When you have a complaint about your shipment or cargo, or something else entirely that you forward to your ocean carrier, and nothing happens, what do you do? When you’ve got a legitimate issue and your ocean carrier will not bother with your service complaint, there is something you can do to get things moving. Sobel wants to make sure you can get your complaints heard.
If you are a freight forwarder, NVOCC, or a customs broker, you can submit a complaint about an ocean carrier via the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) through the Unreasonable Practices Complaints Process. This gives you two options to process your complaint.
You can email your issue to [email protected] for an anonymous complaint which is just information-purposes only, or via [email protected] for an interactive dialogue forum with carrier and terminal hosted by FMC.
Small claims below, or equal to, but not exceeding $50,000 caused by violations of the Shipping Act of 1984 (46 U.S.C. 411) can be filed to seek reparations (damages) from another individual company (the Respondent) for economic injury. Providing a standard format for filing a small claims complaint, the commission states all small claims complaint filings should follow this standard format. You cannot simply sign and submit the exhibit, rather the information shown in brackets is to guide you regarding what information you must provide.
Small Claims are determined by a settlement officer using formal procedures and are governed by Commission rules. Please review these rules before filing an informal complaint. Note: a Respondent may object to the informal procedure within 25 days of being served. Should the Respondent refuse the informal procedure, the claim will be assigned to an Administrative Law Judge for formal adjudication under Subpart T of the Commission’s rules. To find out more about how to file a small Claims Complaint, click here.
For more details about FMC CADRS, please see the NCBFAA Dispute Process Document here.
We know that the past two years have seen carrier behavior that in some cases is even more egregious than normal. As freight forwarders and NVOCC’s ourselves who hold contracts or utilize our shipper’s contracts, we have shared many of these same experiences. At a time of increased regulatory scrutiny by the agency and Congress, this is a time to use existing advocacy tools while new ones are being put forth in legislative changes like the rewrite of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act working through Congress.
We want to make sure your voice is heard.
