White House pushes supply-chain operators to share data
Eighteen companies—ocean carriers, retailers and freight forwarders—have so far signed up to the data portal, the Biden administration’s latest attempt to smooth out tangled shipping logistics.
Container ships at the Port of Long Beach. The new program, called Freight Logistics Optimization Works, is aimed primarily at goods being shipped by ocean. – PHOTO: JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Biden administration launched a pilot program Tuesday to have ocean carriers, ports, trucks and major retailers share data with each other to improve the flow of goods through supply chains.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, speaking at a White House roundtable with shipping-industry executives, said sharing information would help freight companies operate more efficiently and rein in the rising costs and extensive delays that have hampered U.S. supply chains over the past two years.
The initiative, called the Freight Logistics Optimization Works, is the latest effort by the White House to address bottlenecks that stretch from the country’s biggest gateway for overseas imports in Southern California to inland distribution hubs and warehouses. Goods often shift between various freight and logistics companies along the way to markets, and industry specialists say companies typically trade little information on shipments as they move.
“Nobody can command this kind of sharing, but what we also know is that it needs to happen,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
The project will start out with 18 companies, among them, Target Corp. , FedEx Corp. , Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. and freight middleman C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. The administration said it hopes to get the participation needed to build out the data exchange by the end of summer.
In an interview with SiriusXM, Mr. Buttigieg said the data portal would probably run through a website and could show exporters how many days they have to fill a container for shipping, or let truckers see when warehouse space is available so they can time when to drop off a load.
Shipping industry officials, importers and exporters say they often struggle to plan ahead, to line up equipment and labor, for instance, because operators in the supply chain don’t share information. The result is that ports, truckers, railroads and warehouse operators are often surprised by surges and lulls in cargo volumes while retailers are left managing the hefty costs of having large volumes of inventory stuck in transit.
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the gap in information as operators struggled to handle a 20% increase in imports, including cargo surges caused by changes in seasonal shipping volumes, the stranding of a container ship in the Suez Canal and virus-related shutdowns in China.
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said cargo generally is handed off a dozen times as it moves along the supply chain, and the industry relies too much on spreadsheets and phone calls to track and plan.
“We need to be able to start seeing around corners,” Mr. Seroka said.
Cynthia Allen, a vice president of regulatory affairs and compliance for FedEx Logistics, told the Federal Maritime Commission in February that the lack of information is endemic in the ocean industry.
Airlines and airports share much more information about freight than ocean carriers and port terminals do, she said, which leaves FedEx scrambling to track shipments traveling by ocean.
“We’re doing data-scraping for hundreds of websites, calling people incessantly,” she said in her statement.
Write to Paul Berger at Paul.Berger@wsj.com