S3.E10 - Official reports re: Key Bridge allision // reviewing OSRA 2.0 (House passed the bill)

Topic of the Week (3/29/24):

Recounting some of the official reporting from the Key Bridge allision and reviewing OSRA 2.0 passed House bill...

https://gcaptain.com/these-are-the-ships-stuck-behind-the-baltimore-key-bridge/

https://gcaptain.com/ntsb-timeline-reveals-crucial-minutes-leading-up-to-baltimore-bridge-strike/

https://www.joc.com/article/baltimore-port-closure-presents-unexpected-challenges-mid-atlantic-trucking_20240328.html

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 Strategiesᵀᴹ)

Let's dive in...

1 - OSRA 2.0 passed the U.S. House of Representatives, it now heads to the United States Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Bill Text:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1836/text

JOC.com article:
https://www.joc.com/article/osra-20-bill-targets-china-leaves-shipping-antitrust-exemption-untouched_20240328.html

2 - CMA CGM is introducing a new loyalty program called Sea Reward

JOC.com article:
https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-amps-retention-spot-shippers-loyalty-program_20240314.html

3 - Ship allision in the Great Lakes with a junction light

gCaptain article:
https://gcaptain.com/us-flag-laker-suffers-marine-casualty-in-michigan/

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#ByLandAndBySea

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

oh, oh, oh, oh oh. I've got soul coming through, flying free. Skies are blue, all the ways it makes a room. I've got soul coming through won't stop in the piece and on top of the world, can't walk to the beat. When you see me coming, make some room. Everywhere I go, I'm in the spotlight. This is a good life I'm living bold. This is what it looks like On the 16 tips of the world.

Speaker 1: 0:55

So it was a somber week for all modes of the transportation industry. As I'm sure you're aware, this week there was an elision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, maryland. Now I'm not going to use this time today to speculate on what happened. That's for the investigators and I'm going to wait for the report there. But I do have some thoughts on what you can maybe do and what I'm going to be paying attention to now that the search and rescue efforts have concluded. That was the most important right. So now I think we're starting to move toward economic considerations, and so I think it's appropriate to have some of these conversations. But also, in the past week or two, we've had some pretty interesting stuff happen generally in the global ocean shipping world, and I think we got to talk about it. Did you know that ASRA 2.0 actually passed the house last week? We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about a bunch more in the top three stories of the week. So stick around.

Speaker 1: 1:52

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 Began, founder of 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 in the wild world of supply chain. 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 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. All right, story number one Like I said, did you know that Osra 2.0 passed last week?

Speaker 1: 2:37

That's right, on March 21st, the US House of Representatives passed Osra 2.0. But this isn't quite law yet. Remember, in order for a bill to become a law, both the House and the Senate, and the Senate have to pass the bill, and then it goes to the president's desk where he can either sign it or veto it. So we're really only at maybe step one here. I mean these are big steps, right. I mean the House passing is a big step. And actually look, osra well, osra 22, osra 2022, so the one from June 16, 2022, had multiple House votes before the Senate actually took it up. So here we are ASRA 2.0.

Speaker 1: 3:23

I think there's too many twos involved here, right? Asra 2.0 has passed the house. And a little note and this is kind of why I'm pa otherwise, in the Shipping Act and in the global ocean shipping world as it relates to the FMC and the US side of things. So all that to say OSRA 98 was kind of OSRA 1.0. Osra 22,. So OSRA of 2022 was probably 2.0. So, like, let's keep the twos there and then this ASRA is probably 3.0 for being exact about it. But that might just get too confusing, so let's just call it what it is the Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act of 2023. There's a million names here, right? So this is ASRA 2.0. We'll just stick to that, even though we know, even though you listeners know, that it's a little incorrect.

