Topic of the Week (3/8/24):
A recap of the Federal Maritime Commission's National Shipper Advisory Committee (NSAC) (the meeting was hosted live at #TPM24) including the Committee's reaction to the Commission's two recent rulemakings and the NSAC Data Subcommittee's announcement of a letter signed by 44+ US organizations encouraging ocean carrier adoption of Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) technical standards for Operational Vessel Schedule 3.0 and Commercial Schedules 1.0 Beta 1 (released on Jan 10, 2024)
NSAC Meeting (video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8jitF3DjU
NSAC (via FMC.gov) Website:
https://www.fmc.gov/industry-oversight/national-shipper-advisory-committee/
DCSA OVS and CS Standards:
https://dcsa.org/standards/operational-vessel-schedules
https://dcsa.org/standards/commercial-schedules
The Maritime Professorᵀᴹ presents By Land and By Sea - an attorney breaking down the week in supply chain
with Lauren Beagen (Founder of The Maritime Professorᵀᴹ and Squall Strategies)
Let's dive in...
1 - The Federal Maritime Commission is still working through the other two rulemakings: Unreasonable Refusal to Deal or Negotiate and Unfair or Unjustly Discriminatory Methods.
2 - The Ocean Alliance extends their agreement for five more years (to Mar 31, 2032) (incl. CMA CGM, COSCO SHIPPING Lines, OOCL, EVERGREEN LINE)
The Loadstar:
https://theloadstar.com/ocean-alliance-carriers-kill-defector-rumours-with-five-year-extension/
3 - INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMENS ASSOCIATION and UNITED STATES MARITIME ALLIANCE LIMITED negotiations - master contract expires Sept 2024.
JOC.com
https://www.joc.com/article/ila-gives-chapters-mid-may-deadline-reach-agreement-local-issues_20240208.html?
4 - First mariner casualties reported from Houthi attacks
gCaptain
https://gcaptain.com/houthi-attacks-turn-deadly-true-confidence/
-------------------------------
The Maritime Professorᵀᴹ is an e-learning/educational based company on all things maritime and supply chain - we p
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lauren Beagen (00:56):
So we've been breaking down the federal
maritime commission's detentiondemurrage rule rule for the past
two weeks.
It's only been out for twoweeks Feels like it's been a
while, but it's only been outfor two weeks and we're going to
continue to do so.
But let's catch up on some ofthe other news that's been
happening out there.
I've been kind of pushing thataside, focusing solely on D&D.
Let's talk about what else ishappening and actually this week
(01:19):
we're going to stay, of course,on the federal maritime
commission.
The FMC's federal advisorycommittee, the National Shipper
Advisory Committee, held theirmeeting during TPM.
They talked a little bit abouttechnical standards in the
industry and there's some coolstuff here that I think we need
to pay attention to.
They also talked about therules that were just released
and how they felt about them,some of the recommendations that
(01:41):
might have actually found theirway in.
So this federal advisory thingI think is working.
Hi, welcome to By land and bySea, an attorney breaking down
the weekend supply chainpresented by the Maritime
Professor Me.
I'm Lauren Beagen, founder ofThe Maritime Professor and
Squall Strategies, and I'm yourfavorite maritime attorney.
Join me every week as we walkthrough both ocean transport and
(02:03):
surface transport topics, thewild world of supply chain.
As always, the guidance isgeneral and for educational
purposes only.
It should not be construed withlegal advice and there is no
attorney client privilegecreated by this video or this
podcast.
If you need an attorney,contact an attorney.
So before we get into thediscussion of the day, let's go
through my top three stories ofthe week, and actually we're
(02:25):
going to have top four storiesthis week.
Story number one we've we'vekept it on here for quite a
while.
We're always watching the FMC.
We are looking for the othertwo rule makings now three open
rule makings.
Scratch that.
Two open rule makings.
We have one completed.
We haven't seen much movementin a while on the other two.
Look, we have the D&D rulereleased.
(02:48):
That is so great.
Billing practices of detentionto merge released February 23rd.
Published February 26th in theFederal Register, which is kind
of the official release date.
Effective date of May 28th isgreat.
We're going to continue tobreak that one down.
But the other two rules right.
We have two other rules we havedefining unreasonable refusal
to deal or negotiate withrespect to vessel space
(03:08):
accommodations provided by anocean common carrier.
That last closed July 2023.
And there's no rest for thewicked.
So we are going to continue topress on and look for these
rules as well.
So just a what was it?
A week or two ago, chairmanMaffey and Commissioner Rebecca
Dye were both in front of theSenate, one of the subcommittees
, talking about theirrenomination, and so this rule
(03:31):
and a few of the other rulescame up.
It kept being said through thisplatform the renomination
hearing and a few others thatgeneral kind of public
commentary, that they expectthis rule to be coming out soon.
I don't know what soon means,right?
I don't think it's days, I'mnot certain it's weeks, but I'm
(03:54):
thinking.
I mean, I don't know, it's thebeginning of March.
No one can tell when these aregoing to get released, but let's
say May.
I don't know.
May seems like a good time forthis to potentially be released.
I don't know.
I think the potentially we'llsee something by before July.
I think they're going to try toget it out before July, before
the one year passes since theirlast movement on this.
(04:16):
So this is definingunreasonable physical to deal
and negotiate with respect tovessel space accommodations.
Go check out my old, my oldepisode on this.
We kind of break it down.
There's a few things that Ithink the entire industry needs
to pay attention to in this rule.
There's been some back andforth going on in the comments.
There's been some discussionwith with.
(04:38):
Just take a look, it's thedefinitions that I really think
we all need to pay attention tohere, the definitions that they
are proposed in the supplementalnotice of proposed rulemaking,
which was the last version.
Usually there isn't thisadditional notice of proposed
rulemaking, but that's what wesaw with this one.
There was another bite of theapple.
That's what closed last July.
That's where they are right now.
(04:58):
They're reviewing all of thesecomments.
Certainly much less many, lessway fewer comments how do you
say that Way?
Fewer comments than the 180that the D&D rule garnered, but
it's still a very, very, veryimportant rule that we need to
pay attention to.
The other rule that we reallyhaven't seen any independent
language on is defining unfair,unjustly discriminatory methods.
(05:20):
The FMC has said that theyincluded some of that language
and the unreasonable physicaldealer negotiate language that
rule we were just talking about,but it still needs to have its
own standalone.
They've said that this iscoming.
We haven't seen any languagereleased independent in its own
standalone package.
Still waiting on that.
(05:41):
Defining unfair, unjustlydiscriminatory methods and that
supplemental notice of proposedrulemaking.
The defining unreasonablephysical dealer negotiate with
respect to vessel spaceaccommodations.
Those are the two that BillingPractices, d&d.
It's out May 28th.
It's effective.
The other thing that we alwayswatch is the Maritime
Transportation Data Initiative.
I've heard a few differenttimes in kind of a few different
(06:01):
public forums that another RFI,another request for information
round, is coming.
We haven't seen anything yet.
Obviously, I'm going to keepwatching that, but I think this
is going to be also a reallyinteresting thing to see where
it goes.
These request for informationrounds are really important for
the stakeholders, the supplychain ecosystem, to stay engaged
.
This is the FMC asking forfeedback, asking for what do you
(06:23):
think?
How can we help you stayengaged here.
Stay, pay attention to what theFMC is doing.
Obviously, keep it here andI'll let you know when the RFIs
are coming.
The Maritime Transportation DataInitiative, I think has some
really cool potential.
Go read the report that was putout.
A lot of work went into that.
You can actually see most ofthose interviews.
(06:45):
That's all posted on the FMC'sYouTube page.
Go check it out.
It's kind of broken down bydifferent industry stakeholder
grouping.
There's carriers, there's portsand MTOs, there's government,
there's international, there'sall sorts of, there's all sorts
of different areas thatCommissioner Carl Bunce looked
at for this MaritimeTransportation Data Initiative
(07:06):
report.
Hopefully there's another RFIcoming I keep hearing that there
will be for an effort toenforce the code.
This one we couldn't cover.
Well, we didn't cover becausewe were so focused on D&D, but
this is also huge.
The Ocean Alliance re-upped forfive more years.
So the announcement came at theend of February where Lodestar
I mean that's who I'm going tolink to, but among others right
(07:27):
reported that the Ocean AllianceEast-Westliner Services Vessel
Sharing Agreement between CMA,cgm, costco, oocl and Evergreen
has been extended until March31st 2032.
You know I love to look at theactual original language, so I
went in.
This is confirmed through theamendment filing in the FMC's
Agreement Library.
I've talked about this before,but this is the open source
(07:49):
thing on the FMC's website, theAgreements Library.
You can go look it up.
You can see when theseamendments are filed, what they
say, what the actual text.
A lot of times I reference themwhen we're talking about the
Global Ocean Shipping Alliances,but this time, well, same, this
is the same thing, right?
They filed an amendment and Iwanted to go make sure that what
was reported was what was said.
(08:12):
And so, sure enough, in theamendment that they filed on
March 1st 2024, which puts it at, they said an effective date of
April 15, 2024, the term of theagreement will extend through
March 31st 2032.
So there you have it, it's real, it's really being extended.
So let's kind of take a stepback, right.
So we have the Ocean Alliance,we have the Alliance, thg
(08:35):
Alliance, and those are kind ofthe two main global vessel
sharing agreements, alliancesout there right now.
