Maritime Industry Challenges To Watch: Part 2
Partners Paul Bond, Chris Nolan and J. Michael Cavanaugh were featured in Law360 discussing the changing regulatory and legislative landscape for the maritime industry, autonomous vessels in the near future and clearing gridlock on U.S. ports that occur after natural disasters cause shipments to not arrive on time.
"Maritime IT has traditionally been designed with functionality as the predominant concern and security an afterthought," said Mr. Bond, "Clearly, that has to change, because cybersecurity attacks are one of the major threats to functionality. Both for the IT itself and the complex logistical chains that support that IT, systems need to be fundamentally rethought to meet global and constantly changing threats. The mentality that ‘if it isn't broke, don't fix it’ isn't tenable when so much can break so quickly."
Mr. Nolan stated that "It will take a coalition of the willing to renegotiate and rethink decades-old and in some respects, over a century-old international maritime conventions and domestic laws, which impose burdens and obligations based on fully crewed ships."
"The carriers and terminals continue to maintain that current industry demurrage practices are not causing problems rising to the level where [FMC] intervention is needed, and that they need flexibility to deal with individual situations where shippers ask for waivers or mitigation of charges due to specific local circumstances." said Mr. Cavanaugh.