Speaker 1: 4:30

So this bill HR 1836, so the Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act of 2023, so OSRA 2.0, it was actually first introduced May 23rd 2023. So we talked about it last a year ago, right 23rd 2023. So we talked about it last a year ago, right Last spring, summer. It includes some interesting components. So there's a section creating a mechanism for complaints against shipping exchanges to be filed with the FMC concerning incidents of market manipulation or other anti-competitive practices by shipping exchanges. So this kind of brings attention to shipping exchanges. That was also included in ASRA 22. But here we go. It's a section creating a mechanism for the complaints. So if you want to file a complaint against a shipping exchange and doing it from this anti-competitive, monopolistic lens, which is really what the FMC mostly does, right.

Speaker 1: 5:19

There's also the creation of a national port advisory committee. So we've been waiting on this one. Again, this is not law, this is just the first step. This is only past the House, but we've been waiting on the Port Advisory Committee and the Ocean Carrier Advisory Committee Since I mean, really, commissioner Dye recommended this and I believe it was fact-finding 29. So this OSRA 2.0 that passed the House only passed the House calls for the creation the actual now let's rubber meets the road creation of the National Port Advisory Committee and it also calls for the creation of the National Ocean Carrier Advisory Committee. So these would both be similar to the National Shipping Advisory Committee, shipper Advisory Committee that we currently have and SAC that the FMC already has. Right, it's already the Federal Advisory Committee that's advising the FMC. We've covered their recommendations a few times here. I think that they are doing a phenomenal job. They're moving ahead, they're going into recommendations, they're tackling some tough issues. I mean, they're still an advisory committee, right, so their recommendations don't necessarily turn into anything, but that's the sign of a good relationship between the Federal Advisory Committee and the federal agency that they're advising is. The FMC has certainly taken up some of their suggestions, or at least in the FMC's website, they respond to the recommendations, which I mean that's great. I love that because it shows visibility into the process and visibility that the FMC is paying attention if they are listening to the advisory committee. So we have currently NSAC, the National Shipper Advisory Committee.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Osra 2.0 is calling for the National Ocean Carrier Advisory Committee and calling for the National Port Advisory Committee, which those would both be great. They are also, um, yeah, this one's. So let me take a minute there. So this one's interesting um because it also is directing the fmc to undertake a rulemaking for data standards for maritime freight logistics. So let's take a minute here on this one um. And, by the way, this isn't an exhaustive list of what is proposed in asra 2.0 um, but I'm kind of just highlighting a few of the things that I think are pretty interesting.

Speaker 1: 7:26

So the the Federal Maritime Commission as it says in ASRA 2.0, the Federal Maritime Commission shall promulgate an advance notice of proposed rulemaking. So we've talked about kind of the different stages of rulemaking. Advance notice of proposed rulemaking the ANPRM is the call to the industry, a question out to the industry. Crm is the call to the industry, a question out to the industry what do you think about this? And so this House bill is saying FMC, you should do this first initial step of an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, saying we're thinking about making a rule, we want to know what the industry thinks about it. So they're calling for the advance notice on data standards for maritime freight logistics and ocean transportation in the foreign commerce of the United States. And it also says during the public comment period for the rule making, the commission shall consult with the National Shippers Advisory Board, which is the National Shipper Advisory Committee, if we're being technically correct, unless they're talking about a different board, but the National Super Advisory Committee and the Secretaries of Transportation, commerce and Agriculture, which I think that's pretty interesting. We've seen the House bills before have a big connection to agriculture and Johnson's office is connected. You know he's often paying attention to agriculture-related commodities. So this calling out saying that the rulemaking should also consult with the secretaries of transportation, which is good, commerce, which is great, and agriculture, which I love the addition there.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So the text of the actual ASRA 2.0 in this data standard area said the rulemaking under subsection A shall develop a data standard for the voluntary sharing of appropriate supply chain data with and it says, a common lexicon of standard terms and methods of measurement, a method to exchange data in real time amongst relevant stakeholders, appropriate data protections to ensure confidentiality of proprietary business information and, lastly, appropriate cybersecurity measures to protect data from unauthorized use. And it also says that the rulemaking should also incorporate data from stakeholders to facilitate the arrival, unloading, loading and departure of vessels, cargo availability and pickup reservation, chassis availability and other data elements the commission considers prudent and in this rulemaking they should also consider relevant data standards used or under development within the private sector, and whether to adopt or otherwise incorporate such standards into the rule finalized under this subsection, with priority given to standards that are and they list a few different things here are developed in open, transparent, impartial, balanced, consensus-based processes, are performance-based, technology-neutral and vendor-neutral, are interoperable, allowing for the exchange and use of data between devices and systems, are market relevant and globally applicable, and are non-duplicative of and coherent with other relevant standards, guides, best practices and frameworks already out there. That's kind of the assume part. And also allow information owners to control what information is actually shared, when information information is shared, with whom and for what purpose. So they also say that in kind of reviewing this rulemaking, the commission may enter into agreement with one or more appropriate independent entities based in the United States that operate as voluntary consensus standard-setting organizations as defined for purposes of Section 12D of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1955. But they say to develop the data standard for maritime freight logistics and ocean transportation in the foreign commerce of the United States, for the rulemaking under subsection A and for the procurement or other relevant programmatic activities consistent with the requirements of this section. So they say there's a grant criterion too, if the rulemaking under subsection A is finalized, the Secretary of Transportation may require a covered port authority to adopt any data standard issued pursuant to this section for relevant operational use cases, as determined by the Secretary.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Okay, I mean, there's a lot of information here, right? I mean this is pretty interesting. And again, this is just the part that has been approved by the House. So this is not a law yet, this is not an act of rulemaking. This is not something that Congress is currently directing the FMC to do anything with yet, but it's out there, right. The House has passed this and now it's with the Senate.

