S3.E8 - FMC Nat'l Shipper Advisory Committee Meeting Recap and Letter on DCSA Vessel Schedule Standards

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/

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** As always the guidance here is general and for educational purposes only, it should not be construed to be legal advice and there is no attorney-client privilege created by this video. If you need an attorney, contact an attorney. **

#ByLandAndBySea

Transcript

Lauren Beagen: 0:56

So we've been breaking down the federal maritime commission's detention demurrage rule rule for the past two weeks. It's only been out for two weeks Feels like it's been a while, but it's only been out for two weeks and we're going to continue to do so. But let's catch up on some of the other news that's been happening out there. I've been kind of pushing that aside, focusing solely on D&D. Let's talk about what else is happening and actually this week we're going to stay, of course, on the federal maritime commission. The FMC's federal advisory committee, the National Shipper Advisory Committee, held their meeting during TPM. They talked a little bit about technical standards in the industry and there's some cool stuff here that I think we need to pay attention to. They also talked about the rules that were just released and how they felt about them, some of the recommendations that might have actually found their way in. So this federal advisory thing I think is working.

Lauren Beagen: 1:47

Hi, welcome to By land and by Sea, an attorney breaking down the weekend supply chain presented by the Maritime Professor Me. I'm Lauren Beagen, founder of The Maritime Professor and Squall Strategies, and I'm your favorite maritime attorney. Join me every week as we walk through both ocean transport and surface transport topics, the wild world of supply chain. As always, the guidance is general and for educational purposes only. It should not be construed with legal advice and there is no attorney client privilege created by this video or this podcast. If you need an attorney, contact an attorney. So before we get into the discussion of the day, let's go through my top three stories of the week, and actually we're going to have top four stories this week.

Lauren Beagen: 2:27

Story number one we've we've kept it on here for quite a while. We're always watching the FMC. We are looking for the other two rule makings now three open rule makings. Scratch that. Two open rule makings. We have one completed. We haven't seen much movement in a while on the other two. Look, we have the D&D rule released. That is so great. Billing practices of detention to merge released February 23rd. Published February 26th in the Federal Register, which is kind of the official release date. Effective date of May 28th is great. We're going to continue to break that one down. But the other two rules right. We have two other rules we have defining unreasonable refusal to deal or negotiate with respect to vessel space accommodations provided by an ocean common carrier. That last closed July 2023. And there's no rest for the wicked. So we are going to continue to press on and look for these rules as well.

Lauren Beagen: 3:20

So just a what was it? A week or two ago, chairman Maffey and Commissioner Rebecca Dye were both in front of the Senate, one of the subcommittees, talking about their renomination, and so this rule and a few of the other rules came up. It kept being said through this platform the renomination hearing and a few others that general kind of public commentary, that they expect this rule to be coming out soon. I don't know what soon means, right? I don't think it's days, I'm not certain it's weeks, but I'm thinking. I mean, I don't know, it's the beginning of March. No one can tell when these are going to get released, but let's say May. I don't know. May seems like a good time for this to potentially be released. I don't know. I think the potentially we'll see something by before July. I think they're going to try to get it out before July, before the one year passes since their last movement on this. So this is defining unreasonable physical to deal and negotiate with respect to vessel space accommodations. Go check out my old, my old episode on this. We kind of break it down.

Lauren Beagen: 4:25

There's a few things that I think the entire industry needs to pay attention to in this rule. There's been some back and forth going on in the comments. There's been some discussion with with. Just take a look, it's the definitions that I really think we all need to pay attention to here, the definitions that they are proposed in the supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking, which was the last version. Usually there isn't this additional notice of proposed rulemaking, but that's what we saw with this one. There was another bite of the apple. That's what closed last July. That's where they are right now. They're reviewing all of these comments. Certainly much less many, less way fewer comments how do you say that Way? Fewer comments than the 180 that the D&D rule garnered, but it's still a very, very, very important rule that we need to pay attention to.

