delivery driver

tankerman

engineer

captain

mechanic

Centerline Logistics Corporation

I've worked on a variety of ships and boats for years and have a 1600 ton master ticket. But I have never thought that a boat might kill me until I worked there. The safety culture is a joke. The hand rails and bulwarks were rusted through. Fuel tanks leaked into the bilge. Ballast tanks leaked into the head. The boats look like refloated ship wrecks and one of them is! The barges are new, but they don't give you a chance to do any maintenance so most of the blanks are rusted in place. The guy who runs it drives a Bentley and literally looks down at the boats through a golden telescope from his office. You will get in trouble if he sees you go outside to make a phone call even if the boats are laid up. The port captain who hired me lied and said all of there boats were being replaced. I drove by a few weeks ago and the same rust buckets are still there. They built some new ATB's, but I've heard those are terrible too. Some of the captains are cool, some are insane. There is almost no opportunity for advancement. Mates who have been working there for years and never get a chance to move up. They hire almost all of their captains from other companies, so it gives you no motivation to try and work harder and get a promotion. And be prepared to be constantly asked to come work on your off time. If you tell them you can't come in they will threaten to fire you. If you complain about anything, they will threaten to fire you. The turn around is crazy high. Do you wonder why these guys are always hiring? it's because people constantly quit. I would only recommend working there if you're desperate. I can only speak for the tug and barge side, I think it's better on the ship assist boats.The office workers, HR ect. seem to have it pretty good, but maritime operations stinks.

At Harley Marine we worked hard with focus on Safety, Customer Satisfaction, and profitability.  We always were looking for ways to work smarter, efficiently and united in collaboration as a Team.  
If operational requirements required extra time and focus; however, if there were family responsibilities the company was always accommodating.  
We would have flexibility to satisfy customer, but could never compromise with safety, health, environment, or quality,  We would always be looking for improvement with materials, procedures, training to implement the best available methods, materials, and/or technology to be the leader of the industry.
With operations, there was never a typical day; some were long if needed.  But if all was running smooth, we could leave earlier to 'beat the traffic'. 
Communication was very important within the office and also with Customers and/or Regulators, as appropriate.
The greatest challenge was to deal with heavy weather at sea during winters.  We always would plan for the worst, but hope for safety and success.
Harley Marine Services was a fabulous employer in every way.

Be very wary of even thinking of applying here. The commute is the worst as you are coming down into the Port of Seattle so if there are a lot of trucks going there be prepared to wait right along with them. Was told there would be benefits after 90 days, but never really advised on how the process worked. My biggest issue with Centerline is just the lack of communication & professionalism. The onboarding is a complete joke as it seems like nobody in the department I worked in had ever heard of onboarding. I was never really given a timeline of what I would be working on, how long I would be working on something or what my first 60, 90 120 days would look like. It just reinforced to me how important onboarding is when you have someone starting a new position. Lastly there are definitely some cliques here & if you are not in that clique watch out. 

Management with Harley Marine has remained humble throughout its growth into a major competitor in the marine transport industry, remembering that they themselves were once in your shoes and still sympathize with the foot soldiers on the ground level making the entire operation functional.
Harley is open to suggestions for improvement from its hard working and loyal employees, willing to invest in both of their mutual futures together. 
Dispatch, while very dependent on your presence (sometimes unexpectedly) will also go to great lengths to accommodate those in need of time away from work for any reason. 
This company has helped me stay up to date on industry standards and assured my steady progress and level of competency as an Engineer during my employment with them. 
I would work for these folks anywhere at anytime, as well as recommend them to my friends and family as a solid employment solution.

Plan on working 15 hour days and only getting paid for 12, except crew change days, you will be paid for only 6 hours. Crew also pay for their own travel to/from Seattle! 

You can’t use sick days when you’re on vacation, only when crewed up for your 2 weeks, which usually turns into 3 weeks or longer. 

The  Seattle management at Centerline has progressively gone downhill. They’ve become very short staffed on the tugs/barges due to their unprofessional business practices. Now the rest of the crew have to pick up the slack when sailing short. Haven’t seen any real raises to keep up with the cost of living  in almost 6 years. 

There are still some really solid people there, but they are looking elsewhere now due to the lack of transparency and low morale. 



A typical day at work:

Review and follow up with new and old tickets.
Prioritize and assign new tickets to teammates.
Review and update on going tickets and projects.
Contact vendors for quotes hardware / software / Printers / Phones Create PO's and communicate with vendors
Build IT projects in ms projects with time, scope, budget.
Manage project with weekly status and graphs updates for weekly meetings 

End of week:
Create weekly / monthly status reports on ticket trending with graphs. 


What I have learned:

I have learned to time manage work flow and manage my teammates through leadership and leading by example. 


Your co-workers:

Willing to listen and help.


The hardest part of the job:

The industry I work in is fast pace and last minute. Planning while being proactive are two main process that ensure the IT department is ahead of the game.  


The most enjoyable part of the job:

Providing excellent support, completing jobs from start to finish.

Managment is bad office people look down on boat people. Boat crews not welcome at work parties or events. Building has a gym but we are not allowed to go. Owner has a show off car that was 300000 but we park 2 blocks away. Dispatcher lie to people. Boats are old. Checks cash. Got a few new managers I wondered if things would get better but they have no power over the poor ones that still run it all.  Seen a lot of problems get ignored. They only fix things when they brake an only give raises when people quit. If they cared about there people it would be a good career its a rotating door.  Advancement is a popularity contest good guys move on and bad ones stay because they cant find any thing else.  Building more boats and not giving fair pay. Would not go back

What is the best part of working at the company?
CEO & Executive Management engagement

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being responsible and accountable for your daily responsibilities, alternating in urgency/priority daily, while being assigned new, more immediate responsibilities outside of job scope or expertise.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Good work environment for the most part. Some supervisors do not seem to lead by example however.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Putting out fires, on top of developing a proper inventory control flow, and working shipyard maintenance. Unable to be proactive, 80% reactive from a daily task list standpoint.

Pros:
Harley Marine is full of good, nice people. I learned a lot in my early years at the company. The marine industry can be very interesting if you let it be. There is a pretty well stocked pantry. There are often company wide lunches and BBQs provided. The benefits are great (no insurance premiums at the time of writing this). A pretty good 401k match. Very nice office building with a great few from almost any desk.

Cons:
Very little real opportunity for advancement.
Management has issues identifying growth opportunities for employees, or possibly just lacks interest in doing so.
Poor work life balance due to lack of manpower and/or poor systems and processes.

Worked in accounting  over 10 years ago.  Company was secure and very busy until the recession hit hard. Then came lots of layoffs at all branches.  Learned alot about marine transportation and made many good friends.  Reported to the Assistant Controller who was very supportive and very willing to train you more.  The woman they hired as accounting was the opposite - came on heavy handed, set you up to fail & definitely didn't support the staff. 

There was some competitiveness because if you didn't progress, you didn't get a raise.  They provided good benefits, beautiful office and snacks.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Delivery driver 46 salaries reported	$34.50 per hour
Tankerman 8 salaries reported	$41.52 per hour
Engineer 4 salaries reported	$115,000 per year
Captain 4 salaries reported	$866 per day
Mechanic 3 salaries reported	$35.58 per hour

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