Speaker 1: 12:03

So continuing on with ASRA 2.0 here there's also a section on an independent study and report on the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, where it says and I'm going to read from the language again the sector of transportation shall enter into an agreement with an appropriate independent entity described in subsection D so of this language to conduct a study and assessment of the business practices of the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, which should include any anti-competitive advantages benefiting the Shanghai Shipping Exchange and the ability of the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China and the Shanghai Shipping Exchange to manipulate container freight markets, freight markets. So this is Congress and we've seen this before and we've certainly heard language. But this is the House bill saying that they're kind of worried about. Well, that's what I'm reading into it. They're a little bit worried about China's impact or effect or manipulation, as the language suggests here on container freight market. So continuing on. It says the study and assessment required under this subsection shall address the following the influence of the government of the People's Republic of China on the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. So how closely is the government related to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange? The impact of such business practices or influence on American consumers and businesses. The ability of a shipping exchange registered under the code and based on the USS to identify market manipulation as described in the subsection or any otherwise concerning practices by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, and report such incidents to the FMC and other federal regulators. Remember, in this rule they're talking about shipping exchanges and now having a mechanism for filing a complaint against shipping exchanges. So I mean same name, right? This is maybe what they're talking about when they're talking about the shipping exchanges. And then they say in any other matters, the secretary of the appropriate independent entity that enters into an agreement under this section determines to be appropriate for the purpose of the study. So it's a study. They're just saying they want a study reviewed.