Remember, we also have 2M, butthat's going to be winding down.
So in the wind down of 2M therewas talk of Gemini cooperation.
Right, that'sMeriskin-Happagloid, and I've
been really interested in thiscreation because they keep
(08:56):
calling it the cooperation and Istill haven't seen an agreement
filed with the FMC.
And, like I said, I like tocheck the actual language
directly where I can.
Perhaps they don't necessarilyneed to do that.
Right, we've talked about thatbefore.
Certainly, with the blockexemption out of the EU, the
repeal there was some talk of,maybe some of these vessel
(09:18):
sharing agreements, these globalocean alliances, didn't even
require the limited antitrustthat is enjoyed by, you know, in
the US example, the ShippingAct, and so that was part of the
.
Well, maybe the repeal of theEU block exemption isn't going
to have that major of an impact.
I mean, I don't know.
So just kind of thinking outloud here, right, so maybe they
(09:40):
don't necessarily need to filewith the FMC.
That's going to be aninteresting thing to keep in
mind and, I guess, pay attentionto.
But it looked, it just kind offeels like it's a little bit of
a departure, obviously, from theglobal vessel sharing
agreements and alliances that wehave otherwise filed with the
FMC.
It's not set to go into effectuntil February 2025.
So I mean, arguably theagreement could still be filed
(10:03):
with the FMC.
I'm just interested to see whatthe tech says, right, I want to
see is this perhaps a simplevessel sharing agreement?
Is this a global ocean alliancelike we see with the other two?
Remember, like I said, 2m wasgoing to be dissolving in total
January 2025.
And so this Gemini cooperationis set to start off February
(10:27):
2025.
I'm going to keep watching this.
I think it's interesting, but Ithink we're still we talked
about potentially seeing someshifts here, and this re-upping
of the ocean alliance is kind ofsuggesting that there maybe
isn't going to be much moreshifting, but we'll see.
I mean, we'll see how it allshakes out.
All right.
Story number three If youcaught my monthly appearance on
(10:49):
drive time with Grace Sharkey onSiriusXM last night and also,
by the way, I don't oftenadvertise it, but I love going
on Grace's show, I mean, and sofun to be on SiriusXM, how cool,
right?
Anyway, so if you caught thatshow last night.
We talked a little bit aboutthe ILA labor negotiations that
are coming up.
They're kind of currentlyongoing and the contract is set
(11:11):
to expire at the end ofSeptember, so we talked a little
bit about this.
A few weeks ago, joc publishedan article that talked about
regional agreements and theILA's encouragement to wrap
those up so the master contractcan really be the focus, and so
we've talked extensively aboutthe ILWU, the West Coast Port
Labor.
Now, this is the East Coast andpart of the Gulf.
(11:33):
So the ILA, the InternationalLongshore Association and the US
Maritime Alliance, that's whois set to be negotiating here.
Their contract is set to expireSeptember 2024.
And the ILA has actually saidthat its members will not work
beyond a contract expiration,and that's kind of unlike the
ILWU of the West Coast where wesaw quite an extension past the
(11:55):
expiration of the contract.
So we really didn't see muchoperational halting.
We saw a few disruptions but wereally didn't see a full on
stop.
And that's what the ILA issaying, that its members are not
going to be working beyond acontract expiration which
heightens it for the September2024 expiration.
So it looks like for now I'mstill encouraged by it all.
(12:17):
I mean it's been promising.
The JOC was reporting the workis already being done on
contracting negotiations becausethe ILA has directed its local
unions to complete their portlevel bargaining by May 17.
So that is kind of the regionaldiscussions, those regional
agreements.
After that point the ILA andthe US Maritime Alliance are
going to work on settling out amaster contract which gives them
(12:39):
I mean, if you look at May 17th, that gives them almost five
months of discussion time.
I mean it's not a lot right,because the ILWU extended almost
a year out, but since the ILWUand Pacific Maritime Association
didn't even sit down untilmid-May with the July 1
expiration date and that's whatwas six weeks, this is promising
(12:59):
.
This is what we were talkingabout last night.
This, I think, has some promiseto it.
No-transcript.
There really has been somerecent news highlighting that
point that the ILA has said thatthey won't work beyond that
contract expiration.
But look, they are startingmuch earlier than the IOWU
contract did, like we justhighlighted.
And with the IOWU contractthere was that automation report
(13:21):
released I mean, I think it wasthe day before they sat down
for discussion so that made fora very tough starting point.
It felt like it was kind of ahard start.
And then to add in thisautomation report, singing the
praises of automation, if Iremember it right, I don't see
that happening here necessarily,right.
I think that they are kind ofslowing into the contract
(13:43):
negotiation already and they'rebeing open and they're having
media engagement.
It seems like, I mean, we'rehearing stories and information
out about these contractnegotiations, right.
I mean, how else would we knowabout the regional encouragement
of things to be done by May17th?
And also I'm hopeful about theamount of time we have until the
expiration of the contract sothat we can move, hopefully, all
(14:06):
of this in the right direction.
One of the big X factors that wewere talking about last night
that may still play acontributing role and hopefully
it doesn't right, hopefully itdoesn't.
It is an election year in theUnited States and the supply
chain keeps finding its way intopolitical discord.
So September, the end ofSeptember, right, we vote in
(14:26):
November.
I mean, it's a little too closefor comfort.
It doesn't necessarily suggestthat that will completely become
part of a talking point.
I just don't hope.
I hope it just doesn't getcaught up in the mix, right?
So hopefully it doesn't getcaught up in the electoral
rhetoric and discussion andhopefully it just keeps
(14:46):
progressing.
Maybe we'll even have, I mean,talk about wishful thinking.
Maybe we'll even have acontract finalized before the
other one expires mid-summer.
Who knows, who knows?
We'll see, but we'll obviouslyall be watching this closely,
all right.
Story number four this is thelast one of the day before we
jump into it.
Look, just this week the Houthiattacks turned deadly and three
(15:09):
seafarers were killed on the RedSea on a merchant ship.
It was a bulk carrier, barbadosflagged vessel.
This is horrible, right, thisis horrible.
And we also recently heard thenews of the Rubimar sinking with
thousands of tons of fertilizeraboard.
I mean, not to mention the fuel.
I mean that's the environmentalcatastrophe that is kind of
unfolding there too.
(15:29):
Look, I'm not an expert ongeopolitics of the region, but I
am passionate about themaritime industry and these men
and women.
Mariners signed up for adangerous career, but they
didn't sign up for this right.
They did not sign up to befired at unnecessarily and that
isn't one of those risks thatshould be borne by them.
Look, the mariners that work onall of these merchant vessels
are keeping society turning bycarrying the goods that support
(15:51):
everyone across the globe,everyone right.
90% of everything moves byocean transit and it's done so
by these mariners.
I'm really encouraged to seeand I'll say it has been a
non-wavering message that thevessel owners and operators not
only condemn these completelybarbaric attacks but they keep
(16:11):
mariners.
The messaging keeps being, andtheir actions seems to be that
they're keeping mariners at thetop of their priority list of
concerns and repeatedlycommunicate that, repeatedly act
out of the interest of themariners, keeping them safe,
making sure that they protectthem.
I mean we've gone what?
Since the turn of the new yearfrom when these attacks started.
(16:34):
I mean we've gone three monthswithout a fatality, but I mean
we should have never had afatality, right, it just feels
like.
First, the sinking of the ship,what was it last week?
And now this week, the firstfatalities.
The stakes are as high asthey've ever been in this area
and it feels like I don't know.
The past two weeks just feltlike there's a shift, so my
(16:57):
heart goes out to the familiesof those mariners.
This should never happen, right?
It's a dangerous profession onits own, as all operations based
or supply chain based careersare, but this should have never
happened.
So I'm going to keep watchingthis, but hopefully something
changes here.
All right, well, let's get intothe meat and potatoes of the day
(17:18):
, though.
We are covering the NationalShipper Advisory Committee.
They're meeting this week.
So, speaking of the FMC, don'twe always the FMC's Federal
Advisory Committee?
The National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee met just this week in
concert with the TPM conference.
So that's put on by S&P GlobalJOC Journal of Commerce.
So this TPM conference is oneof the, if not the, I'm going to
(17:42):
I'm going to pause there theconference of global ocean
shipping.
It's held in Long Beach,california, every year.
We've talked about the NationalShipper Advisory before, but
let's just kind of briefly goover it, right?
So there's 12 importers, 12exporters from all different
company sizes, commodities,viewpoints, really working
together for the benefit ofsupply chain as a whole and
(18:02):
certainly right, obviously withthe FMC's authorities in mind,
because this is a FederalAdvisory Committee, it advises
the federal agency that it'sattached to, and so that agency
is the Federal MaritimeCommission.
So, from the FMC's landing pagefor the National Shipper
Advisory Committee as part of akind of our overview but, like I
said, go back and check out theold episode where we talk a
little bit more about it thisNational Shipper Advisory
(18:25):
Committee will provideinformation, insights and
expertise pertaining toconditions in the ocean freight
delivery system to thecommission.
Specifically, the committeewill advise the commission on
policies relating to thecompetitiveness, reliability,
integrity and fairness of theinternational ocean freight
delivery system.
