Port Congestion, Supply Chain Challenges to be Focus of FMC Innovation Teams

Excerpt from: Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade | February 08, 2016

The Federal Maritime Commission has announced that it will create supply chain innovation teams to develop commercial solutions to port congestion and related supply chain challenges.

FMC Commissioner Rebecca Dye, who will head this project, will also engage stakeholders such as port officials, terminal operators, port labor, drayage truckers, railroads, ocean transportation intermediaries, ocean carriers, exporters and importers in discussions to identify potential commercial solutions to certain unresolved problems that may in the future interfere with the reliable operation of the U.S. international supply chain, with a particular focus on the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The FMC states that these efforts seek to address the congestion and related bottlenecks experienced at ports and other points in the U.S. supply chain in recent years, which have become a serious risk to U.S. economic and job growth and U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. The FMC notes that this project will not propose regulatory solutions and is separate and distinct from the Commission’s ongoing competition analysis of the PierPASS off-peak gates program.