FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION • OFFICE OF MOTOR CARRIERS

FHWA Contact: Phil Forjan, HCS-20, (202) 366-6817

Biometric Identification Standards

Research

Introduction

The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 was enacted to remove unsafe and

unqualified commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers from the nation’s highways by

establishing a “one-driver, one-license, one-record” policy. This policy made it illegal for

CMV drivers to have more than one commercial driver’s license (CDL) and led to the

development of the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS). This 

system contains identification information on CMV drivers, and provides States with

the ability to check if a person already has a CDL before issuing a license to that 

applicant.

In 1988, Congress passed the Truck and Bus Safety and Regulatory Reform Act, which

required the Federal Highway Administration to develop minimum uniform standards

for a biometric identification system for CMV drivers. The establishment of a biometric

identifier for CMV drivers would ensure the positive identification of drivers and would

further prevent the issuance of multiple CDLs to one driver.

A 1990 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study that evaluated biometric 

technologies concluded that fingerprinting and retinal scanning were the two most

promising technologies. Upon conclusion of the study, the FHWA determined that

more time was needed for biometric technologies to develop in order to meet specified requirements and be beneficial to the CDL program. The present study began in

October 1995. 

A “biometric” technology is an automatic method for the identification, or identity

verification, of an individual based on physiological or behavioral characteristics.

Biometric systems function to identify individuals by matching a specific personal 

characteristic, the biometric identifier, with one previously recorded. General biometric

systems consist of the five sub-systems shown in figure 1: data collection, transmission,

signal processing, storage, and decisions.

Purpose

The primary objective of this study was to make recommendations to the Secretary of

Transportation for the establishment of minimum uniform standards for a biometric

identification system to ensure identification of CMV drivers. Researchers sought to

review the current status of biometric technologies to determine their ability to meet

the needs of the CDL program and to determine the cost-effectiveness of the most

promising technologies and systems for large scale applications.

Technology Selection

This study considered all commercially available biometric systems, including signature

verification, voice recognition, finger and palm prints, iris and retinal scans, facial

images, and even body odor systems.

Tech Brief

The vision of the Office of

Motor Carriers is to help

move people, goods, and

commercial motor vehicles

on our Nation’s highways in

the most efficient, economical, and crash-free manner

possible. The OMC research

and technology program

focuses on improving safety

in interstate commercial

motor vehicle operations and

serves a trucking and motor

coach industry that carries

more than 40 percent of all

intercity freight.

Studies are conducted in the

following areas: commercial

driver human factors, health,

and performance needs; new

and emerging driver and

vehicle technologies; safetyrelated data collection and

analysis needs; and performance-based changes to the

Federal Motor Carrier Safety

Regulations.

The OMC’s technology

research promotes safety by

identifying, collecting, and

communicating information

about technological

advances.

Office of Motor Carrier Research

and Standards

400 Seventh Street, SW

HCS-30; Room 3107

Washington, DC 20590
In determining candidate biometric technologies,

researchers first needed to establish a fair and rational set of criteria. The American Association of Motor

Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) created a Biometrics

Working Group to review this project and to establish

functional requirements for a biometric identification

system. After revision, the requirements included:

• The system will capture the biometric identifier

from each applicant without increasing the actual

time a customer is in a Department of Motor

Vehicles office by more than 30 seconds.

• The identifier must be an accurate, relatively unalterable, unique physical characteristic that can be

captured, recognized or verified, and stored — and

must be verifiable over an indefinite period of time.

• The method of capturing the biometric identifier

will be unobtrusive to the applicant. The method

will be socially acceptable and will not endanger

the health, safety, or welfare of any applicant.

Because the AAMVA functional requirements alone

were insufficient to narrow the field of potential

technologies, researchers then set up the following

criteria:

• Vendors must claim that the technology supports all

of the required applications. The technology must

aid in the prevention, detection, and deterrence of

the possession of multiple licenses by a single driver, and also in the use of a fraudulent CDL by a

driver.

• The technology must have been used previously 

in a similar large-scale application for which an

independent performance/cost audit is available

indicating that the revised AAMVA working group

functional requirements can be met.

• The technology must be available from multiple

vendors supporting a single image collection, 

compression and storage standard.

Researchers determined that fingerprinting is the

only biometric technology that can currently meet the

above criteria, and that no other technology would

meet the criteria within the next 5 to 10 years. Based

on the material reviewed, researchers believe that an

automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS)

could be designed to approximately meet all of the

revised functional requirements. Current AFIS 

systems are computationally the fastest of all existing

biometric technologies.

BIOMETRIC

DATA

COLLECTION

SIGNAL

PROCESSING

PATTERN

MATCHING

QUALITY

CONTROL

DECISION

STORAGE

IMAGE STORAGE

PRESENTATION

SENSOR FEATURE

EXTRACTION

COMPRESSION

TRANSMISSION

TRANSMISSION

EXPANSION DATABASE

DECISION

Figure 1.

The General Biometric System
Methodology

Automatic Fingerprint Identification

System Performance

In order to establish parameter values to predict AFIS

performance on a large scale, researchers considered

five important non-independent parameters that 

govern the performance of an AFIS.