Membership will be comprised of12 representatives of entities
(18:48):
who export cargo and 12representatives of entities who
import cargo, like we said.
I also want to mention thatpublic comment is really highly
encouraged with this group, itseems, and it was actually
repeated quite a few times atthis recent meeting just this
week, saying that this group issupposed to be representative of
the industry, of the importersand exporters and of the
(19:09):
shippers.
Right, and they encourageinvolvement from the industry.
And the website actually says atthe very top members of the
public may submit writtencomments to NSAC National
Shipper Advisory Committee andSAC at any time.
It says it right at the topNSAC you can submit written
comments.
Public members can submitwritten comments to NSAC at any
(19:30):
time.
I mean, not often are federaladvisory committees so open,
right, about trying to solicitthat public comment.
So, and here's the guidance,right, comments should be
addressed to NSAC.
And then they give you the 800North Capitol at Washington the
care of Dylan Richmond.
He's the federal designatedfederal officer, so he's the FMC
employee that liaisons withNSAC.
(19:53):
Or they have an email address.
So nsac National ShipperAdvisory Committee, nsac at
FMCgov.
I mean cool, right.
I mean the FMC is just beggingfor people to get engaged and
there's opportunity.
So I mean, at some point, ifyou're not submitting comments,
if you're not engaging in thisconversation, right, I mean
that's on you.
They're asking for feedback,they want involvement, they want
(20:17):
people to be part of thisconversation.
All right.
So back to the meeting, right?
So they covered the two recentrules.
So we have the CarrierAutomated Tariffs Recommendation
and the FMC Detention DetergentFinal Rule, which, if you
follow this show, you are verywell-versed on everything that's
happening.
I mean, we're still going tokeep breaking it down.
But we certainly have done thehighlights and we highlighted
(20:37):
that the MTOs were included.
Right, that was huge, that wasa huge announcement.
So they also did subcommitteereports and there was a really
interesting update out of thedata subcommittee on standards
and I just I want to talk aboutthat in a minute.
So, specifically commercialvessel standards that I kind of
talked about at the beginningand we're going to spend a bit
(20:58):
more time on that today.
But first the overview of therecent FMC rules right, so they
highlighted the CarrierAutomated Tariffs.
That went into effect February1st, so that's already in place,
right, it's been about a month.
And they highlighted kind ofthe big parts of this.
Right.
So it eliminated tariff accessfees.
We talked about that during oneof our by-land and by-sea
episodes.
They also mentioned it allowsNVOCCs to cross-reference VOCC
(21:21):
tariffs, define NVOCCpass-through process, defines
co-loading for LCL differentfrom FCL and miscellaneous
definitions and tariff processes.
So that was on there.
The National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee kind of briefed
overview.
They were using thatopportunity in front of a TPM
audience.
It was in concert with, but notpart.
(21:44):
They were careful to say thiswasn't kind of like a sponsored
event.
Right, it was.
It's a National ShipperAdvisory Committee.
It was kind of on its ownaccord, but they had the
audience right from some of theTPM, which was a great
opportunity.
So they took that time to coverthe basics of what was
happening here.
Like I said, we've covered thetariff access fees portion and I
encouraged at that time and Istill encourage anyone now that
(22:05):
if you have anything to do withNVOCC cross-references of VOCC
tariffs or pass-throughs, tolook at the rule directly and
talk to your lawyer about it.
Right, talk to them about theapplicability to your situation,
because this is probably alittle bit too complicated or in
the weeds to cover right here.
But this is an important ruleto pay attention to.
(22:27):
Eliminates tariff access fees.
I think that one's going to bea little bit more simple.
Obviously, we talked about it.
But the other things thecross-reference, the
pass-through just make sure thatyou're in compliance, right,
because that went into effectFebruary 1st.
So the National Super AdvisorCommittee as a full committee
also talked about the D&Dbilling, right, we've talked
about this.
May 28th is the effective date.
(22:48):
It's the upcoming effectivedate.
So they broke it down as howthe rule will be presented in
the Code of Federal Registers,in the CFR.
So they broke it down CFR 541,which is the part of 541, that
all of this is going to be partof.
So under 541.1, they said itconfirms data elements and
(23:09):
process for invoice Yep, we knowthat.
541.2, voccs they highlightedMTOs.
We know that too, and NVOs mustcomply with billing rules.
So the scope right 541.3defines build party, billing
party and consignee.
Part 541.4, only contractedparties can be invoiced, but
(23:32):
third parties may voluntarilypay on behalf of shipper or
consignee.
Part 541.5, missing dataelements VOIDs obligation to pay
.
We haven't talked too muchabout that one because I want to
be very careful on that one,because I don't want a bunch of
listeners to just say missingelements, not going to pay,
(23:54):
because I mean, simply put,that's not incorrect.
But before you decide not topay an invoice, make sure,
absolutely sure, that you don'thave to pay it, because there
are some things that the FMC putin there on, like, if you make
a mistake, you can reissue, Imean.
So I don't want to get into allthose details.
(24:14):
This is obviously not legaladvice, but, yes, it's not
incorrect, right?
Missing data elements voidsyour obligation to pay.
Make sure that you check outpart 541.5.
However, that's not an entireabsolute and so be careful there
.
That's all I'm gonna say.
Part 541.6 defines data elementsrequired on an invoice.
(24:36):
We saw that with the Congressputting in those 13 data
elements.
Now we saw the FMC kind ofexpanding that a few different
areas to about, I think, 20elements now.
So and that's the part thatdoesn't have necessarily an
effective date.
But if I were you I would planfor that to be eminent.
That that's gonna be approvedby OMB.
(24:56):
Data collection has to beapproved from OMB in order for
an agency to publish it out.
Part 541.8 allows 30 days todispute and 30 days to resolve
or attempted resolution.
As we know, they highlightedthe other options available.
If you missed the disputeresolution option, we've talked
about that right.
So the dispute resolutionthat's afforded to this business
(25:17):
to business requirement orattempted requirement in the
FMC's new rule doesn't eliminateany of the other opportunities
for dispute resolution that theFMC has right.
That's filing a lawsuit, that'sreporting a violation, that's
working through caters, theConsumer Affairs and Dispute
Resolution Services office, formediation or arbitration or any
(25:39):
of those other services.
Those are still available.
It's just this quicker disputeresolution B2B business to
business requirement that theFMC has put in that kinda helps
say, well, you guys work it outfirst, but you have to have a
process to work it out, is whatthey're kinda saying through
this rule, right.
(25:59):
So all in all, national SuperAdvisory Committee said that
they felt pretty heard, right.
They said that the customsbrokers and the truckers,
eliminating them out of theliability chain was something
that they pushed for and thathappened.
But they also said that therewere a few unresolved areas that
they wanted to see stilladdressed.
The first one was claim railjurisdiction on storage charges.
(26:22):
So there was a letter toCongress of 77 shippers I
believe it was about a year agothat happened, it was like last
May, so less than a yearrequesting clear jurisdiction on
rail.
So through Bill of Latings arein the FMC's jurisdiction and
that I mean.
Even that gets a little bitsquishy, but for the most part
(26:43):
it seems to be kind of likeeverybody's accepting that, yes,
through bills of lading arepart of the FMC's jurisdiction.
That was highlighted in the D&Dkind of comment section or
discussion section of the D&Drule.
But the storage charges fromrailroads that even happen on
through bill of ladings on therail terminal is what the
National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee was saying, that they
(27:05):
still want some clarity on.
They said that Congress isreviewing and working on that
right, that the letter of 77that went through last May.
They said Congress is lookingat this because of that letter.
But they also said that theNational Shipper Advisory
Committee has talked to STB theSurface Transportation Board,
kind of the rail surfaceequivalent of the FMC and the
(27:26):
STB has said that they don'thave jurisdiction and that they
don't want jurisdiction and thatthere's three bodies of law
that don't allow them to havejurisdiction.
So I mean it was presented askind of like the trifecta of so
not STB, and that's what theNational Shipper Advisory
Committee Chair was saying.
They also said, you know theChair was saying FMC says that
(27:47):
through bills of lading areunder their jurisdiction, but
the question still remains, atleast in their mind does this
include storage at the railterminals?
And so they said that they werejust a little unsatisfied that
that question, that specificdelineation of where
jurisdiction is, wasn't exactlysatisfactory in kind of any sort
of answer.
They also said that they wantedto see a resolution to early
(28:12):
receipt date changes, theywanted to see an address on D&D
for government holds and theywanted to define availability.
At one point.
They were talking a little bitabout a shared coverage of
government holds and maybe therewas a way that that can be
shared out, because governmentholds are tough right.
(28:32):
Who pays for a government hold?
That's the question that theywanted answered.
They gave a couple ofsuggestions and I think that
we're gonna see maybe some morediscussion on that, hopefully
out of the FMC, but certainlyout of the National Shipper
Advisory Committee.
So overall they seem prettyhappy with the two rules that
they highlighted.
But they also gave somesubcommittee reports and I
really wanted to talk about thisdata subcommittee because there
(28:53):
was a really interestingdiscussion and you really
haven't seen much coverage of it.
They mentioned that there was aletter written from members of
National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee and others.
They said that there were 44signatories of shippers and
associations and US-basedorganizations as of that
announcement.
But I guess the impression thatI kind of got was that there
(29:14):
might be more added to the list.
