The White House announced today it is launching an information-sharing initiative aimed to improve freight information exchange and speed up the movement of goods to address a wide range of supply chain problems.
The Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) will be led by the Department of Transportation and include 18 initial participants across the supply chain, including private businesses, trucking, warehousing, and logistics companies, ports, and more.
“Recent supply chain disruptions have raised national awareness of the need for improved information exchange,” the White House said in a release. “Supply chain stakeholders deserve reliable, predictable, and accurate information about goods movement and FLOW will test the idea that cooperation on foundational freight digital infrastructure is in the interest of both public and private parties.”
The White House explained that a lack of digital infrastructure, transparency, and information sharing has led to delays as cargo moves from one part of the supply chain to another.
“This effort shows a strong and deliberate response by the administration to tackle this challenge head-on and set the country on the right trajectory for a resilient and globally competitive 21st century goods movement chain,” the White House said.
The initial participants include port authorities, ocean carriers, trucking partners, logistics and warehousing partners such as UPS and FedEx, large cargo owners like Target, small and medium-size businesses represented by True Value and Gemini Shippers, as well as agricultural producers such as Land O’Lakes.
For additional interested parties, the Biden-Harris administration will launch a webpage within the month to gauge industry interest in participation and data sharing.
