The last three days of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week are all about global maritime logistics and how people get things moved across the planet. Dooner and The Dude focused this episode of WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on the challenges ocean shippers are still facing in the hot market.
They welcomed Lauren Beagen, maritime industry expert and adjunct law professor at Roger Williams University, to the show and discussed a new program to respond to emergencies in the maritime industry.
The Maritime Transportation System Emergency Relief Act was passed at the end of December but is still in the process of being funded by the federal government. The U.S. Maritime Administration will lay out the regulations and then funds can be allocated during emergency situations.
Beagen said this act can be utilized during rare emergencies like a global pandemic, but also during recurring situations like hurricanes or natural disasters. However, an emergency must be formally declared by leadership before ports can receive relief funding.
Next up, Lean Solutions Vice President of Lean Sales Trey Griggs joined the show to talk about how Lean is working with maritime customers. Griggs said the maritime functions are more “behind the scenes” and Lean helps its customers with managing increased task volumes like tracking and paperwork filing.
Dooner and The Dude finished up with Mr. Supply Chain, Daniel Stanton, and talked risk mitigation and preparing for crisis. Stanton said customer relations are twofold: dealing with risk before it happens and building trust with clients after something goes wrong.
“Trust isn’t a binary, you have it or you don’t have it, it’s built over time and it’s a feedback loop,” said Stanton.
Stanton said as a researcher he constantly questions if managers are accurately deciding whether to manage risk proactively or to trust established relationships instead.