But this letter was onstandards and specifically the
encouragement of nine of the topocean carriers in the world to
adopt the Digital ContainerShipping Association's
operational vessel schedule 3.0and commercial schedule 1.0,
beta one.
They said it was released onJanuary 10th 2024.
(29:34):
Okay, so let's take a step backhere, because we've talked
about the Digital ContainerShipping Association before DCSA
.
But I thought this was prettyinteresting that they're
highlighting this in this datasubcommittee of the National
Shipper Advisory Committee and,like I said, I really haven't
seen a lot of discussion aboutit yet.
I mean, the meeting was onlywhat?
Two days ago.
But so who's DCSA?
We've talked about this before,but just you kind of know.
(29:55):
So they're a neutral, nonprofitorganization.
They were only established in2019 and they were established
by several of the largestcontainer shipping companies, so
they cover over 70% of globalcontainerized transportation and
they say they aim to create adigitally interconnected
container shipping industry inwhich the customers of container
shipping lines have a choice ofseamless, easy to use services
(30:17):
that provide the flexibility tomeet their business and
sustainability goals.
So DCSA creates free of charge,vendor, neutral, technology,
agnostic standards for IT andnon-competitive business
practices.
I'm gonna say that again freeof charge, vendor, neutral,
technology, agnostic, best ofthat word.
Before the final publication ofDCSA standards, they are openly
(30:40):
published for the wider publicto provide comments and
recommendations.
So, not unlike the FMC andreally all federal agencies,
open comment periods, right?
So pay attention if you wannaweigh in on this?
So all of the DCSA standardsare open and freely available,
meaning you don't have to payfor them, right?
They're free of charge.
Simply go to their website andcheck them out, and the
(31:01):
standards are accompanied bycomplete technical
specifications, reading guidesand reference implementations.
So that's Kind of a collectionof of of who DCSA is.
So we've talked, like I said,we've talked about DCSA before
Periodically, because they wereincluded in the FMC Commissioner
Bensal's MTDI stakeholdermeetings and then they were
actually referenced in the MTDIreport as having some best
(31:23):
practices to build from.
So we mentioned them a fewtimes.
But what's happening here?
So Gabriel Rodriguez of thedata subcommittee of the
National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee said that they found
the DCSA's work to be somethingthat's within the industry
Already and would align with atleast nine of the major carriers
right, because those are themembers of the DCSA, and they
(31:44):
Highlighted the data points thatthe National Shipper Advisory
came up with.
They highlighted some datapoints that were important and
Gave mentioned that the DCSAalready covered many of those
data points and they're alreadyreleased and already available
Standards.
So, additionally, gavementioned that there was an
industry support letter that wasreleased before TPM, signed off
(32:04):
by what he said was 44 major USorganizations Pushing forward
these data standards, requestingthat these carriers push them
out and make them operational totheir day-to-day Operations as
companies.
That that's pretty huge right.
That's, that's kind of cool.
So, and he even went up further.
He said two carriers haveactually already replied back
and said that they have Vesselschedule operational standards
(32:27):
and are going to start rollingthose out soon.
He said that the others arestill waiting on a response, but
it was only right right beforeTPM, I think that he said that
this was sent so Parallel thatwith the work that Commissioner
Vessel is working on hementioned.
He said that they hope thatthis continues to move that
forward, so the standards ofdata visibility will hit the
market.
Okay, so what is all of this,right?
(32:47):
So I went to DCSA's website tobreak this down a little bit
more, because on its face itsounds pretty good, right, and
having 44 plus shippers, shipperorganizations, us organizations
sign on to this is certainly abig deal.
Like I said, the meeting justhappened this week, but I
haven't seen much mention ofthis yet.
So on DCSA's website, right,they outline under operational
(33:07):
vessel schedules and commercialvessel schedules, the the
problem.
So here's under operationalvessel schedules.
They say the problem todaypartner carriers and service do
not uniformly and timely sharetheir vessel schedules Between
them and with other operationalstakeholders.
This creates schedulesdiscrepancies between carriers
and their operational partners,even for the same vessel or
(33:29):
service.
I mean yes, right, this issomething we hear from the
industry time and time again.
All right, so continuing on.
Currently, the process forpiecing together schedule
information can be manual andtime-consuming for terminal
operators and other Operationalpartners.
Getting clarity on vesselvoyage information, such a
scheduled arrival or departureand routing changes, can be
challenging.
(33:49):
This is all from the website,right?
The DCSA's website.
And operational schedule vesselschedules Continuing.
They say this lack oftransparency and discrepancies
and data can cause unexpectedservice delays at port and
inland.
The decreased supply chainreliability hinder effective
resource planning and ultimatelydisrupt business performance.
I mean yes, right, 100%.
(34:10):
These are major problems.
Okay, so they have a solutionsection.
So continuing reading on fromthis.
This is off the DCSA website.
The DCSA operational vesselschedule OBS Standard enables
the automatic sharing of vesselschedule data and exception
related information betweencarriers, operational partners,
for example, terminals in otherwords, terminals and their
solution providers, leveraging acommon structure for schedules,
(34:33):
defined data attributes and anAPI.
Dcsa standards clarify whichinformation is associated with a
vessel at service voyage andport port call levels and
provide the means to exchangethat information.
And that's that's great.
With the inclusion of universalreferences in the standard to
be implemented by partnercarriers, over time, operational
(34:55):
partners will no longer have tosecond guess which update
corresponds with which servicevoyage or port call.
For all stakeholders, datauniformity and transparency
creates the essential foundationfor digitalization, more
efficient operations anddata-driven analysis.
I mean that's great.
I mean that's great, right,that's a solution.
That last sentence is the truthand the true starting point
(35:16):
from which everything else needsto build.
Right, we need to speak thesame language before we can
truly work together.
And, as they so simply said,right, data uniformity and
transparency Creates theessential foundation for
digitalization.
Exactly.
So that's just the operationalvessel schedule.
If we look at the commercialvessel schedule standard, I
(35:36):
think you're gonna like whatthis has to say too.
They also list the problem andthe solution.
So they said the problem.
Today, carriers do not uniformlyshare schedule information.
For customers, getting clarityon vessel voyage information,
such as scheduled arrival anddeparture and routing changes,
is essential for planningsubsequent operations activities
.
But piecing together scheduleinformation to achieve clarity
(35:58):
can be manual and time consuming.
Data discrepancies andinaccessibility create a lack of
transparency that increasesdwell times at terminals and
causes inland delays.
As a result, supply chains areless reliable, which hinders
effective resource planning andultimately disrupts business
performance.
Right, I mean, yeah, okay, sothis stated another way.
(36:18):
Right, but kind of also, I'mwith you.
So the solution the DCSAcommercial schedule.
So the other one was theoperation of vessel schedules.
This is commercial schedules.
The commercial schedulestandards creates a common way
for carriers to communicatevessel schedule information to
customers.
With the DCSA commercialschedule standard in place,
customers can expect to receivehigh quality data about their
(36:38):
container shipments, regardlessof which carriers transporting
them.
Commercial schedule expands thescope of the DCSA operational
vessel schedule standard withthree options for accessing
schedules from carriers.
So they list the three optionsPoint to point routing provides
single or multiple end to endrouting options with estimated
time stamps during thepre-booking phase.
Number two port scheduleprovides estimated time stamps
(37:02):
for all vessels arriving anddeparting from a defined port
terminal on a given date.
And three vessel schedulesprovides estimated departure and
arrival times for a requiredservice voyage or vessel for
each port call on the vessel'srotation.
I mean, I get it right.
I get why the National ShipAdvisory Committee data
subcommittee likes this.
There seems to be like a great.
(37:22):
There seems to be greatstarting points, like everyone
on the same page, right?
So getting back to the letter,right?
44 plus shippers, usorganizations, have signed on to
this urging the ocean carriersto adopt this operation of
vessel schedule 3.0 andcommercial schedule 1.0 beta
released January 10th 2024.
I mean, look, this isn't legaladvice, but this sounds like we
(37:43):
should all go at least take alook at these right?
These recently releasedstandards.
Imagine if we all spoke thesame language as it relates to
vessel schedules.
This feels like it's a big deal.
I mean, I can imagine thatwe'll be seeing more on this,
certainly, but this is industrystakeholder engagement at work,
right?
The National Ship AdvisoryCommittee, made up of large,
medium and small US importersand exporters, are getting
(38:04):
together and havingconversations and making
recommendations that are gonnahave real impacts on the
efficiency of the movement ofgoods.
I mean, like the datasubcommittee says, they meet
weekly sometimes.
I mean that's great and they'reputting out letter.
I mean they're coordinatingletters.
It says it's what Gabe wasannouncing was pretty, really
interesting and I hope you gotake a look at this National
(38:26):
Ship Advisory Committee meetingthe recording.
If you haven't watched it.
The recording is up on thewebsite already.
The FMC posts all of the fullcommittee meeting recordings on
their website.
You can always necessarily seethe subcommittee but you can see
the main full committeerecordings and go check it out.
I mean, stay engaged with whatthe National Ship Advisory
Committee is doing, because theyare asking some pretty great
(38:47):
questions.
They are making some headway.
They're diving into reallyeffective areas of how do we
address supply chain bottlenecks, how do we address some of
these inefficiencies in thesupply chain ecosystem.
