News
The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission （FMC） issued a final rule for freight index-based service contracts and non-vessel-operating common carrier service arrangements to provide flexibility and certainty to carriers and their customers. The new rule makes clear that service contracts can reference freight indices or other outside terms, so long as they are readily available to the contracting parties and the commission.
According to the FMC, there are approximately 46,962 effective service contracts on file with the commission between May 1, 2011 through February 9, 2012. Of those, 62 service contracts referencing indices, approximately 0.13% of the total. As for NVOCCs, there are no NSAs currently on file with the commission that reference indices, and, therefore, no NSAs would be impacted by the Final Rule.