Speaker 1: 13:59

And there's also a section in this ASRA 2.0 that, like I said, is only passed in the House, is not law yet, that there's a prohibition on the use of lodging. There's been a big push for this anyways. That's some technology out of China, so that's also in here a prohibition on the use of lodging. So remember, this is not law and I can't say that enough, and I tried to say it sprinkled throughout. So, in case you're only hearing part of this, this is not law. This has only been passed out of the house and has not been referred and has now excuse me, has now been referred to the Senate, senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, but not much has happened there yet. So this only happened. What eight days ago, march 21st, that this passed out of the House? We'll see if the Senate does anything with it.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Like I said, when ASRA 22 went into, when finally went through, initially there were a few votes on the House bills with different versions. So this is ASRA 2.0 moving forward, passing out of the house. We'll see, but this is interesting. I think that this is really interesting to see what the house presents as the other things that they wanted done that. Like I said, this is the Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act of 2022. So they've said that this was kind of inclusive of some of the things that they felt ASRA 22 didn't cover, and now this is the things that they would like to see added. That's just story number one. Let's keep going. Story number two All right. Story number two is pretty interesting.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Today it was reported by JOC that CMACGM is introducing a new loyalty program called C-Reward, reportedly similar, as JOC says, to those used by hotel chains and airlines to drive loyalty by providing benefits such as rate discounts and priority access for frequent customers. I think this is pretty interesting. I'm still kind of thinking about the application and all of that, but so Eric Johnson wrote this article for JOC and in there he says the C reward program has four status tiers, similar to airline programs, with more use translating to higher tiers. The benefits cited in a statement Wednesday. From when the statement was released, said program participants could use earned nautical miles to pay part of their freight invoices. That's interesting, too right. You could accumulate nautical miles or accumulate points to pay for part of your freight invoices. I mean, if you're watching me live, you can see my head kind of turning on this like how is this going to work? So I'm going to I'm going to keep paying attention to this. I think that this is interesting. I like new ideas. I'm going to keep watching this. So they also quote.

Speaker 1: 16:53

Eric also quotes in here a quote from Oliver Navoy, cma, CGM's group executive, vp of shipping. He said in Eric's article these customers who rely on the spot market tend to go from carrier to carrier for very little money. If we can push dedicated proposals to them, it's not just a lower rate or points earned, but the feeling that we can do something more for them. So this is just a snippet, this is just a highlight. This is just looking at Eric's article. I encourage you to go look at Eric's article too. I always link all of the articles that I call out or highlight in my show notes, but also go look at CMACGM's notification on this. This is really interesting stuff and I encourage you to look further into it.

Speaker 1: 17:35

All right, story number three. So story number three is just kind of a quick little thing. I just wanted to highlight that actually, ship elisions and ship collisions aren't so uncommon as you might expect, though, certainly the Key Bridge Elysian will remain historic right and its magnitude of destruction, its loss of life and its overall financial damages, but on a smaller scale. G Captain reported this week that there was also an elision on the Great Lakes with a US flagged Laker. So just a little side note vessels that traverse only inside the Great Lakes are actually called Lakers, and, as I understand it, vessels that traverse the Great Lakes but then also go out to the ocean are called Salties. So now you know just little little lingo things, little lingo things.

Speaker 1: 18:16

As G Captain reports, a US flagged cargo vessel, the American Mariner, collided with the Mud Lake Junction Light in Muniscong Lake in Michigan earlier today. And, as you, I don't know if I've actually mentioned this much, but I'm from Michigan originally. So I don't know if you ever hear the northern accent, but I like to see a little story on Michigan anyways accent, but I like to see a little story on Michigan anyways. But this was an elision with the mud lake junction light. So the US Coast Guard and I'm just reading from the G Captain report here, the US Coast Guard reported that the 714 foot bulk cargo ship experienced a marine casualty that led to the incident around 1 am this morning. The ship was not transporting any cargo, so there's no reported injuries from this.

Speaker 1: 19:00

And, like I said, I just added this to just say you know, some smaller scale elisions and collisions happen as you start to hear some of the reporting out of the ship vessel. You know, I've even heard some people say, well, why weren't they doing more? It happens sometimes. Right, nobody could have forecasted what was happening with the Key Bridge. But I only point this out to say there was another religion. Sometimes these things happen and I'm pausing because I want to be careful with how I report on anything about the Key Bridge, because I don't want to be anywhere near report on anything about the Key Bridge, because I don't want to be anywhere near, I don't want to lessen it. It's a huge deal. Well, let's get into it. So let's get into the meat and potatoes of the day.

Speaker 1: 19:48

So I posted on LinkedIn earlier this week that I was hesitant to say anything. I certainly didn't want to gum up and just add noise to some of the conversations that were happening, especially immediately. Right, I was watching with, I mean, like I said, grave concern this week. I mean, every life lost is a tragedy. The maritime industry truly joins the surface transportation industry in grieving the lives that were lost, of those workers that were up there. I said this in the LinkedIn post these are dangerous industries, these are very dangerous, both surface transportation and maritime ocean transportation. These are dangerous industries, but nobody not one person, I don't think could have even well, I don't know, this is not one of the many dangers that anyone would have truly anticipated could happen. Right, these industries and their collective efforts are really the backbone of America and the entire world.