It's really encouraging to see.
So that's why today I wanted tolook at the National Ship
Advisory Committee, what they'vebeen working on and what they
(39:09):
kind of the recap of theirmeeting this week.
So, as always, the guidance isgeneral for educational purposes
.
It should not be construed withlegal advice directly related
to your matter.
You need an attorney, contactan attorney, but if you do have
specific legal questions, feelfree to reach out to me at my
legal company Squall Strategies.
Otherwise, for the non-legalquestions, the e-learning and
the general industry informationand insights, come find me at
(39:30):
the Maritime Professor If youlike these videos, let me know,
comment, like and share.
If you wanna listen to theseepisodes on demand, or if you
missed any previous episodes,check out the podcast by Land
and by Sea and if you prefer tosee the video, they live on my
YouTube page by Land and by Sea,presented by the Maritime
Professor.
While you're at it, check outthe website,
themaritimeprofessor.
com.
So until next week, this isLauren Beagen, the Maritime
(39:50):
Professor, and you've justlistened to by Land and by Sea.
See you next time.
So we've been breaking down the federal
maritime commission's detentiondemurrage rule rule for the past
two weeks.
It's only been out for twoweeks Feels like it's been a
while, but it's only been outfor two weeks and we're going to
continue to do so.
But let's catch up on some ofthe other news that's been
happening out there.
I've been kind of pushing thataside, focusing solely on D&D.
Let's talk about what else ishappening and actually this week
(01:19):
we're going to stay, of course,on the federal maritime
commission.
The FMC's federal advisorycommittee, the National Shipper
Advisory Committee, held theirmeeting during TPM.
They talked a little bit abouttechnical standards in the
industry and there's some coolstuff here that I think we need
to pay attention to.
They also talked about therules that were just released
and how they felt about them,some of the recommendations that
(01:41):
might have actually found theirway in.
So this federal advisory thingI think is working.
Hi, welcome to By land and bySea, an attorney breaking down
the weekend supply chainpresented by the Maritime
Professor Me.
I'm Lauren Beagen, founder ofThe Maritime Professor and
Squall Strategies, and I'm yourfavorite maritime attorney.
Join me every week as we walkthrough both ocean transport and
(02:03):
surface transport topics, thewild world of supply chain.
As always, the guidance isgeneral and for educational
purposes only.
It should not be construed withlegal advice and there is no
attorney client privilegecreated by this video or this
podcast.
If you need an attorney,contact an attorney.
So before we get into thediscussion of the day, let's go
through my top three stories ofthe week, and actually we're
(02:25):
going to have top four storiesthis week.
Story number one we've we'vekept it on here for quite a
while.
We're always watching the FMC.
We are looking for the othertwo rule makings now three open
rule makings.
Scratch that.
Two open rule makings.
We have one completed.
We haven't seen much movementin a while on the other two.
Look, we have the D&D rulereleased.
(02:48):
That is so great.
Billing practices of detentionto merge released February 23rd.
Published February 26th in theFederal Register, which is kind
of the official release date.
Effective date of May 28th isgreat.
We're going to continue tobreak that one down.
But the other two rules right.
We have two other rules we havedefining unreasonable refusal
to deal or negotiate withrespect to vessel space
(03:08):
accommodations provided by anocean common carrier.
That last closed July 2023.
And there's no rest for thewicked.
So we are going to continue topress on and look for these
rules as well.
So just a what was it?
A week or two ago, chairmanMaffey and Commissioner Rebecca
Dye were both in front of theSenate, one of the subcommittees
, talking about theirrenomination, and so this rule
(03:31):
and a few of the other rulescame up.
It kept being said through thisplatform the renomination
hearing and a few others thatgeneral kind of public
commentary, that they expectthis rule to be coming out soon.
I don't know what soon means,right?
I don't think it's days, I'mnot certain it's weeks, but I'm
(03:54):
thinking.
I mean, I don't know, it's thebeginning of March.
No one can tell when these aregoing to get released, but let's
say May.
I don't know.
May seems like a good time forthis to potentially be released.
I don't know.
I think the potentially we'llsee something by before July.
I think they're going to try toget it out before July, before
the one year passes since theirlast movement on this.
(04:16):
So this is definingunreasonable physical to deal
and negotiate with respect tovessel space accommodations.
Go check out my old, my oldepisode on this.
We kind of break it down.
There's a few things that Ithink the entire industry needs
to pay attention to in this rule.
There's been some back andforth going on in the comments.
There's been some discussionwith with.
(04:38):
Just take a look, it's thedefinitions that I really think
we all need to pay attention tohere, the definitions that they
are proposed in the supplementalnotice of proposed rulemaking,
which was the last version.
Usually there isn't thisadditional notice of proposed
rulemaking, but that's what wesaw with this one.
There was another bite of theapple.
That's what closed last July.
That's where they are right now.
(04:58):
They're reviewing all of thesecomments.
Certainly much less many, lessway fewer comments how do you
say that Way?
Fewer comments than the 180that the D&D rule garnered, but
it's still a very, very, veryimportant rule that we need to
pay attention to.
The other rule that we reallyhaven't seen any independent
language on is defining unfair,unjustly discriminatory methods.
(05:20):
The FMC has said that theyincluded some of that language
and the unreasonable physicaldealer negotiate language that
rule we were just talking about,but it still needs to have its
own standalone.
They've said that this iscoming.
We haven't seen any languagereleased independent in its own
standalone package.
Still waiting on that.
(05:41):
Defining unfair, unjustlydiscriminatory methods and that
supplemental notice of proposedrulemaking.
The defining unreasonablephysical dealer negotiate with
respect to vessel spaceaccommodations.
Those are the two that BillingPractices, d&d.
It's out May 28th.
It's effective.
The other thing that we alwayswatch is the Maritime
Transportation Data Initiative.
I've heard a few differenttimes in kind of a few different
(06:01):
public forums that another RFI,another request for information
round, is coming.
We haven't seen anything yet.
Obviously, I'm going to keepwatching that, but I think this
is going to be also a reallyinteresting thing to see where
it goes.
These request for informationrounds are really important for
the stakeholders, the supplychain ecosystem, to stay engaged
.
This is the FMC asking forfeedback, asking for what do you
(06:23):
think?
How can we help you stayengaged here.
Stay, pay attention to what theFMC is doing.
Obviously, keep it here andI'll let you know when the RFIs
are coming.
The Maritime Transportation DataInitiative, I think has some
really cool potential.
Go read the report that was putout.
A lot of work went into that.
You can actually see most ofthose interviews.
(06:45):
That's all posted on the FMC'sYouTube page.
Go check it out.
It's kind of broken down bydifferent industry stakeholder
grouping.
There's carriers, there's portsand MTOs, there's government,
there's international, there'sall sorts of, there's all sorts
of different areas thatCommissioner Carl Bunce looked
at for this MaritimeTransportation Data Initiative
(07:06):
report.
Hopefully there's another RFIcoming I keep hearing that there
will be for an effort toenforce the code.
This one we couldn't cover.
Well, we didn't cover becausewe were so focused on D&D, but
this is also huge.
The Ocean Alliance re-upped forfive more years.
So the announcement came at theend of February where Lodestar
I mean that's who I'm going tolink to, but among others right
(07:27):
reported that the Ocean AllianceEast-Westliner Services Vessel
Sharing Agreement between CMA,cgm, costco, oocl and Evergreen
has been extended until March31st 2032.
You know I love to look at theactual original language, so I
went in.
This is confirmed through theamendment filing in the FMC's
Agreement Library.
I've talked about this before,but this is the open source
(07:49):
thing on the FMC's website, theAgreements Library.
You can go look it up.
You can see when theseamendments are filed, what they
say, what the actual text.
A lot of times I reference themwhen we're talking about the
Global Ocean Shipping Alliances,but this time, well, same, this
is the same thing, right?
They filed an amendment and Iwanted to go make sure that what
was reported was what was said.
(08:12):
And so, sure enough, in theamendment that they filed on
March 1st 2024, which puts it at, they said an effective date of
April 15, 2024, the term of theagreement will extend through
March 31st 2032.
So there you have it, it's real, it's really being extended.
So let's kind of take a stepback, right.
So we have the Ocean Alliance,we have the Alliance, thg
(08:35):
Alliance, and those are kind ofthe two main global vessel
sharing agreements, alliancesout there right now.
Remember, we also have 2M, butthat's going to be winding down.
So in the wind down of 2M therewas talk of Gemini cooperation.
Right, that'sMeriskin-Happagloid, and I've
been really interested in thiscreation because they keep
(08:56):
calling it the cooperation and Istill haven't seen an agreement
filed with the FMC.
And, like I said, I like tocheck the actual language
directly where I can.
Perhaps they don't necessarilyneed to do that.
Right, we've talked about thatbefore.
Certainly, with the blockexemption out of the EU, the
repeal there was some talk of,maybe some of these vessel
(09:18):
sharing agreements, these globalocean alliances, didn't even
require the limited antitrustthat is enjoyed by, you know, in
the US example, the ShippingAct, and so that was part of the
.
Well, maybe the repeal of theEU block exemption isn't going
to have that major of an impact.
I mean, I don't know.
So just kind of thinking outloud here, right, so maybe they
(09:40):
don't necessarily need to filewith the FMC.