Lauren Beagen: 5:14

The other rule that we really haven't seen any independent language on is defining unfair, unjustly discriminatory methods. The FMC has said that they included some of that language and the unreasonable physical dealer negotiate language that rule we were just talking about, but it still needs to have its own standalone. They've said that this is coming. We haven't seen any language released independent in its own standalone package. Still waiting on that. Defining unfair, unjustly discriminatory methods and that supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking. The defining unreasonable physical dealer negotiate with respect to vessel space accommodations. Those are the two that Billing Practices, d&d. It's out May 28th. It's effective.

Lauren Beagen: 5:55

The other thing that we always watch is the Maritime Transportation Data Initiative. I've heard a few different times in kind of a few different public forums that another RFI, another request for information round, is coming. We haven't seen anything yet. Obviously, I'm going to keep watching that, but I think this is going to be also a really interesting thing to see where it goes. These request for information rounds are really important for the stakeholders, the supply chain ecosystem, to stay engaged. This is the FMC asking for feedback, asking for what do you think? How can we help you stay engaged here. Stay, pay attention to what the FMC is doing. Obviously, keep it here and I'll let you know when the RFIs are coming.

Lauren Beagen: 6:35

The Maritime Transportation Data Initiative, I think has some really cool potential. Go read the report that was put out. A lot of work went into that. You can actually see most of those interviews. That's all posted on the FMC's YouTube page. Go check it out. It's kind of broken down by different industry stakeholder grouping. There's carriers, there's ports and MTOs, there's government, there's international, there's all sorts of, there's all sorts of different areas that Commissioner Carl Bunce looked at for this Maritime Transportation Data Initiative report. Hopefully there's another RFI coming I keep hearing that there will be for an effort to enforce the code.

Lauren Beagen: 7:13

This one we couldn't cover. Well, we didn't cover because we were so focused on D&D, but this is also huge. The Ocean Alliance re-upped for five more years. So the announcement came at the end of February where Lodestar I mean that's who I'm going to link to, but among others right reported that the Ocean Alliance East-Westliner Services Vessel Sharing Agreement between CMA, cgm, costco, oocl and Evergreen has been extended until March 31st 2032.

Lauren Beagen: 7:38

You know I love to look at the actual original language, so I went in. This is confirmed through the amendment filing in the FMC's Agreement Library. I've talked about this before, but this is the open source thing on the FMC's website, the Agreements Library. You can go look it up. You can see when these amendments are filed, what they say, what the actual text. A lot of times I reference them when 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 I wanted to go make sure that what was reported was what was said. And so, sure enough, in the amendment that they filed on March 1st 2024, which puts it at, they said an effective date of April 15, 2024, the term of the agreement will extend through March 31st 2032. So there you have it, it's real, it's really being extended.

Lauren Beagen: 8:30

So let's kind of take a step back, right. So we have the Ocean Alliance, we have the Alliance, thg Alliance, and those are kind of the two main global vessel sharing agreements, alliances out there right now. Remember, we also have 2M, but that's going to be winding down. So in the wind down of 2M there was talk of Gemini cooperation. Right, that's Meriskin-Happagloid, and I've been really interested in this creation because they keep calling it the cooperation and I still haven't seen an agreement filed with the FMC. And, like I said, I like to check the actual language directly where I can. Perhaps they don't necessarily need to do that. Right, we've talked about that before.

Lauren Beagen: 9:10

Certainly, with the block exemption out of the EU, the repeal there was some talk of, maybe some of these vessel sharing agreements, these global ocean alliances, didn't even require the limited antitrust that is enjoyed by, you know, in the US example, the Shipping Act, and so that was part of the. Well, maybe the repeal of the EU block exemption isn't going to have that major of an impact. I mean, I don't know. So just kind of thinking out loud here, right, so maybe they don't necessarily need to file with the FMC. That's going to be an interesting thing to keep in mind and, I guess, pay attention to. But it looked, it just kind of feels like it's a little bit of a departure, obviously, from the global vessel sharing agreements and alliances that we have otherwise filed with the FMC. It's not set to go into effect until February 2025. So I mean, arguably the agreement could still be filed with the FMC. I'm just interested to see what the tech says, right, I want to see is this perhaps a simple vessel sharing agreement? Is this a global ocean alliance like we see with the other two? Remember, like I said, 2m was going to be dissolving in total January 2025. And so this Gemini cooperation is set to start off February 2025. I'm going to keep watching this. I think it's interesting, but I think we're still we talked about potentially seeing some shifts here, and this re-upping of the ocean alliance is kind of suggesting that there maybe isn't going to be much more shifting, but we'll see. I mean, we'll see how it all shakes out. All right. Story number three If you caught my monthly appearance on drive time with Grace Sharkey on SiriusXM last night and also, by the way, I don't often advertise it, but I love going on Grace's show, I mean, and so fun to be on SiriusXM, how cool, right?

