If you’ve ever wondered how “90% of everything” actually reaches your doorstep, this conversation pulls back the curtain. I’m joined by Carl Bentzel—former FMC Commissioner and now Executive Director of the National Association of Waterfront Employers (NAWE)—to explain what terminal operators really do, why they’re the hub of the entire logistics ecosystem, and where U.S. ports must evolve to stay competitive without breaking the dance between ship, rail, truck, and warehouse.

🎧 Expanded Description

Carl Bentzel has seen maritime from every angle: Capitol Hill, the FMC, and now as the leader of NAWE, representing the employers who keep U.S. terminals running. In this episode, he pulls no punches in explaining why terminals matter more than most people realize—and how policy, data, and labor all intersect at the dock.

Carl traces key lessons from the pandemic crunch: transportation is cheap when it’s on time, but delays explode costs and risks across industries—from respirators to water treatment chemicals. We unpack how containerization and on-dock rail transformed throughput, and why today’s constraints are often hidden upstream (blank sailings, slow rail velocity) or downstream (chassis availability, limited warehouse hours).

We dig into the push to rebuild a U.S. maritime industrial base amid heavy Chinese dominance in containers and ship-to-shore cranes, making the case for realistic transition periods, waivers, and funding so terminals can modernize without service shocks. We also tackle cross-border competition: how uneven penalties or taxes can nudge cargo toward Canada or Mexico, and what policy parity should look like.

Data and labor take center stage too. The FMC’s Maritime Transportation Data Initiative revealed a simple truth: technology fails without timely, standardized operational data. We highlight practical fixes—DCSA-aligned standards, real-time ETAs, transparent gate schedules—that improve planning for everyone. And we talk people: safety, training, and adopting productivity-enhancing equipment through collaboration with longshore labor.

Looking ahead, Carl lays out a pragmatic roadmap—dedicated infrastructure funding, decarbonization plans matched to cost and timelines, and tighter coordination across carriers, railroads, truckers, and warehouses—to keep the hub spinning.

⚓ If you care about supply chain resilience, port competitiveness, and how policy choices ripple into prices and jobs, this one’s for you.

🎧 Ports, Policy, and People: A Conversation with Carl Bentzel (NAWE)
👉 Listen now: www.TheMaritimeProfessor.com/podcast

🙏 Special thanks again to NAWE for supporting this episode of By Land and By Sea.

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