Crossroads: Part Deux
U.S. Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center completes its integration of local REC’s into a centralized West Virginia location, but more than one year after initiating the process, the jury is still out on the wisdom of such a move and the complaints from mariners are rolling in.
About 15 months ago, I traveled to an obscure little town in West Virginia for the purpose of touring and reporting on the U.S. Coast Guard’s (then new) National Maritime Center (NMC). The print article that we produced provided details on how the Coast Guard hoped to overhaul its mariner-documentation process and ultimately, to move most of the functions from 17 local Regional Exam Centers (REC) to the NMC. The MarEx article outlined candid discussions with the NMC’s commanding officer and in the end, expressed a hopeful, arguably optimistic message about the prospects for the NMC and its staff to succeed at their new tasks. More than one year later, the jury is still out on what, if anything they accomplished and the complaints from frustrated mariners are pouring in.
The Coast Guard NMC report of December 2008 paints a less than ideal situation developing at NMC, where “…the average time to conduct medical evaluations has increased dramatically to an average of 89 days. This is due to an increase in the number of physical exam reports submitted by mariners and to a limited number of medically trained staff available to make fitness for duty determinations.” The report goes on to say that Coast Guard efforts are underway to “address staffing demands.” The Coast Guard’s NMC commander told MarEx that the average turnaround time for all documents is about 80 days right now, but that much of that time could be eliminated once the medical review processes are ironed out.
Characterized by some as “Huge Backlogs at the National Maritime Center,” reports (from multiple mariners) continue to hit the E-mail circuit, the Internet and through other methods of communication. It would not be an understatement to say that they are too numerous to list here and, without a doubt, these complaints are threatening to drown out the “good news” being trumpeted by the Coast Guard. In the wake of all of this, the Coast Guard has since issued yet another performance report (January 2009 MLD Performance) which provides information on processing times for the 36,000+ credentials issued between July 2008 through mid January 2009. The latest report provides clarification of the December data, but falls well short of showing that the problems are being solved.
Credible reports of multiple mariners who have lost their positions because of their inability to get their credentials in a timely fashion have been received by this writer and one former REC Chief, who declined to be identified for the purpose of this article, lamented, “The situation is very bad. I hate to say I told them so, but I predicted this when they first came up with this idea years ago.” Not surprisingly, the Coast Guard took exception to some aspects of another piece, published online in the January 15th edition of this MarEx e-newsletter.
In our January 15th article, we reported that at least some of the delays (as much as 29 percent) being experienced by mariners were the fault of the mariners themselves – based on data carried in the December report. It is a fact that Mariners often omit required information when submitting their applications, but NMC Commanding Officer (Captain) David Stalfort later told MarEx, “You imply that mariners 'omit' the information from their applications. I can't blame the mariner for this - rather it's our application forms and the complex regulations that are the main cause for the missing information.” He also went on to say that the local REC’s were doing a “wonderful job” in helping mariners to get the required information to NMC in a timely fashion. Fair enough.
The Coast Guard’s goal to reduce turnaround time for documents to an average of 30 days or less, by the end of March, is looming large in the windshield. According to (Coast Guard) provided January metrics, the gross (overall) credential processing time is now 83 days, or almost three months. The net (excluding exams and time spent awaiting mariner information) turnaround time is 41 days and about half of these applications were processed in 31 days or less. Arguably, NMC is inching closer to their ultimate goal. Nevertheless, the most troubling statistic is contained in the yawning gap of 42 days expended between gross and net processing time. And, if the local REC’s are indeed doing a wonderful job, as characterized by Captain Stalfort, then a good portion of the very real problem can indeed be traced directly back to the Coast Guard’s documentation process.
As someone who has followed this process closely from start to finish – arguably closer than anyone else reporting on the issue today in the media – it has also occurred to me that the vast majority of complaints being heard today are coming from the mariners themselves. Given the declining economic situation and as many as 215 idled containerships and God only knows how many other tankers (many being used as floating storage) and bulkers (reportedly being chartered for bunkers only in the Far East), I’m guessing that the demand for mariners has eased slightly in the short time which has expired since January 2008. The most pressing issue on the plates of most shipping and offshore companies in 2008 (securing competent mariners and keeping them) has noticeably gone away and been replaced by critical financial issues. It would be interesting to know if many firms are experiencing the same frustrations as their mariner employees. To be fair, I haven’t seen a single complaint from a commercial operator.
From where I sit, the root cause of the sometimes considerable delay to the issuance of mariner credentials isn’t nearly as important as the fact that the 17 REC’s have now been effectively stripped of their original functions. The bulk of these responsibilities now reside in the centralized NMC in Martinsberg, WV. 89, 83, 52, 41, or 31 days – take your pick – is too long to wait for a credential that in at least four instances (for this writer) in the 1980’s took less than a week and in most cases occurred on the same day.
It is a new day: Homeland Security, TWIC’s, background investigations, Medical NAVC’s (04-08) and a host of other 21st century requirements have complicated the documentation process for a hundred different credentials and this isn’t something unique to the Coast Guard. The initial hiccups (READ: panic) with the new U.S. Passport system that played out not too long ago immediately comes to mind. I do know one thing for sure: mariners are not going to receive their credentials in one day any longer. Two weeks might be a viable goal once Captain Stalfort gets his visionary “electronic application system” up and running, but that day isn’t coming any time soon, if current performance metrics are any indication.
The NMC’s January 2009 MLD Performance report provides information on processing times for the 36,000+ credentials issued between July 2008 through mid January 2009. The report also highlights the gross (mariner and USCG) processing time, as well as the net (USCG) processing time. Additionally, the report highlights the production bottlenecks with a discussion on the cycle times as applications progress through the various production states. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of what the Coast Guard is doing, and what the mariner can do, to further reduce the credential processing time, especially with professional and medical evaluations.
In our December 2007 print article referenced below, I wrote, “The National Maritime Center isn’t coming. It is here. The vision for this newly reorganized unit has not yet been fully realized, but if this does occur, then mariners and domestic maritime operators will be the real winners. The good news is that the reshaping of at least one aspect of the Coast Guard’s flawed marine safety mission is well underway. Two hours from Martinsburg, at Coast Guard headquarters, ADM Thad Allen, the Coast Guard Commandant, can watch with a measure of satisfaction. Unlike Katrina, however, I have a feeling that he won’t need to micromanage this one. If he does, we’re all in a world of trouble.” Almost 13 months later, it is clear that the NMC has yet to produce the metrics and economy of scale envisioned by those who thought this was a good idea and ultimately moved it forward to reality. It is not too late, but without a doubt, time is rapidly running out. – MarEx
Joseph Keefe is the Managing Editor of THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE. He can be reached with comments or questions on this or any other article in this e-newsletter at [email protected].