KUDOS to REC Toledo.

I had to start the license renewal process today and since 9-11 it has just gotten worse and worse.

For years I had my file at another REC, but moved it to the USCG Regional Exam Center in Toledo for good reason. It is the ONLY Federal office I have ever found where the person that says, "May I help you?" honestly means it and wants to help.

They are amazing and do their damndest to make things work for the mariner.

Since a couple of years ago, all files for mariners have been sent to the Maritime center in West Virginia and they evaluate and issue licenses and Merchant Mariners Documents from there. The RECs have had their responsibilities changed since then, but their service is just wonderful.

Today I turned in my packet and one of the women there went carefully through it and made sure it was in order so that when it reaches WV it will be good to go and there won't be any snags.

Of course, when the Coast Guard decided to centralize things they sure added a lot of red tape and paperwork.

My application USED to be a single page. Now it's 4. The physical used to be a single sheet. I just had to have 9 pages filled out at an already overworked doctor's office.

My ariners document used to be a little large for wallet carry, but you'd stuff it into your wallet and maybe the edges would fray a bit, but so what? That was replaced by a plascic credit card sized document that fit right into the wallet. It was a definite improvement.

Now a seaman is issued a passport sized bok that is nothing more than a pain in the ass to deal with because it is now just one more thing to easily be lost or stolen.

The new document reminds me of what the P-38 can opener would be like if an engineer was detailed to redesign it. Instead of two little pieces of steel costing a nickel to make and weighing a couple grams, the updated verision would weigh ten pounds and have a jillion moving parts and a battery pack and wouldn't open cans nearly as well as the original.

There really is no excuse for this kind of thing. It is a waste of time, effort paper and serves no purpose but to make life a wole lot worse for some poor guy trying to make a living.

Back whn I started in the industry it was a lot simpler to renew. You would walk in carrying a completed application form, a completed physical form and a couple of passport sized photos and an hour later you would walk out with your renewed licenses and documents.

These days it takes weeks. The people at REC Toledo said it was running between 6 and 8 weeks from the time the package arrived at West Virginia.

Of course, all of this crap ha been blamed on 9-11 and maybe some of it is justified, but no way that the bulk of what goes on now is justified whatsoever.

It's not just the Coast Guard by any stretch of the imagination. The entire transportation industry has turned upside down. I spoke with a trucker and he told me that his entire industry had been beat up pretty badly under the guise of 9-11.

In spite of all of this the people at REC Toledo have managed to survive, adapt and overcome an awful lot of changes, I suppose all of the RECs have had to.

The amazing thing about REC Toledo is that they have done so without losing their sense of humor or their honest desire to serve the public and do the best that they possibly can to be polite, mannerly, competent, halpful and downright pleasant.

REC Toledo is a little slice of heaven and an example of what service from the Federal government SHOULD be like.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't post this because if some horse's ass further up the chain reads this, instead of making the OTHER RECs shape up, he'll decide to ruin this one.

I sure hope not.

To the people at REC Toledo: Thanks for making my life a lot easier.

You are appreciated.


my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/