Six Supply Chain Innovation Teams are being convened by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on improving return and delivery of containers to terminals.
Commissioner Rebecca F. Dye will bring the teams together, primarily focusing their efforts to improve the conditions at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York and New Jersey amid the mass increase in consumer demand which has led to severe congestion.
The initiatives firstly aim for truckers to be able to return an empty container to a terminal and pick up a loaded container, commonly referred to as a “double move”.
One further aim is to bring certainty to the earliest return date process to address exporter complaints about the unreliability of the deadline for getting cargo to a terminal.
“Achieving double moves for truckers would improve trucker productivity and remove a constant source of conflict over container return as well as resolve problems with appointment systems and chassis shortages. Earliest return date confusion is a terrible problem for US exporters,” said Commissioner Dye.
“This reform would also remove the constant problem to US agricultural exporters of demurrage and detention charges that are not in compliance with our interpretative rule.”
Chairman Daniel B. Maffei, added, “I fully support Commissioner Dye’s leadership in addressing these issues and applaud her continuing efforts to use the Commission’s statutory authorities to improve conditions contributing to inefficiencies in the nations ocean supply chain.”
It was also recently announced that FMC will examine data constraints that impede the flow of ocean cargo and add to supply chain inefficiencies. Announced in November 2021, the effort spearheaded by Commissioner Carl W. Bentzel is said to be critical to pinpointing how data can contribute to the long-term reliability of the domestic cargo delivery system.