Lauren Beagen: 11:00

Anyway, so if you caught that show last night. We talked a little bit about the ILA labor negotiations that are coming up. They're kind of currently ongoing and the contract is set to expire at the end of September, so we talked a little bit about this. A few weeks ago, joc published an article that talked about regional agreements and the ILA's encouragement to wrap those up so the master contract can really be the focus, and so we've talked extensively about the ILWU, the West Coast Port Labor. Now, this is the East Coast and part of the Gulf.

Lauren Beagen: 11:33

So the ILA, the International Longshore Association and the US Maritime Alliance, that's who is set to be negotiating here. Their contract is set to expire September 2024. And the ILA has actually said that its members will not work beyond a contract expiration, and that's kind of unlike the ILWU of the West Coast where we saw quite an extension past the expiration of the contract. So we really didn't see much operational halting. We saw a few disruptions but we really didn't see a full on stop. And that's what the ILA is saying, that its members are not going to be working beyond a contract expiration which heightens it for the September 2024 expiration. So it looks like for now I'm still encouraged by it all. I mean it's been promising. The JOC was reporting the work is already being done on contracting negotiations because the ILA has directed its local unions to complete their port level bargaining by May 17. So that is kind of the regional discussions, those regional agreements. After that point the ILA and the US Maritime Alliance are going to work on settling out a master contract which gives them 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 ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association didn't even sit down until mid-May with the July 1 expiration date and that's what was six weeks, this is promising. This is what we were talking about last night. This, I think, has some promise to it. No-transcript.

Lauren Beagen: 13:06

There really has been some recent news highlighting that point that the ILA has said that they won't work beyond that contract expiration. But look, they are starting much earlier than the IOWU contract did, like we just highlighted. And with the IOWU contract there was that automation report released I mean, I think it was the day before they sat down for discussion so that made for a very tough starting point. It felt like it was kind of a hard start. And then to add in this automation report, singing the praises of automation, if I remember it right, I don't see that happening here necessarily, right. I think that they are kind of slowing into the contract negotiation already and they're being open and they're having media engagement. It seems like, I mean, we're hearing stories and information out about these contract negotiations, right. I mean, how else would we know about the regional encouragement of things to be done by May 17th? And also I'm hopeful about the amount of time we have until the expiration of the contract so that we can move, hopefully, all of this in the right direction.

Lauren Beagen: 14:09

One of the big X factors that we were talking about last night that may still play a contributing role and hopefully it doesn't right, hopefully it doesn't. It is an election year in the United States and the supply chain keeps finding its way into political discord. So September, the end of September, right, we vote in November. I mean, it's a little too close for comfort. It doesn't necessarily suggest that that will completely become part of a talking point. I just don't hope. I hope it just doesn't get caught up in the mix, right? So hopefully it doesn't get caught up in the electoral rhetoric and discussion and hopefully it just keeps progressing. Maybe we'll even have, I mean, talk about wishful thinking. Maybe we'll even have a contract finalized before the other one expires mid-summer. Who knows, who knows? We'll see, but we'll obviously all be watching this closely, all right. Story number four this is the last one of the day before we jump into it.

Lauren Beagen: 15:05

Look, just this week the Houthi attacks turned deadly and three seafarers were killed on the Red Sea on a merchant ship. It was a bulk carrier, barbados flagged vessel. This is horrible, right, this is horrible. And we also recently heard the news of the Rubimar sinking with thousands of tons of fertilizer aboard. I mean, not to mention the fuel. I mean that's the environmental catastrophe that is kind of unfolding there too.

