FMC Contracts Science Academy to Report on Chassis Pools Best Practices
The Federal Maritime Commission awarded a $500,000 contract to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study intermodal chassis pools and whether they can be made more efficient. The study, mandated by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, also will look at the advantages and disadvantages of current chassis pool models and whether the models “have aligned incentives in ownership, management, repair, and provisioning that lead to supply chain efficiency,” the FMC said. The study may result in suggestions to improve “communications, information sharing, and knowledge management practices across chassis pool models,” the commission said.
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“The committee will use the findings from their research to determine which circumstances and models for provisioning chassis most support an efficiently functioning supply chain, and will identify the best practices from each examined model that can further increase efficiency,” the FMC said. “The committee will identify the conditions necessary to implement each model, including practical obstacles to implementation and their possible solutions.”
The study will be conducted by a NAS consensus committee of independent experts, who will not be compensated. Members will be appointed over the next “several weeks,” the FMC said, and interested applicants should contact Thomas Menzies and Mark Hutchins of the NAS Transportation Research Board. The FMC hopes to publish the study and the best practices by January 2024 (see 2209210063).