The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) data-sharing program for major shipping hubs now covers three-quarters of the country’s ocean container imports, spanning 86 total participants, nine of the largest container ports in the country, and 10 of the largest U.S. importers, the DOT says.
First launched in 2022 as a response to disruptions brought on by the pandemic, the USDOT’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program collects and aggregates information shared by ocean carriers, ports, terminals and railways, and then uses that import data to weigh demand volumes against future capacity, in order to head off potential bottlenecks. The FLOW initiative reached several critical milestones in 2024, when it started sharing data on inland freight hubs in March, and then added West Coast ports in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma to its network in August.
“In less than four years, we’ve gone from supply chain disruptions unlike anything we’ve seen in peacetime, to much higher levels of resiliency and reliability,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a December 19 news release. “That work has helped make it possible to move record levels of cargo in and out of the U.S., bring shipping costs down, and ensure essential goods arrive on time.”
According to data shared by the Biden administration, ocean shipping prices have fallen by more than 70% since peaking in late 2021, while the number of container ships waiting to dock at U.S. ports has dipped from 150 to 20 over that same period. The FLOW program also now accounts for 75% of all U.S. container imports, as well as 80% of the country’s container terminal capacity.
