Blog

Opinions

TOPICS

Drugs

Marine incidents

Waterways

Notice to Mariners

Channel reports

DIRECTORIES

Coast Guard offices

Maritime lawyers

FAQ

Contact

Home > Archive > Licensing Reengineering

Licensing Reengineering

The Coast Guard wants to give up the mariner licensing business. They want private enterprise to do it instead.

from the October 1998 issue ofThe Wheelhouse Report

Next time a politician tells you that private industry should take over government functions that are "not inherently governmental," ask him or her just what the heck government should do. It's getting harder and harder to tell.

All of us have gone to the Coast Guard at some point. We have to deal with them at least every five years at license renewal time. We may object to the way they do their job, and we might not like being tested for skills and knowledge that we never use on the rivers and canals.

But most of us probably agree that the Coast Guard -- or at least some government agency -- should be there. Somebody has to make sure mariners are qualified, responsible people. It's just one of those things we expect government to do ... like putting up stop signs, or catching bad guys.

Well, the Coast Guard doesn't think so. Or at least they say they don't think so. After years of mismanaging the licensing program, they're throwing in the towel. They're saying it's not their job. To be more precise, they're saying that "activities such as portions of applicant evaluation, portions of course approval, and development of training courses are not inherently governmental functions that must be performed by the Coast Guard."

Portions indeed! Their solution to the licensing problem is to shut down all of the Coast Guard Regional Exam Centers and retreat to a central location in the Washington DC area. They call it licensing reengineering, and they've had a Licensing Reengineering Team (LRT) quietly working on it for over a year.

The LRT's report calls for the Coast Guard to get away from the dirty work of license processing, and switch to an "oversight" role. What will they oversee? Private companies. Over a period of six to eight years, they want to phase in a system of commercial licensing services.

Just about everything you used to go to the the exam center for will be done by the commercial providers. If you want a license or an upgrade or a renewal, you'll pay some company for the privilege.

This could be good, or bad. If you've ever sat around all day at a Regional Exam Center, waiting for some civil servant to check your application and then for some Lieutenant to sign his CO's name on your license, you might figure a private company couldn't possibly do worse.

On the other hand, you might figure the old way was a bargain. There's no telling how much these services will cost. The Coast Guard thinks that "competition for mariners' business ... should result in very competitive prices and increasing levels of service."

Great. That brings us to the bigger picture. If you have loved ones who frequently cross bridges over inland waterways, you might not want Kap'n Krunch's Discount Licensing Service selling a towboat pilot's license to every daytime talk show guest who thinks he can get a tow through the fenderworks.

But let's back up a bit and figure out exactly what the Coast Guard is proposing, and why. And how it would affect us as professionals on the rivers and inland waters.

What we have now

Right now there are seventeen Coast Guard Regional Exam Centers (RECs), from Boston to Anchorage to Honolulu. They were set up in the early 1980s. Before that time, you had your choice of 52 Coast Guard marine safety offices where you could sit for your license. But to save money, they set up the RECs and lowered the qualifications and marine background requirements for their own employees.

Since then, business has steadily increased. In other words, they cut back on staff, and then they got swamped. The situation only got worse over the years, with further reductions in resources (money) and employee qualifications.

The result, by the Coast Guard's own admission: "growing backlogs in unprocessed applications and course approvals, and complaints about poor service by applicants and marine employers." But you knew that.

Adding to the mayhem is the computer system used by the licensing program. It's a disaster. According to the LRT report, "this system was poorly designed and has never delivered promised support," and for some reason "has never operated identically for all RECs." It's no wonder they can't even tell us how many OUTV licenses are out there.

The Coast Guard has known for a long time that the licensing program is broken. Five years ago, an internal study group published Licensing 2000, a report full of recommendations about how to fix the system. Like so many government studies, it collected dust for a while.

In July of last year an advisory committee finally came up with a strategic plan to put Licensing 2000 into effect. But the Coast Guard says the committee "did not resolve the resource issues involved with implementing its recommendations." That's a fancy way of saying that the solution would have cost money, and the Coast Guard doesn't have the political clout to get the money it needs.

To top things off, in September of 1997 the Transportation Department investigated the marine licensing system and criticized it as "inefficient and ineffective." They made eleven more recommendations for improvement.