That's going to be aninteresting thing to keep in
mind and, I guess, pay attentionto.
But it looked, it just kind offeels like it's a little bit of
a departure, obviously, from theglobal vessel sharing
agreements and alliances that wehave otherwise filed with the
FMC.
It's not set to go into effectuntil February 2025.
So I mean, arguably theagreement could still be filed
(10:03):
with the FMC.
I'm just interested to see whatthe tech says, right, I want to
see is this perhaps a simplevessel sharing agreement?
Is this a global ocean alliancelike we see with the other two?
Remember, like I said, 2m wasgoing to be dissolving in total
January 2025.
And so this Gemini cooperationis set to start off February
(10:27):
2025.
I'm going to keep watching this.
I think it's interesting, but Ithink we're still we talked
about potentially seeing someshifts here, and this re-upping
of the ocean alliance is kind ofsuggesting that there maybe
isn't going to be much moreshifting, but we'll see.
I mean, we'll see how it allshakes out.
All right.
Story number three If youcaught my monthly appearance on
(10:49):
drive time with Grace Sharkey onSiriusXM last night and also,
by the way, I don't oftenadvertise it, but I love going
on Grace's show, I mean, and sofun to be on SiriusXM, how cool,
right?
Anyway, so if you caught thatshow last night.
We talked a little bit aboutthe ILA labor negotiations that
are coming up.
They're kind of currentlyongoing and the contract is set
(11:11):
to expire at the end ofSeptember, so we talked a little
bit about this.
A few weeks ago, joc publishedan article that talked about
regional agreements and theILA's encouragement to wrap
those up so the master contractcan really be the focus, and so
we've talked extensively aboutthe ILWU, the West Coast Port
Labor.
Now, this is the East Coast andpart of the Gulf.
(11:33):
So the ILA, the InternationalLongshore Association and the US
Maritime Alliance, that's whois set to be negotiating here.
Their contract is set to expireSeptember 2024.
And the ILA has actually saidthat its members will not work
beyond a contract expiration,and that's kind of unlike the
ILWU of the West Coast where wesaw quite an extension past the
(11:55):
expiration of the contract.
So we really didn't see muchoperational halting.
We saw a few disruptions but wereally didn't see a full on
stop.
And that's what the ILA issaying, that its members are not
going to be working beyond acontract expiration which
heightens it for the September2024 expiration.
So it looks like for now I'mstill encouraged by it all.
(12:17):
I mean it's been promising.
The JOC was reporting the workis already being done on
contracting negotiations becausethe ILA has directed its local
unions to complete their portlevel bargaining by May 17.
So that is kind of the regionaldiscussions, those regional
agreements.
After that point the ILA andthe US Maritime Alliance are
going to work on settling out amaster contract which gives them
(12:39):
I mean, if you look at May 17th, that gives them almost five
months of discussion time.
I mean it's not a lot right,because the ILWU extended almost
a year out, but since the ILWUand Pacific Maritime Association
didn't even sit down untilmid-May with the July 1
expiration date and that's whatwas six weeks, this is promising
(12:59):
.
This is what we were talkingabout last night.
This, I think, has some promiseto it.
No-transcript.
There really has been somerecent news highlighting that
point that the ILA has said thatthey won't work beyond that
contract expiration.
But look, they are startingmuch earlier than the IOWU
contract did, like we justhighlighted.
And with the IOWU contractthere was that automation report
(13:21):
released I mean, I think it wasthe day before they sat down
for discussion so that made fora very tough starting point.
It felt like it was kind of ahard start.
And then to add in thisautomation report, singing the
praises of automation, if Iremember it right, I don't see
that happening here necessarily,right.
I think that they are kind ofslowing into the contract
(13:43):
negotiation already and they'rebeing open and they're having
media engagement.
It seems like, I mean, we'rehearing stories and information
out about these contractnegotiations, right.
I mean, how else would we knowabout the regional encouragement
of things to be done by May17th?
And also I'm hopeful about theamount of time we have until the
expiration of the contract sothat we can move, hopefully, all
(14:06):
of this in the right direction.
One of the big X factors that wewere talking about last night
that may still play acontributing role and hopefully
it doesn't right, hopefully itdoesn't.
It is an election year in theUnited States and the supply
chain keeps finding its way intopolitical discord.
So September, the end ofSeptember, right, we vote in
(14:26):
November.
I mean, it's a little too closefor comfort.
It doesn't necessarily suggestthat that will completely become
part of a talking point.
I just don't hope.
I hope it just doesn't getcaught up in the mix, right?
So hopefully it doesn't getcaught up in the electoral
rhetoric and discussion andhopefully it just keeps
(14:46):
progressing.
Maybe we'll even have, I mean,talk about wishful thinking.
Maybe we'll even have acontract finalized before the
other one expires mid-summer.
Who knows, who knows?
We'll see, but we'll obviouslyall be watching this closely,
all right.
Story number four this is thelast one of the day before we
jump into it.
Look, just this week the Houthiattacks turned deadly and three
(15:09):
seafarers were killed on the RedSea on a merchant ship.
It was a bulk carrier, barbadosflagged vessel.
This is horrible, right, thisis horrible.
And we also recently heard thenews of the Rubimar sinking with
thousands of tons of fertilizeraboard.
I mean, not to mention the fuel.
I mean that's the environmentalcatastrophe that is kind of
unfolding there too.
(15:29):
Look, I'm not an expert ongeopolitics of the region, but I
am passionate about themaritime industry and these men
and women.
Mariners signed up for adangerous career, but they
didn't sign up for this right.
They did not sign up to befired at unnecessarily and that
isn't one of those risks thatshould be borne by them.
Look, the mariners that work onall of these merchant vessels
are keeping society turning bycarrying the goods that support
(15:51):
everyone across the globe,everyone right.
90% of everything moves byocean transit and it's done so
by these mariners.
I'm really encouraged to seeand I'll say it has been a
non-wavering message that thevessel owners and operators not
only condemn these completelybarbaric attacks but they keep
(16:11):
mariners.
The messaging keeps being, andtheir actions seems to be that
they're keeping mariners at thetop of their priority list of
concerns and repeatedlycommunicate that, repeatedly act
out of the interest of themariners, keeping them safe,
making sure that they protectthem.
I mean we've gone what?
Since the turn of the new yearfrom when these attacks started.
(16:34):
I mean we've gone three monthswithout a fatality, but I mean
we should have never had afatality, right, it just feels
like.
First, the sinking of the ship,what was it last week?
And now this week, the firstfatalities.
The stakes are as high asthey've ever been in this area
and it feels like I don't know.
The past two weeks just feltlike there's a shift, so my
(16:57):
heart goes out to the familiesof those mariners.
This should never happen, right?
It's a dangerous profession onits own, as all operations based
or supply chain based careersare, but this should have never
happened.
So I'm going to keep watchingthis, but hopefully something
changes here.
All right, well, let's get intothe meat and potatoes of the day
(17:18):
, though.
We are covering the NationalShipper Advisory Committee.
They're meeting this week.
So, speaking of the FMC, don'twe always the FMC's Federal
Advisory Committee?
The National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee met just this week in
concert with the TPM conference.
So that's put on by S&P GlobalJOC Journal of Commerce.
So this TPM conference is oneof the, if not the, I'm going to
(17:42):
I'm going to pause there theconference of global ocean
shipping.
It's held in Long Beach,california, every year.
We've talked about the NationalShipper Advisory before, but
let's just kind of briefly goover it, right?
So there's 12 importers, 12exporters from all different
company sizes, commodities,viewpoints, really working
together for the benefit ofsupply chain as a whole and
(18:02):
certainly right, obviously withthe FMC's authorities in mind,
because this is a FederalAdvisory Committee, it advises
the federal agency that it'sattached to, and so that agency
is the Federal MaritimeCommission.
So, from the FMC's landing pagefor the National Shipper
Advisory Committee as part of akind of our overview but, like I
said, go back and check out theold episode where we talk a
little bit more about it thisNational Shipper Advisory
(18:25):
Committee will provideinformation, insights and
expertise pertaining toconditions in the ocean freight
delivery system to thecommission.
Specifically, the committeewill advise the commission on
policies relating to thecompetitiveness, reliability,
integrity and fairness of theinternational ocean freight
delivery system.
Membership will be comprised of12 representatives of entities
(18:48):
who export cargo and 12representatives of entities who
import cargo, like we said.
I also want to mention thatpublic comment is really highly
encouraged with this group, itseems, and it was actually
repeated quite a few times atthis recent meeting just this
week, saying that this group issupposed to be representative of
the industry, of the importersand exporters and of the
(19:09):
shippers.
Right, and they encourageinvolvement from the industry.
And the website actually says atthe very top members of the
public may submit writtencomments to NSAC National
Shipper Advisory Committee andSAC at any time.
It says it right at the topNSAC you can submit written
comments.
Public members can submitwritten comments to NSAC at any
(19:30):
time.
I mean, not often are federaladvisory committees so open,
right, about trying to solicitthat public comment.
So, and here's the guidance,right, comments should be
addressed to NSAC.
And then they give you the 800North Capitol at Washington the
care of Dylan Richmond.
He's the federal designatedfederal officer, so he's the FMC
employee that liaisons withNSAC.
(19:53):
Or they have an email address.
So nsac National ShipperAdvisory Committee, nsac at
FMCgov.
