How can you say the TWIC program is useless? It is anything but. It has been very useful in appropriating funds for the federal treasury.
The Government must raise a certain amount of revenue. If they don't get the money from one source they must get it from another. If people don't want taxes raised on the the top 2% of money earners or on the big corporations in order to try to influence their decisions to create jobs in the USA instead of in China, Mexico,etc. the government must raise revenue in other ways.
If not enough money is raised through income taxation then it must be raised through fees and other forms of taxation. License fees, tolls, public transportation, taxes on gasoline, taxes on cigarettes,etc. Revenue can also be raised by requiring new fee based regulations such as the TWIC program.
Fees imposed on the professional driver is an attractive way to raise revenue. It is much easier to impose new regulations on professional drivers than almost any other group. History shows that the trucking industry is incapable of organizing a united front capable of successful fighting the government's oppressive regulations and fees imposed on it.
No, the TWIC program in not useless. It allows the government to transfer the economic burden from an important and powerful group in the American populace to one that is weak and regarded with apathy by most Americans.