To fulfill their responsibilities, regulators cannot think about one “industry” or party alone — whether ocean carriers, terminals, or shippers. Rather, regulators need to focus on the wider US ocean transportation system and what it needs to be productive for the long term.
The system needs regulations that do two things:
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Recognize that the ocean component of the system is only as strong as the landside system that receives and delivers US imports and collects and transports US exports to the ports.
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Provide ocean carriers with fairness and legal certainty, encouraging investment and innovative service.
In practice, this means that the FMC needs to be the “adult in the room” that looks realistically at where the actual bottlenecks are, focuses on policy instead of politics, and recognizes that this is a global industry that operationally and commercially functions on a round-trip basis.
To work for anyone, the system must work for everyone. The FMC needs to think — and regulate — on a system-wide basis and with a view to the long-term health of the transportation system. Attempting to favor one set of shippers at the expense of other shippers, or pretending to put everyone at the front of the line, is self-defeating. Today in particular, the FMC must remain above political rhetoric and ensure that it makes fact-based decisions consistent with the law that Congress actually passed and based on careful analysis of market developments.
Making productive regulations is not about counting how many entities are for or against a course of action. The FMC must do its own policy and economic analysis and articulate clear reasons for the choices it makes. Without such an approach, we are left with political responses, not solutions. That benefits nobody — least of all the people that Congress has said it wants to help.