Speaker 1: 20:53

When the conversation was around the search and rescue, I applaud those who showed restraint and made sure to stay focused on the search and rescue efforts. It was about a week or, excuse me, it was about a day of doing that, and I believe it was after the sunset on that first day that the Coast Guard said that it was going to be a recovery and not necessarily a search and rescue anymore, and that's when the conversation appropriately started to switch over to the economic side. I think everybody felt a call to action, but I also appreciate when people were showing restraint in that call to action because, I don't know, my feeling was that we needed to clear the decks, we needed to provide space for only the important voices to exchange information, talking about the actual operations that need to happen. Let's start talking about some of the supply chain disruptions or maybe modifications that are happening out there, and I want to stay focused on truth and I want to stay focused on the message and I want to stay focused on reports that are coming out. So I'm not going to be speculating. Like I said at the outset, we're going to talk a little bit about the Keybridge Elysian by the MV Dolly, but I'm going to be speculating, like I said at the outset, we're going to talk a little bit about the Keybridge Elysian by the MV Dolly, but I'm going to leave all of the reporting of what happened to the investigators and I'll just be reporting what the investigators are releasing and some of the really good reporting that's going on out there that is absent of the speculation and really just rooted in true fact. I think that's important on out there, that is absent of the speculation and really just rooted in true fact. I think that's important anytime there's an emergency and this is no different, right? So let's talk about some of that and I'm also going to give some perspective, right, or some thoughts that I have on what this means and what some of the next steps that anybody can start thinking about, or some of the things that I'm thinking about.

Speaker 1: 23:01

So, according to a G Captain article by Mike Shuler, he reported the National Transportation Safety Board. So NTSB released some initial information regarding the timeline of the vessel and, like I said, I'm staying focused on things that have been released that are rooted in fact, and so I think that the timeline is actually pretty interesting. So, from the article from G Captain Mike Shuler, the NTSB released the timeline after boarding the ship on Wednesday to gather perishable factual evidence. The agency also revealed 56 containers with hazardous materials, some of which were breached. Now I think that that's interesting because, as we start drilling down into some of which were breached. Now, I think that that's interesting because, as we start drilling down into some of the more focused pieces, there were some containers that it looked like fell off and they're saying look, 56 containers were on board with hazardous materials, some of which were breached here.

Speaker 1: 23:52

So it said that the Coast Guard recovered approximately six hours of voyage data recorder VDR data from the DALI on the morning of the accident and provided it to the NTSB. The data covers the period of midnight to 6 am on March 26, 2024. The NTSB and this is I'm reading, like I said, from the article the NTSB was continuing to obtain the remaining 30 days of the data that the VDR is required to record. So let's skip forward to the timeline that the NTSB put out. So it's saying from the VDR recorded the ship's departure from the Seagirt Marine Terminal at approximately midnight.

Speaker 1: 24:31

1239, recorded the ship's transit outbound in the Fort McHenry Channel and the striking of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. By 107 Eastern. The ship entered the channel by 124 Eastern. The ship was underway on a true heading of approximately 141 degrees in the Fort McHenry Channel at an indicated speed over ground of approximately eight knots, which they're saying equates to about nine miles per hour. So at 1.24.59, a second before 1.25, numerous oral alarms were recorded on the ship's bridge audio. Around the same time VDR ship system data ceased recording. However, the VDR audio continued to be recording using the VDR's redundant power source. So that's interesting. It's just an interesting piece that they're including there. So that's at 1.24.59.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Around 1.26.02, so about a minute later, a minute and three seconds later, the VDR resumed recording ship system data. During this time there were steering commands and rudder orders on the VDR audio. Around 1.26 and 39 seconds, the ship's pilot made a general VHF radio call for tugs in the vicinity of the Dolly Maryland Transportation Authority. Mdta data from around this time indicated the pilot association dispatcher phoned the MTDA duty officer regarding the blackout. So at 1.26 and 39 seconds, the pilot association dispatcher phoned the transportation authority duty officer regarding the blackout, which was, I think, one of the smartest things that could have happened, because this is connecting the maritime transportation piece to the surface transportation piece and that's kind of what this whole podcast is based on is bridging the silos between maritimes transportation and surface transportation and there are some notable disconnects, but in that moment to me it seems like they were connecting those dots. And so the surface transportation side I mean of course the bridge, right, of course the bridge has surface transportation implications, but that moment started the chain of the surface transportation side to secure and protect that bridge.

