According to the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), as of June 2, a draft will go into effect. It will allow carriers to file service contracts up to 30 days after they become effective.

This regulation was proposed in October as a way to alleviate administrative burdens on the container shipping industry. 

The current regulation requires a contract to be filed before a carrier can move or receive cargo under the terms of the contract, and also prompted a «positive» rule change in the container shipping industry as the contract relief the agency had provided in order to mitigate COVID-19 related impacts on the supply chain will expire on June 1.

This regulatory change has been endorsed by several shipping groups including the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) and the World Shipping Council, who have both complained that the FMC should closely monitor future contracts in order to detect any abuse of these new flexibilities by ocean carriers.

Read more: freightwaves.com