The impact of STCW

In the middle of all this auditing and recommending and strategizing at Coast Guard HQ, it became apparent that fixing the existing system was like taking a leak off the wrong side of the wheelhouse. They might have tried more streamlining or reorganization ... but STCW was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping is a treaty signed by the U.S. and 128 other countries. It requires the Coast Guard to review license exams and integrate them with STCW standards; develop training standards; train government employees to issue STCW endorsements; set up a registry to allow companies and foreign countries to verify U.S. licenses; and submit information for international audits of our licensing system.

That takes manpower, which the Coast Guard doesn't have a lot of.

So, to make a long story short, they're taking most of the 150-plus positions from the seventeen RECs around the country, and reassigning them to a new and improved National Maritime Center. At that new central location (probably Martinsburg WV) they will feverishly go about figuring out new exams and training standards and everything else the treaty requires them to do by the year 2002.

And in their spare time they'll "oversee" the commercial operations that are going to pop up around the country to do the dirty work of selling licenses.

The new process

If Licensing Reengineering happens, here's how it will work, from our perspective. The Coast Guard says that going for a license or renewal will be "a relatively painless experience for the mariner."

According to the LRT report, your first contact with "the system" will be in the form of a search for information, like "How do I get a license as Pilot of Towing Vessels?" The answer could come from a Coast Guard web site, a toll-free hotline (1-888-LICENSE), or from one of the new commercial licensing services.

Once you find out what you need, you'll go get your physical, and attend any courses required, and then go to one of the approved licensing services. There, they will look over your letters of service and so on, and decide whether you meet the requirements for the license you want. Then they'll access the Coast Guard's database via the Internet, and update (or create) your file.

If a test is required, the licensing service will download a Coast Guard exam via the Internet. You'll take the test right there. They'll grade it. At no point will you look a Coast Guard officer in the face.

If you pass the test and satisfy the requirements, the company will take your money and hand you a temporary license ... and you can go to work. The Coast Guard will have 60 days to review your case and mail you a regular five-year license.

There are no guarantees about how much these services will cost. You'll just have to shop around.

Something to note here is the 60-day review period. The Coast Guard will take that time, not to double check your marine qualifications, but to do a National Driver Register check and a criminal records check. That's right -- they'll do that after you've got your temporary license.

Another notable point is the use of an on-line database.

The new database

The Coast Guard says that by the time reengineering is complete, they will have in place a new, state-of-the-art electronic database. This snazzy new computer system will have two very important features:

• the ability to supply randomly-generated tests, and
• electronic access by marine employers and others.

The first feature is good. Companies won't be able to just teach the answers to the test. When the licensing service downloads a test for you to take, nobody will know what's going to be on it.

The second feature is maybe not so good. With Internet access, the licensing service will create your file. Your employer(s) will update your file. Any fly-by-night towboat company -- or any Third World shipping company -- will have access to your records.

It sounds like everybody will have access to your records ... except you.

If you like to let other people handle your affairs -- and you trust your boss, and so on -- then this is no problem. If on the other hand you like to handle things yourself, then this is a bad thing.

If you liked your credit record being accessible to merchants and lenders, you're going to love this system.

The Coast Guard wants this Licensing Reengineering thing, and they want it bad. They say it "must be marketed, and marketed well, to industry and Congress." Why? Because without this marketing blitz, they won't get the statutory changes they need "to meet our legal requirements under STCW...."

They expect the marine training industry to "eagerly" pursue this money-making opportunity. But they know that "there will be significant opposition to privatization from other sectors of the maritime community whose skepticism must be overcome."

They said a mouthful there. "Other sectors" who recently found out about this plan are starting to make noise.

A union official told The Wheelhouse Report he's concerned that the Coast Guard's most experienced marine licensing personnel will quit or retire rather than transfer to the new central location, and we'll "lose all that knowledge." He says that what little expertise the licensing program has will be "down the toilet."

And one maritime educator predicts that the confusion caused by privatization "will discourage many mariners from renewing their licenses."

But the Coast Guard isn't interested in outside opinions. They're already lining up companies to take over.

Read upcoming issues of The Wheelhouse Report for more about the reengineering plan. And ... consider renewing your license early.

top

home

tell a friend about this site