Lauren Beagen: 15:29

Look, I'm not an expert on geopolitics of the region, but I am passionate about the maritime industry and these men and women. Mariners signed up for a dangerous career, but they didn't sign up for this right. They did not sign up to be fired at unnecessarily and that isn't one of those risks that should be borne by them. Look, the mariners that work on all of these merchant vessels are keeping society turning by carrying the goods that support everyone across the globe, everyone right. 90% of everything moves by ocean transit and it's done so by these mariners. I'm really encouraged to see and I'll say it has been a non-wavering message that the vessel owners and operators not only condemn these completely barbaric attacks but they keep mariners. The messaging keeps being, and their actions seems to be that they're keeping mariners at the top of their priority list of concerns and repeatedly communicate that, repeatedly act out of the interest of the mariners, keeping them safe, making sure that they protect them.

Lauren Beagen: 16:29

I mean we've gone what? Since the turn of the new year from when these attacks started. I mean we've gone three months without a fatality, but I mean we should have never had a fatality, right, it just feels like. First, the sinking of the ship, what was it last week? And now this week, the first fatalities. The stakes are as high as they've ever been in this area and it feels like I don't know. The past two weeks just felt like there's a shift, so my heart goes out to the families of those mariners. This should never happen, right? It's a dangerous profession on its own, as all operations based or supply chain based careers are, but this should have never happened. So I'm going to keep watching this, but hopefully something changes here.

Lauren Beagen: 17:16

All right, well, let's get into the meat and potatoes of the day, though. We are covering the National Shipper Advisory Committee. They're meeting this week. So, speaking of the FMC, don't we always the FMC's Federal Advisory Committee? The National Shipper Advisory Committee met just this week in concert with the TPM conference. So that's put on by S&P Global JOC Journal of Commerce. So this TPM conference is one of the, if not the, I'm going to I'm going to pause there the conference of global ocean shipping. It's held in Long Beach, california, every year.

Lauren Beagen: 17:47

We've talked about the National Shipper Advisory before, but let's just kind of briefly go over it, right? So there's 12 importers, 12 exporters from all different company sizes, commodities, viewpoints, really working together for the benefit of supply chain as a whole and certainly right, obviously with the FMC's authorities in mind, because this is a Federal Advisory Committee, it advises the federal agency that it's attached to, and so that agency is the Federal Maritime Commission. So, from the FMC's landing page for the National Shipper Advisory Committee as part of a kind of our overview but, like I said, go back and check out the old episode where we talk a little bit more about it this National Shipper Advisory Committee will provide information, insights and expertise pertaining to conditions in the ocean freight delivery system to the commission. Specifically, the committee will advise the commission on policies relating to the competitiveness, reliability, integrity and fairness of the international ocean freight delivery system. Membership will be comprised of 12 representatives of entities who export cargo and 12 representatives of entities who import cargo, like we said. I also want to mention that public comment is really highly encouraged with this group, it seems, and it was actually repeated quite a few times at this recent meeting just this week, saying that this group is supposed to be representative of the industry, of the importers and exporters and of the shippers. Right, and they encourage involvement from the industry.

Lauren Beagen: 19:12

And the website actually says at the very top members of the public may submit written comments to NSAC National Shipper Advisory Committee and SAC at any time. It says it right at the top NSAC you can submit written comments. Public members can submit written comments to NSAC at any time. I mean, not often are federal advisory committees so open, right, about trying to solicit that public comment. So, and here's the guidance, right, comments should be addressed to NSAC. And then they give you the 800 North Capitol at Washington the care of Dylan Richmond. He's the federal designated federal officer, so he's the FMC employee that liaisons with NSAC. Or they have an email address. So nsac National Shipper Advisory Committee, nsac at FMCgov. I mean cool, right. I mean the FMC is just begging for people to get engaged and there's opportunity. So I mean, at some point, if you're not submitting comments, if you're not engaging in this conversation, right, I mean that's on you. They're asking for feedback, they want involvement, they want people to be part of this conversation. All right.

