When ocean shipping reform needed an advocate on Capital Hill and rail reform efforts required someone to take charge, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison stepped up to the plate. This conservative industry is now undergoing the kind of rapid change that other modes of transport have been wrestling with for more than a decade. The U.S. Department of Transportation has made the illegal transportation of hazardous materials one of its highest investigative priorities. As a result, shippers and carriers who are aware of the hazmat regulations but fail to adhere to the rules risk hefty criminal penalties. Boxed in Faced with an intractable container shortage in certain shipping lanes, carriers and container-leasing companies have been forced to get creative.
Shippers can help, too.
Both the shipping and port sectors hope that maritime reform legislation can bring an industry weakened by a global trade slump back to health. Although consolidating their European manufacturing and distribution operations into a single location has obvious benefits for shippers, that strategy has not been implemented as widely as most observers had expected. Find out what security experts suggest. As the Latin American market boomed in the mid '90s, ocean carriers headed south in droves. But the boom has ended, and the ensuing trade slump has resulted in overcapacity and falling rates.