A CASE FOR A SYSTEM WIDE LOOK AT INFORMATION FLOWS?

Meantime, ongoing lockdowns of ports in Asia, just prior to the Chinese New Year, will lead to uneven cargo flows, and a different wave of disruptions, in the coming weeks.

There has, however, been some good news. The US$17 billion for ports in the USA’s Infrastructure Bill, the US$2+ billion for revitalising ports in the California budget, and, around my hometown- New York, some big bucks (with unspecified amounts) to revitalise the Brooklyn waterfront for offshore wind projects. But physical improvements, while much needed, are not the entire story.

There have been some inchoate efforts to look at the “data” side of freight movements, the Federal Maritime Commission has taken baby steps to study data, and the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021. If this initiative moves ahead through the U.S. Senate then it will provide for the National Academy of Sciences to study cargo-related information data flows.

As I write this, it’s impossible not to be distracted by all things pandemic-related. But there is a silver lining, maybe. 2020’s “Operation Warp Speed”, described as a “Moonshot effort” by some (harkening back to the 1960’s Glory Days) which developed vaccines in a shorter timeframe than anyone could have imagined, might offer some inspiration for the port and supply chain community. Dramatic improvements on the data side enabled the medical experts to work their magic / wonders.

With analogous improvements when it comes to freight movement and shipping data, I am wondering if the next Moonshot might be aimed at cargo flows and supply chains? Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that supply chain crises, late holiday gifts, shortages of Peleton bikes or whatever, and those 100+ ships anchored around San Pedro Bay have brought anything even remotely close to the human impacts of the pandemic (we are now two years, and 800,000 victims, in). However, there has been, and will continue to be, high economic costs of poorly functioning flows of cargo around the USA. I will leave it to the economists to quantify the huge costs, perhaps in the US$Trillions.

Figures of this magnitude, however, do seem to justify the proposition that a system-wide look at the information flows surrounding cargo, where ports play a pivotal role, supported by sponsorship at the highest levels from government.