Trade Groups to Ask Congress for Expanded FMC Authority Over Rail Storage Fees

NEW ORLEANS -- The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is preparing to ask Congress to allow the Federal Maritime Commission to exercise jurisdiction over certain rail storage fees. NCBFAA is drafting a letter to Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D. -- the two House authors of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act -- that could ask the lawmakers to require the FMC to more forcefully regulate rail-assessed demurrage fees charged on ocean containers traveling inland.

NCBFAA hopes to soon send the letter to about 100 other trade associations for their signatures, NCBFAA Transportation Committee Vice Chair Rich Roche said during the association’s annual conference April 25. “It's taken on a little bit of a bigger life in that it's now gone to some very big associations that are running it through legal,” said Roche, senior vice president of Mohawk Global Logistics.

Roche, who also is a member of the FMC’s National Shipping Advisory Committee, said the idea started within the NSAC, which asked the FMC to regulate certain rail fees in the same way it regulates demurrage fees that take place at ports and terminals. But the FMC told the committee “that would take an act of Congress,” Roche said.

“The way that we've come up with how we would best effect that is to have the Garamendi and Johnson offices, through a congressional act, have the” railroad, as the billing party, bill “back to the contracted party, which is the ocean carrier,” Roche said. “And by doing that, it squarely will put the charges, those rail storage charges, in the operational authority of the FMC.”

Roche said issues stemming from rail storage fees have come up in multiple complaints filed with the FMC. He specifically pointed to a December complaint filed by Wisconsin-based logistics company M.E. Dey against Hapag-Lloyd, which said M.E. Dey was unfairly assessed rail storage charges (see 2212280026 and 2301180013). “It is exactly what we want to see avoided in the future,” Roche said. “This is going to bring the whole jurisdictional issue to light.”