I mean cool, right.
I mean the FMC is just beggingfor people to get engaged and
there's opportunity.
So I mean, at some point, ifyou're not submitting comments,
if you're not engaging in thisconversation, right, I mean
that's on you.
They're asking for feedback,they want involvement, they want
(20:17):
people to be part of thisconversation.
All right.
So back to the meeting, right?
So they covered the two recentrules.
So we have the CarrierAutomated Tariffs Recommendation
and the FMC Detention DetergentFinal Rule, which, if you
follow this show, you are verywell-versed on everything that's
happening.
I mean, we're still going tokeep breaking it down.
But we certainly have done thehighlights and we highlighted
(20:37):
that the MTOs were included.
Right, that was huge, that wasa huge announcement.
So they also did subcommitteereports and there was a really
interesting update out of thedata subcommittee on standards
and I just I want to talk aboutthat in a minute.
So, specifically commercialvessel standards that I kind of
talked about at the beginningand we're going to spend a bit
(20:58):
more time on that today.
But first the overview of therecent FMC rules right, so they
highlighted the CarrierAutomated Tariffs.
That went into effect February1st, so that's already in place,
right, it's been about a month.
And they highlighted kind ofthe big parts of this.
Right.
So it eliminated tariff accessfees.
We talked about that during oneof our by-land and by-sea
episodes.
They also mentioned it allowsNVOCCs to cross-reference VOCC
(21:21):
tariffs, define NVOCCpass-through process, defines
co-loading for LCL differentfrom FCL and miscellaneous
definitions and tariff processes.
So that was on there.
The National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee kind of briefed
overview.
They were using thatopportunity in front of a TPM
audience.
It was in concert with, but notpart.
(21:44):
They were careful to say thiswasn't kind of like a sponsored
event.
Right, it was.
It's a National ShipperAdvisory Committee.
It was kind of on its ownaccord, but they had the
audience right from some of theTPM, which was a great
opportunity.
So they took that time to coverthe basics of what was
happening here.
Like I said, we've covered thetariff access fees portion and I
encouraged at that time and Istill encourage anyone now that
(22:05):
if you have anything to do withNVOCC cross-references of VOCC
tariffs or pass-throughs, tolook at the rule directly and
talk to your lawyer about it.
Right, talk to them about theapplicability to your situation,
because this is probably alittle bit too complicated or in
the weeds to cover right here.
But this is an important ruleto pay attention to.
(22:27):
Eliminates tariff access fees.
I think that one's going to bea little bit more simple.
Obviously, we talked about it.
But the other things thecross-reference, the
pass-through just make sure thatyou're in compliance, right,
because that went into effectFebruary 1st.
So the National Super AdvisorCommittee as a full committee
also talked about the D&Dbilling, right, we've talked
about this.
May 28th is the effective date.
(22:48):
It's the upcoming effectivedate.
So they broke it down as howthe rule will be presented in
the Code of Federal Registers,in the CFR.
So they broke it down CFR 541,which is the part of 541, that
all of this is going to be partof.
So under 541.1, they said itconfirms data elements and
(23:09):
process for invoice Yep, we knowthat.
541.2, voccs they highlightedMTOs.
We know that too, and NVOs mustcomply with billing rules.
So the scope right 541.3defines build party, billing
party and consignee.
Part 541.4, only contractedparties can be invoiced, but
(23:32):
third parties may voluntarilypay on behalf of shipper or
consignee.
Part 541.5, missing dataelements VOIDs obligation to pay
.
We haven't talked too muchabout that one because I want to
be very careful on that one,because I don't want a bunch of
listeners to just say missingelements, not going to pay,
(23:54):
because I mean, simply put,that's not incorrect.
But before you decide not topay an invoice, make sure,
absolutely sure, that you don'thave to pay it, because there
are some things that the FMC putin there on, like, if you make
a mistake, you can reissue, Imean.
So I don't want to get into allthose details.
(24:14):
This is obviously not legaladvice, but, yes, it's not
incorrect, right?
Missing data elements voidsyour obligation to pay.
Make sure that you check outpart 541.5.
However, that's not an entireabsolute and so be careful there
.
That's all I'm gonna say.
Part 541.6 defines data elementsrequired on an invoice.
(24:36):
We saw that with the Congressputting in those 13 data
elements.
Now we saw the FMC kind ofexpanding that a few different
areas to about, I think, 20elements now.
So and that's the part thatdoesn't have necessarily an
effective date.
But if I were you I would planfor that to be eminent.
That that's gonna be approvedby OMB.
(24:56):
Data collection has to beapproved from OMB in order for
an agency to publish it out.
Part 541.8 allows 30 days todispute and 30 days to resolve
or attempted resolution.
As we know, they highlightedthe other options available.
If you missed the disputeresolution option, we've talked
about that right.
So the dispute resolutionthat's afforded to this business
(25:17):
to business requirement orattempted requirement in the
FMC's new rule doesn't eliminateany of the other opportunities
for dispute resolution that theFMC has right.
That's filing a lawsuit, that'sreporting a violation, that's
working through caters, theConsumer Affairs and Dispute
Resolution Services office, formediation or arbitration or any
(25:39):
of those other services.
Those are still available.
It's just this quicker disputeresolution B2B business to
business requirement that theFMC has put in that kinda helps
say, well, you guys work it outfirst, but you have to have a
process to work it out, is whatthey're kinda saying through
this rule, right.
(25:59):
So all in all, national SuperAdvisory Committee said that
they felt pretty heard, right.
They said that the customsbrokers and the truckers,
eliminating them out of theliability chain was something
that they pushed for and thathappened.
But they also said that therewere a few unresolved areas that
they wanted to see stilladdressed.
The first one was claim railjurisdiction on storage charges.
(26:22):
So there was a letter toCongress of 77 shippers I
believe it was about a year agothat happened, it was like last
May, so less than a yearrequesting clear jurisdiction on
rail.
So through Bill of Latings arein the FMC's jurisdiction and
that I mean.
Even that gets a little bitsquishy, but for the most part
(26:43):
it seems to be kind of likeeverybody's accepting that, yes,
through bills of lading arepart of the FMC's jurisdiction.
That was highlighted in the D&Dkind of comment section or
discussion section of the D&Drule.
But the storage charges fromrailroads that even happen on
through bill of ladings on therail terminal is what the
National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee was saying, that they
(27:05):
still want some clarity on.
They said that Congress isreviewing and working on that
right, that the letter of 77that went through last May.
They said Congress is lookingat this because of that letter.
But they also said that theNational Shipper Advisory
Committee has talked to STB theSurface Transportation Board,
kind of the rail surfaceequivalent of the FMC and the
(27:26):
STB has said that they don'thave jurisdiction and that they
don't want jurisdiction and thatthere's three bodies of law
that don't allow them to havejurisdiction.
So I mean it was presented askind of like the trifecta of so
not STB, and that's what theNational Shipper Advisory
Committee Chair was saying.
They also said, you know theChair was saying FMC says that
(27:47):
through bills of lading areunder their jurisdiction, but
the question still remains, atleast in their mind does this
include storage at the railterminals?
And so they said that they werejust a little unsatisfied that
that question, that specificdelineation of where
jurisdiction is, wasn't exactlysatisfactory in kind of any sort
of answer.
They also said that they wantedto see a resolution to early
(28:12):
receipt date changes, theywanted to see an address on D&D
for government holds and theywanted to define availability.
At one point.
They were talking a little bitabout a shared coverage of
government holds and maybe therewas a way that that can be
shared out, because governmentholds are tough right.
(28:32):
Who pays for a government hold?
That's the question that theywanted answered.
They gave a couple ofsuggestions and I think that
we're gonna see maybe some morediscussion on that, hopefully
out of the FMC, but certainlyout of the National Shipper
Advisory Committee.
So overall they seem prettyhappy with the two rules that
they highlighted.
But they also gave somesubcommittee reports and I
really wanted to talk about thisdata subcommittee because there
(28:53):
was a really interestingdiscussion and you really
haven't seen much coverage of it.
They mentioned that there was aletter written from members of
National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee and others.
They said that there were 44signatories of shippers and
associations and US-basedorganizations as of that
announcement.
But I guess the impression thatI kind of got was that there
(29:14):
might be more added to the list.
But this letter was onstandards and specifically the
encouragement of nine of the topocean carriers in the world to
adopt the Digital ContainerShipping Association's
operational vessel schedule 3.0and commercial schedule 1.0,
beta one.
They said it was released onJanuary 10th 2024.
(29:34):
Okay, so let's take a step backhere, because we've talked
about the Digital ContainerShipping Association before DCSA
.
But I thought this was prettyinteresting that they're
highlighting this in this datasubcommittee of the National
Shipper Advisory Committee and,like I said, I really haven't
seen a lot of discussion aboutit yet.
I mean, the meeting was onlywhat?
Two days ago.
But so who's DCSA?
We've talked about this before,but just you kind of know.
(29:55):
So they're a neutral, nonprofitorganization.
They were only established in2019 and they were established
by several of the largestcontainer shipping companies, so
they cover over 70% of globalcontainerized transportation and
they say they aim to create adigitally interconnected
container shipping industry inwhich the customers of container
shipping lines have a choice ofseamless, easy to use services
(30:17):
that provide the flexibility tomeet their business and
sustainability goals.
