TWIC

So, why did you have to get a TWIC? I am trying to renew my license and was stopped dead in my tracks by the TWIC requirement, which would have me make 2 round trips to Kansas City, 600 miles away. Since I started the process, they have backed off on the requirement if it is not needed, but I still have to make one trip to KC at the expense of 100's of dollars in fuel and lodging. Therefore, I renewed for continuity, since I have no assurance of a job that would require a license, TWIC, physical, drug test, etc.

Speaking of hoops.

So, why did you have to get a TWIC? I am trying to renew my license and was stopped dead in my tracks by the TWIC requirement, which would have me make 2 round trips to Kansas City, 600 miles away. Since I started the process, they have backed off on the requirement if it is not needed, but I still have to make one trip to KC at the expense of 100's of dollars in fuel and lodging. Therefore, I renewed for continuity, since I have no assurance of a job that would require a license, (TWIC, physical, drug test, etc). In other words, more 100's of dollars.

Don't know why this posted twice. Must've pushed the wrong button. Oh, well.

Perhaps

Perhaps you got a TWICtch in your finger when you hit the button!

Judy Patsch;29105 wrote: Perhaps you got a TWICtch in your finger when you hit the button!

or, as it is written: "something TWICKED this way comes."...

TWICked off!

Or it is a reaction to the fact that to obtain a TWIC, one must make 2 round trips to a TWIC office in order to get one TWIC? There are very few TWIC offices in the West, between Kansas City and the West Coast, none, I think. I and others assume that TWICs are required for more than mariners, such as truck drivers, so why the dearth of offices in the West????? Does Homeland Security not know of the existence of a rather large mass of populated land from the Great Plains to the West Coast? I have contacted them about that and maybe others have as well, so that may explain why they backed off of it a little, but not nearly enough.

Suggest a visit to the NMC website: USCG National Maritime Center. Check a TWIC announcement concerning renewal. IF a person who works on a vessel without a VSP or not pushing RED Flag barges and THINKS they DO NOT NEED A TWIC they can renew a USCG Credential without going to a TWIC to renew their TWIC: however that credential renewal will take a name based search rather than the electronic information shared by the TSA folks.

I have no idea if the AQ or QoM will be required a VSP.

The DQ "friend" James Oberstar has his fingerprints of the reduced need for TWIC.

TWIC is in the LAW and will take some time to change--if change is coming--currently the CG is working to comply with section 809 of the CG Authorization Bill.

Again I suggest READ what is published in the CG License Website.

Do not read anything into what I have posted or possibly will post a proponent for TWIC, against TWIC or a proponent of or negative to any member of of the administration, or any member of the elected political establishment.

Do remember how Drug Testing, RADAR on the River and the 9 page CG 719K form came to be.

Thanks Jim. I did check. If one feels they would not need a TWIC, one still has to make one trip to a TWIC office to begin the process of renewal. You don't get a TWIC, so 2 trips aren't needed. This is a recent change since I first checked in December. For those uninitiated, the first trip to a TWIC office is to start the registration process. They then have to take x number of weeks to make sure you are not a terrorist. Then you go back the second time to pick up your card. No big deal if you happen to live in the eastern half of the US or on the west coast.

I know that we have to get electronic fingerprinting, which I just missed the last time I renewed, and this is one reason why I may have to go to Kansas City, as part of the requirement for renewal. I'm in no hurry now, so I will wait and see if there are further changes.

Hoop jumping

Maybe this will make you feel better!

TWIC: too much time, money for a program of doubtful worth | Articles & Archives | Archives | Professional Mariner, Journal of the Maritime Industry, Maritime Industry News

Somehow my last license renewal went so smoothly I was waiting for the shoe to drop. Sent everything in January 2011from Houston with a delayed issuance for November 2011.The USCG confirmed all was good within 10 days!(GASP!) The new document (which looks like a passport for a third world country) was issued to start the same day as my old license/ mariner's document (or Z card as I still like to call it. . .hey I'm old school) no license "creep" for the first time in 30 years! My TWIC renewal took about 8 days but I am in a city with a USCG REC and TWIC office. Many of my co workers who live in places such as Bozeman Montana,or Henderson,NV have had painful experiences such as yours.

That hopefully will be the last official renewal. I'm looking to answer FWE for the last time within two years!

Wrapping things up

I got my TWIC on Friday. The photo looks just like a driver's license photo to me! They ought to offer a Photo Shop version for an extra fee!

Shooting Hoops

Glad to know someone else is "TWICked off". Maybe something will get done, like continuing to exempt people who don't need it, especially if they live in the West. Would like to be FWE, but need some cash flow, and there are a few boat operations here in the mountains. One of them, I know, requires a license, but certainly not a TWIC.

Hoopla!

Yeah a lot of folks are just tired of all of the over documentation(yours truly included). It takes a lot of smiling with gnashing teeth just underneath to make it through the processes (no wonder everyones TWIC photo usually looks like hell!)

Hang in there!

Hanging

Recently was getting caught up on my reading of the Waterways Journal, and noticed that there was an editorial about the TWIC problem in one of the issues.

The usual response from regulatory bodies when everyone complains is to reinvent the wheel. I can see them scrapping the whole mess and starting over with considerable expense and aggravation for all parties concerned. That would be the final straw and thus I would be exiting stage left. With the new changes in STCW rules and requirements it just makes walking away look better and better. It is a shame,I really used to enjoy what I do! So did a lot of other folks!

Hoop Dance

Yes, and we are about at the age at which the Delta Queen Company used to hire most of its pilots. Given the infinite number of hoops, how many of those gentlemen could even get a renewal today, much less be allowed to stand a watch? Back when, some of them must have been cut some slack just to get a radar endorsement. And they were considered the best of the best because of their experience. I know first hand that nowadays age and experience doesn't mean ----. You are doing what they want you to do, walking away. BTW, my last renewal had some sort of health waiver on it. I have no idea what that was about and didn't try to find out, but I'm as healthy as a horse. Ageism?