Speaker 1: 27:01

So 126, 39 seconds, so 127.04, so about 40 seconds. No, what's that? Yeah, 25 seconds later sorry math, 25 seconds or so later, the pilot commanded the dally to drop the port anchor and issued additional steering commands. So at this point right, they dropped the port anchor. We've seen that from some of the helicopter footage and, if you, if you listen to Dr Sal McCrogliano, he talked about that too. From the initial helicopter footage that he saw, the port anchor was a stern or was pointing a stern anchor was a stern or was pointing a stern. Around 1.27 and 25 seconds the pilot issued a radio call over the VHF radio and reported that Dolly had lost all power approaching the key bridge Around.

Speaker 1: 27:41

This time MDTA data shows the following occurred that the Maryland Transportation Authority duty officer radios two units already, one on each side of the bridge, to close the bridge. That's the piece that saved lives. There were duty officers already around and there was actually some released audio so you can listen to the exchange. That wasn't included in part of this NTSB reporting or release, but they said that at 127.25,. So at 126.39 is when they're saying that the pilot association dispatcher phoned over to the Maryland Transportation Authority and about a minute later the Maryland Transportation Authority said that they were radioing to two officers to shut down the bridge a minute later and then all lanes are shut down by MTDA, mdta. So if you go to this article and, like I said, I'm putting all the articles in the show notes, like I always do, but they have the audio of the dispatch to the two patrol units there too. It's really interesting. It wasn't included in the NTSB timeline but it is there in the article. It wasn't included in the NTSB timeline, but it is there in the article.

Speaker 1: 28:53

So around 1.29, the ship's speed over ground was recorded at just under seven knots, eight miles per hour. So they had slowed down about one mile per hour. But this was a huge vessel. So from this moment until approximately 1.29.33, vr audio recorded sounds consistent with the collision, with, I should say, elision with the Key Bridge. Additionally, around this time Maryland Transportation Authority dash camera shows the bridge lights extinguishing. So 1-29. So 1-27-25 is when they were able to shut down the bridge. According to this NTSB timeline, they did that with about 95 seconds to spare. Well, and maybe even two minutes to spare, because from this moment until approximately 1-29-33. So I mean 90 seconds to spare really is what we're looking at here, that they were able to so quickly go from maritime to surface transportation, shut down that bridge. At 1.29.39, the pilot reported that the key bridge was down over VHF to the US Coast Guard. So this is from the NTSB report of the timeline.

Speaker 1: 30:09

Like I said, I don't want to go too far away from what the truth is here and so that's what is being reported as the truth. That's the timeline. If you do pull up the article, like I said, there is audio from dispatch discussing holding of traffic and at one point it sounds like one of the police officers who was stopping the traffic was then going to go up and retrieve the workers and before he was able to do so the bridge collapsed and, like I said, that was in the dispatch audio that the article includes. So what I want to say on this is, in the few precious minutes I mean really seconds that the police officers had, they truly saved untold number of lives by stopping traffic on that bridge. It was the middle of the night, it was 1.30 in the morning, essentially, but how quickly word got from the bridge of the vessel to the police officers to stop that bridge, stop all traffic on the bridge.