• The system penetration rate is the expected 

percentage of the fingerprint database that may 

be compared to a single print. 

• The bin error rate is the probability that a search

for a print in the database will be unsuccessful

because the sample and template prints were

placed in different “bins”. 

• The single comparison false match rate is the 

probability that two non-matching prints will be

matched incorrectly. 

• The single comparison false non-match rate is the

probability that two matching prints will not be

matched when compared. 

• The single comparison match rate is the number of

“one to one” comparisons per second that can be

made by the hardware of a single sample print to

templates received from that database.

Mathematical models were developed to predict each

of these parameters. Researchers then conducted the

Republic of the Philippines Social Security System

Identification Card Project AFIS benchmark test in May

1997. Four vendors participated in this test, which

measured penetration rate, bin error rate, and single

comparison false match and false non-match rates for

each vendor. Single comparison match rate was not

measured because each vendor was already required

to produce a specified number of comparisons.

System Architecture

Researchers also constructed three approaches to the

creation of a nationwide biometric system for identifying drivers: the centralized system; the distributed

system with centralized communication; and the 

distributed system with direct communication.

The Federal-level centralized system is the most

straightforward. It would establish a national system,

much like CDLIS, that would electronically hold the

records of all licensed commercial drivers. A commercial driver applying for a new license or a renewal

would have copies of his/her fingerprints sent to the

central site to be scanned against the existing 

database. To be effective, all states would be required

to participate.

The State-level distributed system with centralized

communication would have each state maintain and

control its own commercial driver AFIS system. When

a driver applies for a license, the fingerprint image

would be sent to a centralized communication site,

which would distribute the image to the independent

systems in all other jurisdictions. 

The State-level distributed system with direct communication is identical, except that fingerprint images

would be sent directly by states to other participating

jurisdictions. 

Findings

With the data collected from the Philippine AFIS

benchmark test, researchers predicted throughput

and error rates for a centralized fingerprint system

used in conjunction with CDLIS. Using mathematical

models, researchers forecasted that a single-print 

system could not meet the revised functional 

requirements.

A single-print AFIS system collects only one fingerprint from each subject. Considering the bin error

rate and the single comparison false non-match rate,

the probability for a false non-match in this case

would be 11 percent. This is only slightly higher than

the functional requirement mandating no more than

a 10 percent false non-match rate in the identification mode, but considerably higher than the requirement of no more than 1 percent in the verification

mode. Further, the system false match rate in the

identification mode against 8.5 million enrolled prints

becomes 99 percent, compared to the requirement of

less than one ten-thousandth of one percent (one in

one million).

A two finger system, which collects prints from two

different fingers of each subject, can approximately

meet the functional requirements in both verification

and identification modes.

In addition, this study included a procedure for a

detailed cost-benefit analysis. Researchers concluded

that there are no technical barriers to the implementation of either a Federal- or State-level biometric 

system, but that a Federal, centralized system for

identifying commercial drivers is the most costeffective approach.

Standards Development

Standards are required if a biometric identification

system is to operate among States or on a national
Researcher

This study was performed by

James L. Wayman, Biometric

Identification Research

Director, College of

Engineering, San Jose State

University. Contract No.

DTFH61-95-C-00165.

Distribution

This Tech Brief is being distributed according to a standard

distribution. Direct distribution

is being made to the Resouce

Centers and Divisions.

Availability

The study final report is 

available from the National

Technical Information Service,

Telephone: (703) 605-6000.

Key Words

biometric identifier, minimum

uniform standards, functional

requirements, automatic 

fingerprint identification 

system (AFIS), two-finger 

system, image quality, data

compression, data format 

standards, unique identifier.

Notice

This Tech Brief is disseminated

under the sponsorship of the

Department of Transportation

in the interest of information

exchange. The Tech Brief 

provides a synopsis of the

study’s final publication. The

Tech Brief does not establish

policies or regulations, nor

does it imply FHWA endorsement of the conclusions or 

recommendations. The U.S.

Government assumes no 

liability for its contents or 

their use.

level. Regardless of the final system architecture, four standards are required and a

fifth would be helpful:

• a standard biometric identifier;

• an image quality standard;

• a data compression standard;

• a data format standard; and

• a feature set standard.

This study recommends that fingerprinting be adopted as the standard biometric 

identifier, and that a two-print system be used. As far as determining which fingers to

print, there is no standard. Researchers recommend that thumbs or index fingers be

used, but the final decision should be made by the AAMVA Committee of States.

This study also recommends that image quality, data compression, and data format

standards be adapted from existing standards developed by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, the American National Standards Institute, and the National Institute of

Standards and Technology. These standards are included as appendices in the final

study report.

The development of standard features for fingerprint comparison is a controversial

subject. Vendors largely oppose standards, because of the loss of a perceived 

competitive advantage that would follow uniformity. The study recommends that

AAMVA express interest in monitoring any feature set standard development.

The 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century calls for a unique identifier for

CMV drivers, which may be, but is not limited to, a biometric identifier. This research

will aid States that choose to implement a biometric identification system for CDL 

drivers, as the report provides specific minimum standards for the use of fingerprinting

to identify drivers, and the cost-effectiveness of implementing such a system.

December 1998

Publication No. FHWA-MCRT-99-003