FMC Commissioner Previews Potential Rulemaking on Cargo Data Sharing Requirements

A new set of recommendations previewed by a member of the Federal Maritime Commission this week could help carriers, ports, railroads and others better harmonize supply chain data and information sharing. Commissioner Carl Bentzel, speaking during a Feb. 15 Commerce Department advisory committee meeting, said he hopes to know this summer whether the FMC plans to move forward with a formal rulemaking.

The recommendations stem from an FMC effort begun by Bentzel in 2021 to examine how data constraints are impeding ocean cargo flow and slowing U.S. supply chains (see 2111160006). They could lead to a new set of requirements for carriers, terminals and others that would “harness existing data sources” to create a new, standardized “maritime transportation data system,” Bentzel said during the Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness meeting.

Bentzel said the initiative could formalize data collection and reporting efforts already conducted by parties in the cargo transportation system but which can differ from port to port. If the FMC approves the recommendations, it could begin working on a rulemaking -- which Bentzel said will have a public comment period -- that could set information reporting and sharing responsibilities for the party in possession of the cargo at each stage of the supply chain.

Ocean carriers, for example, could be required to “provide real time, in-transit visibility” starting from “three months in advance of any voyage,” Bentzel said. “So if they canceled the voyage, if there was a delay in the voyage, there will be requirements for this information to be provided.”

Marine terminals would be required to provide “real-time information related to unloading and loading” of cargo, harmonized information “related to access into and out of the terminal,” earliest receiving dates and more. Those dates would be made publicly available, in part, to inform exporters of the best day to bring their cargo to the port so it can be loaded, Bentzel said.

Bentzel stressed that the information could either be "open-facing," which is public information that the public should be “entitled to receive,” or "closed-facing," such as information that is “proprietary to a cargo interest that has a contract.” The closed-facing information would be “protected, as it is now, with access-encrypted technology to only allow those that are entitled to legally” access the information.

“These are all requirements that in some cases are being provided but are not uniformly being applied, and they're not being applied on a timely basis,” Bentzel said. “So some of this information is not being transmitted to people in a way that's effective and allows efficiency.”

Bentzel also described other portions of the proposals, including one that could require “time and date stamped information on free time for each piece of cargo,” such as information on when demurrage charges would take effect. “Essentially, we want to harmonize the status of cargo while in the terminal and provide clear rules on where it is with respect to pickup and availability and access information going forward from all of the terminals,” he said.

Bentzel said he has received positive feedback so far. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce told him “we don't usually support any type of federal regulation, [but] we may, in this instance, support that,” he said. He’s also speaking with longshoremen to make sure “this is not going to create all sorts of issues. … We're in a pretty good position in terms of all the parties that I've been talking to.”

But Bentzel said the FMC must first vote to move forward with a rulemaking, which he hopes will happen in the next “three months, four months.” He also said he wants to hold “further public discussion” on the proposals.

“If it’s well-received, or even if it's received, I will be making a motion to proceed to a rulemaking to implement this as a federal standard,” Bentzel said. “We have voluntary standards right now in place, and we have to take the next step in this instance.” If the FMC moves forward with a rulemaking, Bentzel said, the commission is “looking at a year and a half until we're getting into the process of finalizing how to do this."