Lauren Beagen: 20:20

So back to the meeting, right? So they covered the two recent rules. So we have the Carrier Automated Tariffs Recommendation and the FMC Detention Detergent Final Rule, which, if you follow this show, you are very well-versed on everything that's happening. I mean, we're still going to keep breaking it down. But we certainly have done the highlights and we highlighted that the MTOs were included. Right, that was huge, that was a huge announcement. So they also did subcommittee reports and there was a really interesting update out of the data subcommittee on standards and I just I want to talk about that in a minute. So, specifically commercial vessel standards that I kind of talked about at the beginning and we're going to spend a bit more time on that today.

Lauren Beagen: 20:59

But first the overview of the recent FMC rules right, so they highlighted the Carrier Automated Tariffs. That went into effect February 1st, so that's already in place, right, it's been about a month. And they highlighted kind of the big parts of this. Right. So it eliminated tariff access fees. We talked about that during one of our by-land and by-sea episodes. They also mentioned it allows NVOCCs to cross-reference VOCC tariffs, define NVOCC pass-through process, defines co-loading for LCL different from FCL and miscellaneous definitions and tariff processes. So that was on there.

Lauren Beagen: 21:33

The National Shipper Advisory Committee kind of briefed overview. They were using that opportunity in front of a TPM audience. It was in concert with, but not part. They were careful to say this wasn't kind of like a sponsored event. Right, it was. It's a National Shipper Advisory Committee. It was kind of on its own accord, but they had the audience right from some of the TPM, which was a great opportunity. So they took that time to cover the basics of what was happening here.

Lauren Beagen: 21:59

Like I said, we've covered the tariff access fees portion and I encouraged at that time and I still encourage anyone now that if you have anything to do with NVOCC cross-references of VOCC tariffs or pass-throughs, to look at the rule directly and talk to your lawyer about it. Right, talk to them about the applicability to your situation, because this is probably a little bit too complicated or in the weeds to cover right here. But this is an important rule to pay attention to. Eliminates tariff access fees. I think that one's going to be a little bit more simple. Obviously, we talked about it. But the other things the cross-reference, the pass-through just make sure that you're in compliance, right, because that went into effect February 1st.

Lauren Beagen: 22:40

So the National Super Advisor Committee as a full committee also talked about the D&D billing, right, we've talked about this. May 28th is the effective date. It's the upcoming effective date. So they broke it down as how the 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 part of. So under 541.1, they said it confirms data elements and process for invoice Yep, we know that. 541.2, voccs they highlighted MTOs. We know that too, and NVOs must comply with billing rules. So the scope right 541.3 defines build party, billing party and consignee. Part 541.4, only contracted parties can be invoiced, but third parties may voluntarily pay on behalf of shipper or consignee.

Lauren Beagen: 23:38

Part 541.5, missing data elements VOIDs obligation to pay. We haven't talked too much about that one because I want to be very careful on that one, because I don't want a bunch of listeners to just say missing elements, not going to pay, because I mean, simply put, that's not incorrect. But before you decide not to pay an invoice, make sure, absolutely sure, that you don't have to pay it, because there are some things that the FMC put in there on, like, if you make a mistake, you can reissue, I mean. So I don't want to get into all those details. This is obviously not legal advice, but, yes, it's not incorrect, right? Missing data elements voids your obligation to pay. Make sure that you check out part 541.5. However, that's not an entire absolute and so be careful there. That's all I'm gonna say.

Lauren Beagen: 24:31

Part 541.6 defines data elements required on an invoice. We saw that with the Congress putting in those 13 data elements. Now we saw the FMC kind of expanding that a few different areas to about, I think, 20 elements now. So and that's the part that doesn't have necessarily an effective date. But if I were you I would plan for that to be eminent. That that's gonna be approved by OMB. Data collection has to be approved from OMB in order for an agency to publish it out.

