Trucking applauds Senate passage of Ocean Shipping Reform Act

The American Trucking Associations is cheering passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, S. 3580, which cleared the U.S. Senate by voice vote this afternoon. Introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune (R-SD), the bill represents the first major update for laws governing U.S. maritime port operations in more than 20 years.

“For too long, foreign-owned ocean carriers have been fleecing American truckers and consumers to the tune of billions of dollars,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “These malign business practices have allowed foreign companies to reap record profits while slowing the movement of freight through the U.S. supply chain. We thank Senators Klobuchar and Thune for their bipartisan leadership, and we urge House and Senate negotiators to quickly reconcile their versions of this critical legislation so that the President can sign it into law.” 

The legislation is needed to end abusive practices imposed on American trucking companies at U.S. maritime ports by ocean carriers, most of which are foreign-owned. Specifically, the trucking industry seeks relief from excessive detention and demurrage charges—unfair fees levied on motor carriers by ocean carriers and marine terminal operators when shipping containers are not moved on schedule, even though delays are typically due to factors entirely outside truckers’ control and often the result of inefficiencies caused by the ocean carriers themselves.  

The legislation mandates a new rulemaking by the Federal Maritime Commission to prohibit unjust and unreasonable detention and demurrage practices, including an examination of the appropriate billing parties for those charges. 

“Ensuring fair practices at our ports is critical to ensuring goods get from docks to warehouses and store shelves,” said Jon Eisen, director of ATA’s Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference. “The Ocean Shipping Reform Act is a badly-needed step to modernize the law governing ocean freight and help restore a fair marketplace for motor carriers servicing our ports.”