So DCSA creates free of charge,vendor, neutral, technology,
agnostic standards for IT andnon-competitive business
practices.
I'm gonna say that again freeof charge, vendor, neutral,
technology, agnostic, best ofthat word.
Before the final publication ofDCSA standards, they are openly
(30:40):
published for the wider publicto provide comments and
recommendations.
So, not unlike the FMC andreally all federal agencies,
open comment periods, right?
So pay attention if you wannaweigh in on this?
So all of the DCSA standardsare open and freely available,
meaning you don't have to payfor them, right?
They're free of charge.
Simply go to their website andcheck them out, and the
(31:01):
standards are accompanied bycomplete technical
specifications, reading guidesand reference implementations.
So that's Kind of a collectionof of of who DCSA is.
So we've talked, like I said,we've talked about DCSA before
Periodically, because they wereincluded in the FMC Commissioner
Bensal's MTDI stakeholdermeetings and then they were
actually referenced in the MTDIreport as having some best
(31:23):
practices to build from.
So we mentioned them a fewtimes.
But what's happening here?
So Gabriel Rodriguez of thedata subcommittee of the
National Shipper AdvisoryCommittee said that they found
the DCSA's work to be somethingthat's within the industry
Already and would align with atleast nine of the major carriers
right, because those are themembers of the DCSA, and they
(31:44):
Highlighted the data points thatthe National Shipper Advisory
came up with.
They highlighted some datapoints that were important and
Gave mentioned that the DCSAalready covered many of those
data points and they're alreadyreleased and already available
Standards.
So, additionally, gavementioned that there was an
industry support letter that wasreleased before TPM, signed off
(32:04):
by what he said was 44 major USorganizations Pushing forward
these data standards, requestingthat these carriers push them
out and make them operational totheir day-to-day Operations as
companies.
That that's pretty huge right.
That's, that's kind of cool.
So, and he even went up further.
He said two carriers haveactually already replied back
and said that they have Vesselschedule operational standards
(32:27):
and are going to start rollingthose out soon.
He said that the others arestill waiting on a response, but
it was only right right beforeTPM, I think that he said that
this was sent so Parallel thatwith the work that Commissioner
Vessel is working on hementioned.
He said that they hope thatthis continues to move that
forward, so the standards ofdata visibility will hit the
market.
Okay, so what is all of this,right?
(32:47):
So I went to DCSA's website tobreak this down a little bit
more, because on its face itsounds pretty good, right, and
having 44 plus shippers, shipperorganizations, us organizations
sign on to this is certainly abig deal.
Like I said, the meeting justhappened this week, but I
haven't seen much mention ofthis yet.
So on DCSA's website, right,they outline under operational
(33:07):
vessel schedules and commercialvessel schedules, the the
problem.
So here's under operationalvessel schedules.
They say the problem todaypartner carriers and service do
not uniformly and timely sharetheir vessel schedules Between
them and with other operationalstakeholders.
This creates schedulesdiscrepancies between carriers
and their operational partners,even for the same vessel or
(33:29):
service.
I mean yes, right, this issomething we hear from the
industry time and time again.
All right, so continuing on.
Currently, the process forpiecing together schedule
information can be manual andtime-consuming for terminal
operators and other Operationalpartners.
Getting clarity on vesselvoyage information, such a
scheduled arrival or departureand routing changes, can be
challenging.
(33:49):
This is all from the website,right?
The DCSA's website.
And operational schedule vesselschedules Continuing.
They say this lack oftransparency and discrepancies
and data can cause unexpectedservice delays at port and
inland.
The decreased supply chainreliability hinder effective
resource planning and ultimatelydisrupt business performance.
I mean yes, right, 100%.
(34:10):
These are major problems.
Okay, so they have a solutionsection.
So continuing reading on fromthis.
This is off the DCSA website.
The DCSA operational vesselschedule OBS Standard enables
the automatic sharing of vesselschedule data and exception
related information betweencarriers, operational partners,
for example, terminals in otherwords, terminals and their
solution providers, leveraging acommon structure for schedules,
(34:33):
defined data attributes and anAPI.
Dcsa standards clarify whichinformation is associated with a
vessel at service voyage andport port call levels and
provide the means to exchangethat information.
And that's that's great.
With the inclusion of universalreferences in the standard to
be implemented by partnercarriers, over time, operational
(34:55):
partners will no longer have tosecond guess which update
corresponds with which servicevoyage or port call.
For all stakeholders, datauniformity and transparency
creates the essential foundationfor digitalization, more
efficient operations anddata-driven analysis.
I mean that's great.
I mean that's great, right,that's a solution.
That last sentence is the truthand the true starting point
(35:16):
from which everything else needsto build.
Right, we need to speak thesame language before we can
truly work together.
And, as they so simply said,right, data uniformity and
transparency Creates theessential foundation for
digitalization.
Exactly.
So that's just the operationalvessel schedule.
If we look at the commercialvessel schedule standard, I
(35:36):
think you're gonna like whatthis has to say too.
They also list the problem andthe solution.
So they said the problem.
Today, carriers do not uniformlyshare schedule information.
For customers, getting clarityon vessel voyage information,
such as scheduled arrival anddeparture and routing changes,
is essential for planningsubsequent operations activities
.
But piecing together scheduleinformation to achieve clarity
(35:58):
can be manual and time consuming.
Data discrepancies andinaccessibility create a lack of
transparency that increasesdwell times at terminals and
causes inland delays.
As a result, supply chains areless reliable, which hinders
effective resource planning andultimately disrupts business
performance.
Right, I mean, yeah, okay, sothis stated another way.
(36:18):
Right, but kind of also, I'mwith you.
So the solution the DCSAcommercial schedule.
So the other one was theoperation of vessel schedules.
This is commercial schedules.
The commercial schedulestandards creates a common way
for carriers to communicatevessel schedule information to
customers.
With the DCSA commercialschedule standard in place,
customers can expect to receivehigh quality data about their
(36:38):
container shipments, regardlessof which carriers transporting
them.
Commercial schedule expands thescope of the DCSA operational
vessel schedule standard withthree options for accessing
schedules from carriers.
So they list the three optionsPoint to point routing provides
single or multiple end to endrouting options with estimated
time stamps during thepre-booking phase.
Number two port scheduleprovides estimated time stamps
(37:02):
for all vessels arriving anddeparting from a defined port
terminal on a given date.
And three vessel schedulesprovides estimated departure and
arrival times for a requiredservice voyage or vessel for
each port call on the vessel'srotation.
I mean, I get it right.
I get why the National ShipAdvisory Committee data
subcommittee likes this.
There seems to be like a great.
(37:22):
There seems to be greatstarting points, like everyone
on the same page, right?
So getting back to the letter,right?
44 plus shippers, usorganizations, have signed on to
this urging the ocean carriersto adopt this operation of
vessel schedule 3.0 andcommercial schedule 1.0 beta
released January 10th 2024.
I mean, look, this isn't legaladvice, but this sounds like we
(37:43):
should all go at least take alook at these right?
These recently releasedstandards.
Imagine if we all spoke thesame language as it relates to
vessel schedules.
This feels like it's a big deal.
I mean, I can imagine thatwe'll be seeing more on this,
certainly, but this is industrystakeholder engagement at work,
right?
The National Ship AdvisoryCommittee, made up of large,
medium and small US importersand exporters, are getting
(38:04):
together and havingconversations and making
recommendations that are gonnahave real impacts on the
efficiency of the movement ofgoods.
I mean, like the datasubcommittee says, they meet
weekly sometimes.
I mean that's great and they'reputting out letter.
I mean they're coordinatingletters.
It says it's what Gabe wasannouncing was pretty, really
interesting and I hope you gotake a look at this National
(38:26):
Ship Advisory Committee meetingthe recording.
If you haven't watched it.
The recording is up on thewebsite already.
The FMC posts all of the fullcommittee meeting recordings on
their website.
You can always necessarily seethe subcommittee but you can see
the main full committeerecordings and go check it out.
I mean, stay engaged with whatthe National Ship Advisory
Committee is doing, because theyare asking some pretty great
(38:47):
questions.
They are making some headway.
They're diving into reallyeffective areas of how do we
address supply chain bottlenecks, how do we address some of
these inefficiencies in thesupply chain ecosystem.
It's really encouraging to see.
So that's why today I wanted tolook at the National Ship
Advisory Committee, what they'vebeen working on and what they
(39:09):
kind of the recap of theirmeeting this week.
So, as always, the guidance isgeneral for educational purposes
.
It should not be construed withlegal advice directly related
to your matter.
You need an attorney, contactan attorney, but if you do have
specific legal questions, feelfree to reach out to me at my
legal company Squall Strategies.
Otherwise, for the non-legalquestions, the e-learning and
the general industry informationand insights, come find me at
(39:30):
the Maritime Professor If youlike these videos, let me know,
comment, like and share.
If you wanna listen to theseepisodes on demand, or if you
missed any previous episodes,check out the podcast by Land
and by Sea and if you prefer tosee the video, they live on my
YouTube page by Land and by Sea,presented by the Maritime
Professor.
While you're at it, check outthe website,
themaritimeprofessor.
com.
So until next week, this isLauren Beagen, the Maritime
(39:50):
Professor, and you've justlistened to by Land and by Sea.
See you next time.
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