Lauren Beagen: 25:02

Part 541.8 allows 30 days to dispute and 30 days to resolve or attempted resolution. As we know, they highlighted the other options available. If you missed the dispute resolution option, we've talked about that right. So the dispute resolution that's afforded to this business to business requirement or attempted requirement in the FMC's new rule doesn't eliminate any of the other opportunities for dispute resolution that the FMC has right. That's filing a lawsuit, that's reporting a violation, that's working through caters, the Consumer Affairs and Dispute Resolution Services office, for mediation or arbitration or any of those other services. Those are still available. It's just this quicker dispute resolution B2B business to business requirement that the FMC has put in that kinda helps say, well, you guys work it out first, but you have to have a process to work it out, is what they're kinda saying through this rule, right.

Lauren Beagen: 25:59

So all in all, national Super Advisory Committee said that they felt pretty heard, right. They said that the customs brokers and the truckers, eliminating them out of the liability chain was something that they pushed for and that happened. But they also said that there were a few unresolved areas that they wanted to see still addressed. The first one was claim rail jurisdiction on storage charges. So there was a letter to Congress of 77 shippers I believe it was about a year ago that happened, it was like last May, so less than a year requesting clear jurisdiction on rail. So through Bill of Latings are in the FMC's jurisdiction and that I mean. Even that gets a little bit squishy, but for the most part it seems to be kind of like everybody's accepting that, yes, through bills of lading are part of the FMC's jurisdiction. That was highlighted in the D&D kind of comment section or discussion section of the D&D rule.

Lauren Beagen: 26:56

But the storage charges from railroads that even happen on through bill of ladings on the rail terminal is what the National Shipper Advisory Committee was saying, that they still want some clarity on. They said that Congress is reviewing and working on that right, that the letter of 77 that went through last May. They said Congress is looking at this because of that letter. But they also said that the National Shipper Advisory Committee has talked to STB the Surface Transportation Board, kind of the rail surface equivalent of the FMC and the STB has said that they don't have jurisdiction and that they don't want jurisdiction and that there's three bodies of law that don't allow them to have jurisdiction. So I mean it was presented as kind of like the trifecta of so not STB, and that's what the National Shipper Advisory Committee Chair was saying. They also said, you know the Chair was saying FMC says that through bills of lading are under their jurisdiction, but the question still remains, at least in their mind does this include storage at the rail terminals? And so they said that they were just a little unsatisfied that that question, that specific delineation of where jurisdiction is, wasn't exactly satisfactory in kind of any sort of answer. They also said that they wanted to see a resolution to early receipt date changes, they wanted to see an address on D&D for government holds and they wanted to define availability. At one point. They were talking a little bit about a shared coverage of government holds and maybe there was a way that that can be shared out, because government holds are tough right. Who pays for a government hold? That's the question that they wanted answered. They gave a couple of suggestions and I think that we're gonna see maybe some more discussion on that, hopefully out of the FMC, but certainly out of the National Shipper Advisory Committee. So overall they seem pretty happy with the two rules that they highlighted.

Lauren Beagen: 28:49

But they also gave some subcommittee reports and I really wanted to talk about this data subcommittee because there was a really interesting discussion and you really haven't seen much coverage of it. They mentioned that there was a letter written from members of National Shipper Advisory Committee and others. They said that there were 44 signatories of shippers and associations and US-based organizations as of that announcement. But I guess the impression that I kind of got was that there might be more added to the list. But this letter was on standards and specifically the encouragement of nine of the top ocean carriers in the world to adopt the Digital Container Shipping Association's operational vessel schedule 3.0 and commercial schedule 1.0, beta one. They said it was released on January 10th 2024. Okay, so let's take a step back here, because we've talked about the Digital Container Shipping Association before DCSA. But I thought this was pretty interesting that they're highlighting this in this data subcommittee of the National Shipper Advisory Committee and, like I said, I really haven't seen a lot of discussion about it yet. I mean, the meeting was only what? Two days ago.

Lauren Beagen: 29:51

But so who's DCSA? We've talked about this before, but just you kind of know. So they're a neutral, nonprofit organization. They were only established in 2019 and they were established by several of the largest container shipping companies, so they cover over 70% of global containerized transportation and they say they aim to create a digitally interconnected container shipping industry in which the customers of container shipping lines have a choice of seamless, easy to use services that provide the flexibility to meet their business and sustainability goals. So DCSA creates free of charge, vendor, neutral, technology, agnostic standards for IT and non-competitive business practices. I'm gonna say that again free of charge, vendor, neutral, technology, agnostic, best of that word.

