-person assistance with the FMCSA application process, and that these centers provide Transportation Worker Identification Information (TWIC) for which IDEMIA is the only company authorized to administer.

FMCSA also noted that IDEMIA directly supports and manages 36 state Department of Motor Vehicle organizations, “making it the only vendor with direct access to 36 DMV registration systems,” and that it is “already very familiar with FMCSA” through its support for both commercial driver licensing and assisting state customers with FMCSA grant applications.

FMCSA said the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Facial Recognition Technology Evaluation Report found that IDEMIA’s facial recognition algorithms – part of its Identity & Verification Platform (ID&V) product – achieved a best-in-class accuracy of 99.88 percent in the largest datasets, and achieved the highest accuracy of 99.9 percent ever achieved in NIST’s facial recognition vendor test.

“It significantly outperformed the rest of the bids in terms of its unbiased match with respect to race, gender and age,” FMCSA said in justifying its intent to award its contract to INDEMIA.

The FMCSA also stated that IDEMIA is the only company authorized to provide, install, upgrade or maintain the software for IDEMIA ID&V as a service, and has no other sales channel, partner or reseller for this technology.

Article topics

biometrics | facial biometrics | government procurement | IDEMIA | Idemia Public Security | identity verification | TWIC | US Government