The Maritime Documentation Center, an online hub for ship documentation, saw some of its highest annual numbers over the last year. This comes in the wake of a report from the U. S. Government Accountability Office about the Coast Guard's National Vessel Documentation Center operations.
In an article titled "Coast Guard: Actions Needed to Improve National Vessel Documentation Center Operations," the GAO found that "the Coast Guard's documentation center generally processes commercial vessels on time but continues to suffer from backlogs for recreational ones."
The report went on to say that "the Coast Guard has switched some staff from commercial to recreational reviews and taken other actions." Their recommendations were to "review whether the user fees (the Coast Guard) charges are sufficient to cover the cost of this service and more."
Findings concluded that "the Coast Guard has generally not conducted operational analysis of its vessel documentation system since 2012." Moreover, they found that "from January 2015 through September 2019, (the Coast Guard's) recreational documentation processing time averaged 57 days - about four times longer than (the Coast Guard's) 15-day informal target."
"We understand what a strain the Coast Guard and their documentation system are under. Here at the Maritime Documentation Center, we're committed to helping our clients and customers in any way we can. That's just one of the reasons that we do everything we can to expedite the process, to make it as simple, quick, and efficient as possible. Our site isn't just for documentation, of course, but it's also designed to be a place for education. A true center, vessel owners can find what they need at our site so that we can make the entire documentation process easier," said Jackson Smith of the Maritime Documentation Center.
In addition to the initial registration, renewal, and reinstatement, the Maritime Documentation Center offers National Vessel documentation forms for an abstract of title, among other forms. The site is designed in such a way as to work on any kind of phone, mobile device, laptop, desktop, and so forth.
For more information about a USCG portal, where to conduct a USCG vessel search, or to make a press inquiry, contact the Maritime Documentation Center at https://maritimedocumentation.us/.