US FEDERAL Maritime Commission (FMC) chairman Richard Lidinsky has pledged to "keep a focus on improving the service contract process" before an audience of the Global Shippers' Forum in Macau.
"Service contracts need to be improved if they are to come close to the vision that Congress had for them when it passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act in 1998," he said.
"Recently, we have seen reports of some carriers attempting to impose early or multiple peak season surcharges before the ink was dry on annual service contracts. These episodes reveal that some treat the service contract as something more like 'guidelines,'" he said, according to American Shipper.
Mr Lidinsky added that the crux of the matter is the need "to reform the service contract dispute resolution process to allow more timely and inexpensive assistance from the Commission's CADRS (Consumer Affairs and Dispute Resolution Services) office."
The FMC chief had delivered this message last month in a list of legislative proposals submitted to Congressman Elijah Cummings, chairman of the US House of Representatives subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
"I proposed prohibiting unfair or deceptive practices in such areas as excessive cargo rolling, excessive booking cancellations, imposing surcharges, or refusing to accept third-party or 'shipper-owned' containers.
Finally, I proposed adding some visibility into the container leasing companies that according to some reports control more than 60 per cent of the world's container inventory," Mr Lidinsky said.
Source : HKSG.
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