The New York Shipping Exchange steps up its game to serve “digitized” logistics

More evidence supporting the “digitization” of the ocean cargo industry surfaced last week when The New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX) announced the appointment of new members to its board of directors and launch of the governing NYSHEX Member Council. 

This news follows the Federal Maritime Commission's (FMC) approval late last year of the NYSHEX governance model.

Ideally, NYSHEX will usher in a fair, transparent and compliant process to ensure the interests of members are incorporated into the operation of the exchange.

The NYSHEX governance model adds four industry representatives to the NYSHEX board of directors, two will be filled by shipper members (BCOs or NVOCCs) and two will be carrier members. The governance model also establishes the NYSHEX member council consisting of three BCOs, three NVOCCs, and three Carrier representatives. 

"As we continue to grow the exchange, our governance model ensures that our members, actively participate in the oversight and governance of the exchange. We are excited to have these industry innovators and leaders help NYSHEX to establish fair and transparent standards for digital freight contracting, and to build enabling technology that everyone in the industry can benefit from," said Gordon Downes, NYSHEX CEO.

The NYSHEX board consists of nine directors who are overall responsible for the oversight of the exchange. The four industry representatives who join the NYSHEX board of directors are: 

• Bjorn Jensen, VP Global Logistics for Electrolux
• Jochen Gutschmidt, Head of Global Logistics Procurement at Nestlé
• Nick Fafoutis, SVP of Sales and CCO of CMA CGM America
• Donald Davis, SVP of Sales and Customer Service for Hapag-Lloyd in North America

The NYSHEX board is supported by the NYSHEX member council whose role is to propose recommendations or changes to NYSHEX operations, processes, and technology. The industry representatives who will join the NYSHEX member council are: 

• Mark Chadwick, Executive Sourcing Leader, GE
• Glenn Berger, VP Global Transportation, Restoration Hardware
• April Zobel, Export Traffic Manager, Lansing Trade Group
• David Newton, CCO, Damco USA
• Nerijus Poskus, VP Global Head of Ocean Freight, Flexport
• Arnold Lee, CEO of Hecny Group
• Peter Hildebrandt, VP Revenue Management and Optimization, Maersk Line 
• Howard Finkel, EVP, COSCO Container Lines

To ensure the industry and exchange members are impartially represented the industry board members and the member council representatives will rotate on a yearly basis. 

NYSHEX is designed to provide the global ocean cargo industry with a simplified and standardized digital freight contract. NYSHEX is compliant with all U.S. regulations as well as the FMC's contract filing requirements. Buyers of container shipping services: shippers and NVOCCs, use NYSHEX at no cost. Initially, they must be pre-accredited with NYSHEX to get started. Ocean carriers pay a transaction fee of $5 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

According to Bjorn Jensen, VP Global Logistics for Electrolux, "Improving the inefficiencies in pricing and contracting in the container shipping industry is one of the biggest opportunities we have. It has been a resource intensive and frustrating process for most shippers for years. NYSHEX brings much needed innovation to this area, immediately improving efficiencies for shippers while enabling the carriers to better manage their cargo flows and service networks. I am proud to represent the interest of global shippers as a member of the board." 

For Jochen Gutschmidt, Head of Global Procurement at Nestlé, "It is a great opportunity and honour to represent global shippers on the board of NYSHEX. The freight contracting process has not really evolved in decades, if ever, and NYSEHX has all it needs: from people to technology - to innovate and drive transparency, accountability as well as compliance in what's a tedious and for many frustrating process in today's global logistics world."

Nick Fafoutis, SVP of Sales and CCO of CMA CGM America adds, "The CMA CGM group has a heavy interest in what the digital future looks like for container shipping. We believe that digital innovation enables us to provide new options to our customers making it easier to do business with us. This is why CMA CGM made the founding member investment in NYSHEX." 

"Hapag-Lloyd invested in NYSHEX to take a proactive role in solving the industry challenges of unreliability and unpredictability caused by complex and antiquated contracting practices. We recognize that this is something that cannot be solved without collaboration and strict compliance. NYSHEX offers all BCOs, NVOCCs and Ocean Carriers an equal and unbiased method for innovating a contract where all players honor their commitments," said Donald Davis, SVP of Sales and Customer Service for Hapag-Lloyd in North America.