FMC Commissioner Calls for New Maritime Transport Data Rules in Final Report
A report released by outgoing Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel (see 2412130068) calls on the FMC to create a new Maritime Transportation Data System, which he said would allow the ocean shipping industry to better share and receive information on planned carrier voyages, cargo retrieval windows, real-time vessel transits and times of arrival, and more.
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The report, released this month, is the final version of recommendations Bentzel has been working on for months (see 2302150050), which he said are designed to expand ways carriers, ports, railroads and others can better share supply chain data and real-time shipping information. Bentzel has said he believes some of the recommendations should be translated into federal mandates (see 2408190050).
In the final report, he wrote that efforts to put in place new data mandates have received little pushback from shippers. “Throughout the [Maritime Transportation Data Initiative] process, industry has made it clear that standards need to be in place to provide a sustainable practice for the successful and efficient sharing of information as it pertains to cargo operations,” he said.
But he also noted that ocean carriers are likely to oppose any new rules. Although some carriers are already taking steps to “track and trace” cargo, they are “not willing to fully embrace the need to provide public information” for voyage cancellations, estimated arrivals at U.S. ports, in-transit cargo tracking and more. “I believe that without a requirement, ocean carriers will continue to fail to provide real time information on their services,” Bentzel said.
Many of the recommendations are similar to the ones in the initial report Bentzel released in 2023, although one notable revision would extend the notification timeline of the earliest receiving date for when cargo is expected to arrive at a terminal. Bentzel’s initial recommendation called on carriers to provide that date “five days in advance” of their arrival to a U.S. terminal, but Bentzel said he changed that to six days “to account for an ocean carrier export cut off day.”
The final report also includes suggestions for more data security guardrails, including one that would allow carriers to close down certain “informational services at their discretion” to shield against “any maritime security threats that would threaten the welfare of their crew and ship.” Bentzel also said ports should receive more funding for technology improvements and said ocean carriers should be required to provide “best source information” on how a shipper can secure terminal access to a new container return location if that location is different from where the container was retrieved.