BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1408 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 1408 (Blakeslee) As Amended June 20, 2012 Majority vote SENATE VOTE :33-0 TRANSPORTATION 12-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Bonnie Lowenthal, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, | | |Jeffries, Achadjian, | |Blumenfield, Bradford, | | |Blumenfield, Bonilla, | |Charles Calderon, Campos, | | |Buchanan, Eng, Galgiani, | |Davis, Donnelly, Fuentes, | | |Logue, Miller, Norby, | |Hall, Hill, Cedillo, | | |Portantino | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, | | | | |Solorio, Wagner | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Establishes work safety procedures for bar pilots and trainees. Specifically, this bill : 1)Finds and declares that enhancement of navigational safety is of the utmost concern and empowers the Board of Pilot Commissioners (Board) to effectively monitor and oversee pilots in order to prevent fatigue resulting from extended hours of service, insufficient rest, and disruption of circadian rhythms (natural physiological bodily rhythms within a 24-hour period). 2)Requires that any continuing education program adopted by the Board must regularly inform pilots of the hazards of fatigue and effective strategies to prevent fatigue while on duty. 3)Requires a pilot to refuse a pilotage assignment if the pilot is physically or mentally fatigued and has a reasonable belief that the assignment cannot be carried out in a safe and competent manner. 4)Requires the Board's executive director, upon the belief that a reported safety violation is not corrected prior to the vessel reaching the next port, to request the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to report the suspected safety standard SB 1408 Page 2 violation to the next port's state control officer or pilot organization. 5)Requires a pilot trainee applicant, a license applicant, or a licensee applying for renewal of a license, to disclose certain medical information, including information concerning prior substance abuse and medical conditions characterized by lapses of consciousness. 6)Authorizes the Board to refuse training or licensing to an applicant if the Board-appointed physician determines that the applicant or licensee habitually uses, or is addicted to, alcoholic beverages, narcotics, or dangerous drugs. 7)Requires the Board to refuse training or licensing to an applicant who fails to submit required information. 8)Requires adjudicatory proceedings to be conducted by administrative law judges relative to appeals by any of the applicants denied a pilot license or entry into the pilot trainee program. 9)Requires the Board to participate in the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) pull notice program for all pilot licensees and trainees. Requires the Board to obtain periodic reports at least annually showing each pilot's and trainee's public record as recorded by the DMV and any subsequent convictions, failures to appear, accidents, suspensions, license revocations, or any other actions taken. Exempts the Board from paying DMV pull notice program fees. 10)Requires the Board to contract for an independent study on the effects of work and rest periods on psychological ability and safety for pilots, as specified, and to promulgate regulations for adequate rest period requirements. Requires the study to be funded from Board funds collected from a vessel surcharge on pilotage fees. EXISTING LAW : 1)Establishes the Board, to license and regulate maritime pilots who guide vessels entering or leaving the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun, and Monterey. The Board has seven members who are appointed by the Governor with the SB 1408 Page 3 consent of the Senate. The Board reports to the Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. 2)Prescribes pilotage rates for vessels and requires vessels spoken inward or outward bound to pay a specified rate of bar pilotage. Requires the Board to adopt a schedule of pilotage rates applicable to pilots and inland pilots for those operations that are not otherwise provided for under existing law. Also requires the Board to establish a surcharge for each movement of a vessel using pilot services to be used for the pilot and inland pilot continuing education program established by the Board as well as to fund Board operations. 3)Requires the pilots to appoint a port agent to carry out the orders of the Board, other applicable laws, and otherwise administer the affairs of the pilots. Establishes an executive director that reports directly to the Board. 4)Requires the Board, whenever suspected safety standard violations concerning pilot hoists, pilot ladders, or the proper rigging of pilot hoists or pilot ladders are reported, to inspect the equipment for its compliance with specified safety standards. Requires the executive director to report a potential violation to the USCG. 5)Provides the Board with sole authority to determine the qualification for obtaining a pilot's license and requires it to adopt, by regulation, licensing standards that equal or exceed standards for obtaining federal endorsements that conform with and support state policy with regard to the safe operation of vessels. 6)Requires the Board to appoint a physician to determine the suitability of a pilot to perform the duties of a pilot or trainee. 7)Requires the Board to adopt training standards and a training program for pilot trainees and continuing education standards and program for pilots. 8)Requires employers of drivers of certain vehicles to obtain a report showing the drivers' current public record as recorded in the DMV's pull-notice system. Requires that an employer SB 1408 Page 4 request to participate in the pull-notice system be accompanied by a fee to defray DMV's costs. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: 1)One-time costs of approximately $150,000 to $200,000 to the Board to contract for the fatigue study as required by this bill. 2)One-time costs, likely in the tens of thousands of dollars, to the Board to adopt regulations to require adequate rest periods in keeping with the findings of the study. 3)Minor, absorbable one-time cost to the Board to revise continuing education requirements. 4)Minor absorbable costs to DMV and the Board to administer and participate in, respectively, the pull-notice program for licensed pilots and trainees. COMMENTS : Bar pilots are responsible for steering an arriving vessel through the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay, the bay waters and adjoining navigable waters, which include San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, the Sacramento River and its tributaries. When a vessel approaches the "SF" buoy several miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, a bar pilot boards the ship and takes navigational control. (Pilots in San Francisco are called "bar pilots" because they board and disembark ships just beyond a treacherous sand bar which provides a natural obstacle to shipping.) It becomes the pilot's responsibility to guide the ship to its berth. The bar pilots provide service to all types of vessels, from 100-foot tugs to over 1,000-foot supertankers. The bar pilots move more than 9,000 vessels a year, working closely with shipping agencies, tug companies, and the USGS to deliver cargo and passengers safely and on time. Their scope of services is unique in that it includes bar, bay, and inland river pilotage. With the advent of the global positioning system (GPS), the navigational aid system involving satellites and computers that can determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on the earth, bar pilots use computers to aid in navigating around shoals and other navigational impediments. The primary functions of the Board include the issuance and SB 1408 Page 5 renewal of pilot licenses; investigation of ship incidents, incidents, and misconducts by pilots; taking actions against pilot licensees; operating a pilot continuing education program and a pilot training program; overseeing the administration of the Pilot Pension Plan; and conducting pilotage rate hearings. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent federal government agency charged with investigating transportation accidents, performed an investigation of a January 23, 2010, collision of two vessels at Port Arthur, Texas. The NTSB investigation determined that contributing to the accident was pilot fatigue due to "untreated obstructive sleep apnea and his work schedule, which did not prevent extended hours of wakefulness and disruption to circadian rhythms. For at least three days during the week before the accident, the first pilot had maintained a day-awake, night-asleep work schedule. However, in the one to two days before the accident, he worked two consecutive piloting assignments that resulted in his being awake for at least 27 hours straight. He subsequently rested during daytime hours, which was contrary to the circadian rhythms that he had been maintaining." At the conclusion of the investigation, the NTSB issued safety recommendation to the USCG, the local pilots association, the American Pilots' Association, and the governors of the states that operate pilot services, including California, as follows: 1)Ensure that local pilot oversight organizations effectively monitor and, through their rules and regulations, oversee the practices of their pilots to promote and ensure the highest level of safety. 2)Require local pilot oversight organizations that have not already done so to implement fatigue mitigation and prevention programs that 1) regularly inform mariners of the hazards of fatigue and effective strategies to prevent it and 2) promulgate hours of service rules that prevent fatigue resulting from extended hours of service, insufficient rest within a 24-hour period, and disruption of circadian rhythms. 3)Require local pilot oversight organizations that have not already done so to implement initial and recurring bridge resource management training requirements. SB 1408 Page 6 This bill is an attempt to implement the recommendations of the NTSB in terms of studying the appropriate rest hour work protocol for eliminating or reducing pilot fatigue. Another provision of this bill requires the Board to participate in the DMV pull notice program for all pilot licensees and trainees. This would allow the Board to be notified if a pilot or trainee receives a driving under the influence violation or if their driver's license is suspended or revoked. According to the author's office, this bill is intended to strengthen the state's continued promotion and provision of safe navigation in the San Francisco Bay and River system and Monterey Bay. Additionally, this bill is intended to further enhance safety and accountability in the state's existing oversight regime for its licensed pilots - improve public safety navigation and protect both the environment and California's maritime economy in the process. Writing in support of this bill, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, sponsor of the bill, indicates that the bill most significantly proposes to adopt the NTSB recommendations that specifically recommended that each state that licenses pilots to create publicly enforceable minimum rest periods and fatigue mitigation standards and to implement thorough and robust pilot fatigue continuing education and training. Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN: 0004981