Lauren Beagen: 30:36

Before the final publication of DCSA standards, they are openly published for the wider public to provide comments and recommendations. So, not unlike the FMC and really all federal agencies, open comment periods, right? So pay attention if you wanna weigh in on this? So all of the DCSA standards are open and freely available, meaning you don't have to pay for them, right? They're free of charge. Simply go to their website and check them out, and the standards are accompanied by complete technical specifications, reading guides and reference implementations. So that's Kind of a collection of of of who DCSA is.

Lauren Beagen: 31:11

So we've talked, like I said, we've talked about DCSA before Periodically, because they were included in the FMC Commissioner Bensal's MTDI stakeholder meetings and then they were actually referenced in the MTDI report as having some best practices to build from. So we mentioned them a few times. But what's happening here? So Gabriel Rodriguez of the data subcommittee of the National Shipper Advisory Committee said that they found the DCSA's work to be something that's within the industry Already and would align with at least nine of the major carriers right, because those are the members of the DCSA, and they Highlighted the data points that the National Shipper Advisory came up with. They highlighted some data points that were important and Gave mentioned that the DCSA already covered many of those data points and they're already released and already available Standards. So, additionally, gave mentioned that there was an industry support letter that was released before TPM, signed off by what he said was 44 major US organizations Pushing forward these data standards, requesting that these carriers push them out and make them operational to their 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 have actually already replied back and said that they have Vessel schedule operational standards and are going to start rolling those out soon. He said that the others are still waiting on a response, but it was only right right before TPM, I think that he said that this was sent so Parallel that with the work that Commissioner Vessel is working on he mentioned. He said that they hope that this continues to move that forward, so the standards of data visibility will hit the market.

Lauren Beagen: 32:46

Okay, so what is all of this, right? So I went to DCSA's website to break this down a little bit more, because on its face it sounds pretty good, right, and having 44 plus shippers, shipper organizations, us organizations sign on to this is certainly a big deal. Like I said, the meeting just happened this week, but I haven't seen much mention of this yet. So on DCSA's website, right, they outline under operational vessel schedules and commercial vessel schedules, the the problem. So here's under operational vessel schedules. They say the problem today partner carriers and service do not uniformly and timely share their vessel schedules Between them and with other operational stakeholders. This creates schedules discrepancies between carriers and their operational partners, even for the same vessel or service. I mean yes, right, this is something we hear from the industry time and time again. All right, so continuing on.

Lauren Beagen: 33:34

Currently, the process for piecing together schedule information can be manual and time-consuming for terminal operators and other Operational partners. Getting clarity on vessel voyage information, such a scheduled arrival or departure and routing changes, can be challenging. This is all from the website, right? The DCSA's website. And operational schedule vessel schedules Continuing. They say this lack of transparency and discrepancies and data can cause unexpected service delays at port and inland. The decreased supply chain reliability hinder effective resource planning and ultimately disrupt business performance. I mean yes, right, 100%. These are major problems. Okay, so they have a solution section. So continuing reading on from this. This is off the DCSA website.

Lauren Beagen: 34:16

The DCSA operational vessel schedule OBS Standard enables the automatic sharing of vessel schedule data and exception related information between carriers, operational partners, for example, terminals in other words, terminals and their solution providers, leveraging a common structure for schedules, defined data attributes and an API. Dcsa standards clarify which information is associated with a vessel at service voyage and port port call levels and provide the means to exchange that information. And that's that's great. With the inclusion of universal references in the standard to be implemented by partner carriers, over time, operational partners will no longer have to second guess which update corresponds with which service voyage or port call. For all stakeholders, data uniformity and transparency creates the essential foundation for digitalization, more efficient operations and data-driven analysis. I mean that's great. I mean that's great, right, that's a solution. That last sentence is the truth and the true starting point from which everything else needs to build. Right, we need to speak the same language before we can truly work together. And, as they so simply said, right, data uniformity and transparency Creates the essential foundation for digitalization. Exactly. So that's just the operational vessel schedule. If we look at the commercial vessel schedule standard, I think you're gonna like what this has to say too. They also list the problem and the solution. So they said the problem.