Speaker 1: 31:04

The connection between maritime traffic and the surface transportation, vehicular traffic I mean that is phenomenally fast, that is great, and I really, really think that all regional areas that are having those conversations this week about vulnerabilities in their own critical infrastructure should be really reviewing how quickly can maritime conversations translate into surface transportations or surface conversations? Because the fact that this happened in I mean right, it's from walking through it collectively just now about 90 seconds is mind-blowing. So love to see it, love to see that. That's how fast that happened. And just add, added to your conversation. Right, this is not legal advice, this is just kind of responding to, like I said, the truth that we see here. That's been kind of a question on my mind is like what are the vessels that actually now indefinitely can't get out until we kind of move the and secure the channel so that it can open up again?

Speaker 1: 32:19

So in this article Mike Shuler's article from G Captain, he says, according to the Department of Transportation, there are three bolt carriers, two general cargo ships, one vehicle carrier, one tanker and four ready reserve force vessels. And now the container ship Dolly is also back there and what I've been hearing is that they're going to be, once they are able to, they're going to be moving the Dolly back over to berth and doing their investigation there. So what Mike Shuler says in this G Captain article is that they're using AIS data and the public ship databases, they've been able to locate details on each of those vessels. So the three bulk carriers include the Liberian, flagged JY River, owned by JAD International Ship and managed by a Hong Kong company. There's a Thailand flagged, that is also back there. There's a Portuguese flagged uh vessel. That is also. So those three are the three bolt carriers.

Speaker 1: 33:22

Um, there's a vehicle carrier, the Swedish flag, carmen um, of Wallenius Marine. There's a general cargo ship. There's a French flag flagged vessel Um. There's a Panamanian flagged vessel and the tanker, the Martian, the Marshall islands, flagged uh vessel, um. And then there's three Marad ready reserve force vessels. We haven't talked a lot, we're not going to veer too much into ready reserve force vessels uh right now, but this um in general needs to be built up, but there's three that are stuck back there. So the Cape Washington, a Roro vessel, the Gary Gordon, a Roro vessel. The SS Antares, a fast seal of vehicle cargo ship. And the SS Denebola, a fast seal of vehicle cargo ship.

Speaker 1: 34:11

So, as Mike explains in in the article and I'm just going to read what he put here the red reserve force, rrf, is a subset of vessels within merits national defense reserve fleet and DRF that provides surge seal lift capability to the department of defense. The ships are owned, crude and maintained by merit but come under the control of the military seal of command once activated. And he also in the reports that there's countless tugs and smaller vessels back there. I mean, they're stuck right, so there's no possibility for departure because there's no way to get through. And even if there was, it's too unsafe to do so, so they're going to be stuck there for a little bit. But it was interesting to see the reporting of the vessels, their names and their purpose.

Speaker 1: 34:59

So I also want to call your attention to an article out of JOC by William Cassidy, and he discusses the cargo diversion and trucking troubles that may be coming from this. And while I want to be careful here, because I do not want to predict doom and gloom, because I don't think that that's something that will be happening here, I do think that it's important to kind of talk about maybe some of the cargo diversion that might be happening and some of the knock-on effects that you should just pay attention to. I don't want to say that there's doom and gloom coming and I don't want to imply that there's doom and gloom coming, but there are some challenges that I think are now going to be presented that need to be built into everybody's contingency plans and everybody's just larger thinking on all of this. So the surrounding ports of New York, new Jersey and Norfolk both ports I've been reading and hearing um have been assisting with the cargo diversion of vessels and their containers. Um and, like I said, there's going to probably be some knock-on effects here that are going to need to be managed. So this is not sounding an alarm, just indicating that there's some nimbleness of the supply chain that's going to be put on display and some things that you should be paying attention to.

