OCEMA public policy statement regarding COVID‐19 and transport logistics

Washington, DC – In hopes of stimulating awareness and industry preparedness, the Senior Steering Committee of the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association (“OCEMA”) has adopted the following statement of position:

To “maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors”, U.S. states and Canadian provinces have deliberately exempted maritime operators, freight railways, motor carriers, logistics service providers, distribution services, and operators in support of these vital transportation services from the stay at home orders they are issuing in their efforts to slow the spread of COVID‐19. These accommodations will greatly aid the ability to handle on‐going, essential traffic which our nation depends upon at this time of crisis. We commend the states and provinces for recognizing the critical nature of the supply chain and implore them to continue to adopt exemptions to their stay at home orders to protect the transportation network.

The continuity of international container operations relies heavily on maintaining continuous flow of containers through the ports and inland facilities to avoid any single bottleneck which could have a broader impact on the port and rail network. If containers reaching their North American destination are not picked up from the port or rail facility, or if they are picked up and not emptied and returned, this could create such a bottleneck. Containers sitting at the ports and rail ramps would quickly tie up space which would impact the unloading of trains and discharging of vessels. Containers stored on chassis at the rail ramps or at shippers’ facilities would create a chassis shortage which would then prevent other units from being picked up and result in the same negative impact to train and vessel operations.

OCEMA members see this as a matter of critical importance to the fluidity of intermodal freight transport for cargo which has already been shipped to be removed from the port and devanned in a timely fashion, with empty equipment returned promptly. Regardless of the nature of the cargo which has been shipped, it is critical to the functioning of the maritime and rail transportation networks that shippers promptly collect cargo loaded containers from the marine terminal, remove the cargo from those containers, and return the empty equipment so that chassis (and accompanying containers) remain available to move more cargo.

Commenting on the above statement, Jeff Lawrence, OCEMA Executive Director, said, “OCEMA’s members are actively working to make networks as resilient as possible and addressing challenges as they arise. We are also looking ahead. There are a number of issues that are important to system fluidity. A major concern is inland equipment velocity. If not maintained, this alone can cause disruption of our intermodal networks. It is important for intermodal equipment to keep moving in order to maintain fluidity. Keeping distribution centers and warehouses open and turning intermodal equipment is essential in this effort.”