Lauren Beagen: 35:42

Today, carriers do not uniformly share schedule information. For customers, getting clarity on vessel voyage information, such as scheduled arrival and departure and routing changes, is essential for planning subsequent operations activities. But piecing together schedule information to achieve clarity can be manual and time consuming. Data discrepancies and inaccessibility create a lack of transparency that increases dwell times at terminals and causes inland delays. As a result, supply chains are less reliable, which hinders effective resource planning and ultimately disrupts business performance. Right, I mean, yeah, okay, so this stated another way. Right, but kind of also, I'm with you. So the solution the DCSA commercial schedule.

Lauren Beagen: 36:23

So the other one was the operation of vessel schedules. This is commercial schedules. The commercial schedule standards creates a common way for carriers to communicate vessel schedule information to customers. With the DCSA commercial schedule standard in place, customers can expect to receive high quality data about their container shipments, regardless of which carriers transporting them. Commercial schedule expands the scope of the DCSA operational vessel schedule standard with three options for accessing schedules from carriers. So they list the three options Point to point routing provides single or multiple end to end routing options with estimated time stamps during the pre-booking phase. Number two port schedule provides estimated time stamps for all vessels arriving and departing from a defined port terminal on a given date. And three vessel schedules provides estimated departure and arrival times for a required service voyage or vessel for each port call on the vessel's rotation.

Lauren Beagen: 37:16

I mean, I get it right. I get why the National Ship Advisory Committee data subcommittee likes this. There seems to be like a great. There seems to be great starting points, like everyone on the same page, right? So getting back to the letter, right? 44 plus shippers, us organizations, have signed on to this urging the ocean carriers to adopt this operation of vessel schedule 3.0 and commercial schedule 1.0 beta released January 10th 2024. I mean, look, this isn't legal advice, but this sounds like we should all go at least take a look at these right? These recently released standards. Imagine if we all spoke the same language as it relates to vessel schedules. This feels like it's a big deal. I mean, I can imagine that we'll be seeing more on this, certainly, but this is industry stakeholder engagement at work, right?

Lauren Beagen: 37:58

The National Ship Advisory Committee, made up of large, medium and small US importers and exporters, are getting together and having conversations and making recommendations that are gonna have real impacts on the efficiency of the movement of goods. I mean, like the data subcommittee says, they meet weekly sometimes. I mean that's great and they're putting out letter. I mean they're coordinating letters. It says it's what Gabe was announcing was pretty, really interesting and I hope you go take a look at this National Ship Advisory Committee meeting the recording. If you haven't watched it. The recording is up on the website already. The FMC posts all of the full committee meeting recordings on their website. You can always necessarily see the subcommittee but you can see the main full committee recordings and go check it out. I mean, stay engaged with what the National Ship Advisory Committee is doing, because they are asking some pretty great questions. They are making some headway. They're diving into really effective areas of how do we address supply chain bottlenecks, how do we address some of these inefficiencies in the supply chain ecosystem. It's really encouraging to see. So that's why today I wanted to look at the National Ship Advisory Committee, what they've been working on and what they kind of the recap of their meeting this week.

Lauren Beagen: 39:12

So, as always, the guidance is general for educational purposes. It should not be construed with legal advice directly related to your matter. You need an attorney, contact an attorney, but if you do have specific legal questions, feel free to reach out to me at my legal company Squall Strategies. Otherwise, for the non-legal questions, the e-learning and the general industry information and insights, come find me at the Maritime Professor If you like these videos, let me know, comment, like and share. If you wanna listen to these episodes on demand, or if you missed any previous episodes, check out the podcast by Land and by Sea and if you prefer to see the video, they live on my YouTube page by Land and by Sea, presented by the Maritime Professor. While you're at it, check out the website, themaritimeprofessor. com. So until next week, this is Lauren Beagen, the Maritime Professor, and you've just listened to by Land and by Sea. See you next time.