Speaker 1: 36:03

So in this article out of JOC by William Cassidy, he does an interview with Ken Kelleway, ceo of RoadOne Intermodal Logistics, and Ken says a lot of people take drayage capacity for granted and that's an important piece. He said they think it's fungible from one port to another, but it's not. And so that was one of my thoughts was, even though the ports are likely able to handle what's happening with this cargo diversion right, I mean they were able to handle some surging that happened during COVID and certainly we don't have the global system disruptions that we have. This is East Coast Limited. It's not just about the port right, it's all about connecting the pieces and it's about the drayage trucking providers that are moving those containers out of the port and moving them over to the warehouse. And then you get to the warehouse discussion Is there enough capacity in the warehouse? Are those warehouses dedicated and able to handle the commodity, the type of cargo that is being offloaded?

Speaker 1: 37:03

Or the Port of Baltimore has appropriately and importantly mentioned and put out there that they're still open, even though they don't have an ingress egress for their maritime side of there, that they're still open even though they don't have an ingress egress for their maritime side of things, they're still open. And so it's been really encouraging to see a lot of attempts to bring the cargo back to Port of Baltimore, one because of the kind of show of strength and show of support for the Port of Baltimore, but then also I think that it's showing that Baltimore is still open and this Port of Baltimore specifically was created. Some of these warehousing units are created for the specific commodities that Baltimore is good at, and so what Ken Kellaway of Road 1 Intermodal Logistics continues on saying is the average dray out of Baltimore is probably 50 to 60 miles, which dray is the connector of port to where it needs to go, but if you're draying from New York to that same location you could add 100 miles, from Norfolk, another 150. So he says that these are just things that need to be considered and I've heard both of DRAGE trucking providers and also of rail being a possibility into the Port of Baltimore port system. So, as the article continues on and says, east Coast ports have had enough capacity to handle diverted cargo, but whether truck capacity is available once that cargo is offloaded is another matter and that's kind of the point that I was making at the beginning here. Another thing that is just good general practice right to review your shipping contracts, whatever that looks like for you and again, this is not legal advice, but this is not legal advice directly related to your matter, but this is certainly just good best practices to make sure that you're up on all of your own terms and make sure that you're prepared. I don't anticipate a ton of congestion from this cargo diversion right and I think that it's going to be well-managed and quickly managed, because a lot of people sprang into action to make sure that we weren't going to have much of a large-scale economic disruption here.

Speaker 1: 39:17

But slowdowns in the system can sometimes mean detention or demurrage may rear their heads, and we talk about detention demurrage a lot here. One thing that I want to point out is the final rule out of the FMC, the detention demurrage final rule, doesn't go into effect until May 28th. We are now March 29th, which means the D&D final rule from the FMC is not effective yet. So some of the things that are becoming part of the requirements are not yet necessarily requirements, and so just be aware of that. Not legal advice directly related to your matter, but just so that you don't forget, even though the final text has been released, it is not effective yet.

Speaker 1: 40:03

But I also want you to just be looking at detention to merge. I want you to be understanding what your free time timelines look like for you If appropriate. I mean, maybe you could find out if free time can be extended, or there's just my point being right not legal advice, but just start thinking about all of your terms and understanding it, because it'll make you more prepared, obviously, but it'll also make you more prepared to be nimble if required If things do start to gum up or if there are some problems of moving the cargo out of these new areas. So just know the parameters that you're working with, not legal advice, just general good practices, just general thoughts, and there's going to be a lot that's going to be unfolding in the next few weeks. I mean, certainly there's been a lot that's unfolded in the past few days, but this is something that it's important to just be aware. Keep your eyes open, keep paying attention here and, as always, the guidance here is general and for educational purposes.

Speaker 1: 41:08

I'm going to continue to be watching all things ocean surface, anything related to the global ocean shipping environment in the world. It should not be contributing legal advice, though directly related to your matter. If 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, that's it for today. For the non-legal questions, e-learning and general industry information and insight, come find me at the Maritime Professor. If you like these videos, let me know, comment, like and share. If you want to listen to these episodes on demand or if you missed any previous episodes, check out the podcast by Land and by Sea. If you prefer to see the video, they live on my YouTube page by Land and by Sea, presented by the Maritime Professor, and, while you're at it, check out the website maritimeprofessorcom. So until next week. This is Lauren Began, maritime Professor, and you've just listened to. By Land and by Sea. See you next time.