'TESTIMONY BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
ON
THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM IN THE MARINE
TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY
OCTOBER 7, 1998
PRESENTED BY
KATHY J. METCALF
DIRECTOR, MARITIME AFFAIRS
Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, my name is Kathy J. Metcalf and I am the
Director of Maritime Affairs at the Chamber of Shipping of America. The Chamber of
Shipping represents 14 U.S. based companies which own, operate or charter oceangoing
tankers, container ships, and other merchant vessels engaged in both the domestic and
international trades. The Chamber also represents other entities which maintain a
commercial interest in the operation of such oceangoing vessels.
The Chamber appreciates the opportunity to testify on the issue of the Year 2000 problem
and its potential impacts on the marine transportation industry. The Chamber also
appreciates the recognition by this and other Committees that the solutions to the Y2K
problem in any sector will be facilitated by an active and ongoing dialogue among the various
stakeholders which, in the marine transportation industry, include carriers, shippers, ports
and the federal, state and local agencies. Simply put, an effective and thorough Y2K solution
by any entity can not be effected in a vacuum. A microscopic analysis may lead to effective
Y2K solutions for an entity's internal systems, but a macroscopic approach is necessary to
ensure that all external interfaces are identified and Y2K compliance tested.
Today, we are testifying not as information technology experts, but rather as users of the
systems designed by these experts. We believe the Y2K issue is, first and foremost, a
management challenge. The technical challenge which involves assessment and contingency
planning can occur only after the internal systems and external interfaces are identified by
the users of these systems.
There are several areas which we would like to cover today.
Nature and scope of the Y2K challenge in the marine transportation industry
Past and ongoing activities of the Chamber of Shipping of America and its
Members
Status of our Members' Y2K assessment and contingency planning
Proposals for future collaborative efforts among the various trade associations,
government agencies and international colleagues
NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE Y2K CHALLENGE IN THE MARINE
TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY
By its very nature, marine transportation is international in scope and, as such, our
testimony will address both domestic and international issues surrounding this problem. The
most obvious systems which must be addressed in any Y2K plan in the marine transportation
industry include shipboard and private sector shoreside systems relating to the safe and
efficient navigation of vessels, cargo loading and discharging operations, shoreside facilities
operations and systems which interface deeper into the shoreside distribution system
including interfaces with shippers and the land based transportation network. Additional less
obvious systems include the port and waterways infrastructure which assures safe and
efficient operation of navigation channels through vessel traffic systems and aids to
navigation, and other government systems operated by various government agencies
including the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs Service, Maritime Administration and Federal
Communications Commission. Our industry also must be concerned with these types of
systems in foreign countries due to the significant amount of exports carried aboard vessels to
points around the world. It is therefore essential that each interface in the marine
transportation system, both domestic and international, be identified and subjected to Y2K
compliance testing.
Mr. Chairman, there is an old marketing concept that provides a valuable lesson in meeting
the Y2K challenge. Before implementing any newly designed system, it is a valuable exercise
to trial run the input (be it a document or data) through the system so that interfaces with
users and other systems can be identified and subjected to a quality control check. In the
marine transportation industry, particularly with regard to vessel operations, this too is an
enlightening and valuable exercise. The Chamber of Shipping Staff have completed this
exercise by commencing an evaluation at the first stage of a vessel's voyage and progressed
the vessel through the end of the voyage. At each step of this exercise, we have identified the
many internal and external systems that are used at each step of both a domestic and
international voyage with the end result being an inventory of systems which must be
addressed in the assessment and contingency planning process. At this point, individual
entities must promote cooperative efforts between their information technology professionals
and operations personnel to further identify subcomponents of these critical systems and
begin the arduous stage of Y2K compliance testing.
PAST AND ONGOING ACTIVITIES OF THE CHAMBER OF SHIPPING AND ITS
MEMBERS
The Y2K technology problem has been an active issue on the Chamber's Operations
Committee Agenda for the last three years. In its initial stages, the Chamber took the role of
an information clearinghouse providing information to our Members in the form of published
articles in the marine and general trade publications as well as the many documents
produced by technical experts on the preparation and implementation of generic and marine
transportation specific Y2K plans. The Chamber, as a member of the U.S. delegation to the
International Maritime Organization (IMO), also participated in an international discussion
held this Spring during the Maritime Safety Committee meeting.
Several excellent documents and website contacts have been identified by the Chamber
which enables us to download pertinent information and forward these contacts on to our
Members. These excellent websites include Ship 2000 (ship2000.com), the Department of
Transportation Y2K Transportation Sector (y2ktransport.dot.gov) which contains specialty
areas for waterways management and water travel/commerce, the President's Council on
Year 2000 Conversion - Transportation Sector (y2k.gov/java/info6d.html), the Ship
Operations Cooperative Program (socp.org/y2k.html), Y2K Today (y2ktoday.com) and the US
Coast Guard (uscg.mil/hq/g-m/y2k.htm).
At the same time, we began to develop this informational collection system, we were prepared,
when requested by our members, to provide valuable information on key contacts within the
international maritime industry. These key contacts included not only technical persons who
could assist our Members in their plan development, but also other individuals and
companies knowledgeable in developing assessment and contingency plans with which they
could share "lessons learned" as the plan development process went forward. Of particular
interest at this stage of the exercise, was the identification of marine equipment
manufacturer contacts with which our Members could work to design effective and thorough
Y2K assessment and contingency plans for particular systems or pieces of equipment. While
this list, found at several Internet websites, is by no means complete, it serves as a good
starting point for system by system analysis. Unfortunately, our Members and other users
worldwide, still have significant concerns as to the reliability and completeness of information
provided by manufacturers, who are concerned with liability associated with the provision of
Y2K compliance advice and general warranty issues.
Most recently, the Chamber and other maritime trade associations met with the Maritime
Administration to discuss potential cooperative efforts that could be undertaken among the
trade associations and the government agencies. Also, the Chamber and the American
Association of Ports Authorities attended the International Trade Working Group meeting
convened by Mr. John Koskinen, Chair of the President's Council on the Year 2000
Conversion, at which cooperative efforts between the various federal agencies and the
international trade community were addressed.
STATUS OF OUR MEMBERS' Y2K ASSESSMENT AND CONTINGENCY
PLANNING
Within the past six months during the Chamber's Operations Committee deliberations, we
have informally polled our Members as to their status on Y2K assessment planning and are
pleased to note that, without exception, all have plans underway if not already completed. We
have also discussed this issue with our international colleagues and find that many are also
addressing the Y2K challenge; however, some concern continues to be expressed about the
private and public sector port and waterways infrastructure in many foreign ports.
At the Chamber's most recent meeting, our Members agreed that it would be helpful, not only
to our Membership, but also to the maritime community as a whole, for the Chamber to
develop a generic marine transportation contingency plan which identified systems onboard
vessels, in home offices and within government agencies that are critical in the safe and
efficient operation of vessels, and provide options for back-up, should primary systems fail.
The Chamber has begun this effort and anticipates production of this plan in the near future.
PROPOSALS FOR FUTURE COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS AMONG THE VARIOUS
MARITIME TRADE ASSOCIATIONS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND
INTERNATIONAL COLLEAGUES
As indicated above, the first stages of any Y2K plan are quite specific to the business entity
implementing that plan. Because a company's information technology staff are most familiar
with internal systems, especially traditional business systems such as finance, human
resources and materials management, it makes these systems generally the first targets of a
company's Y2K efforts. In a marine transportation entity, critical systems found onboard
vessels have also been included in these evaluations, although marine systems with
embedded chip issues need to be addressed both by the vessel owner/operator and the
manufacturers' of these systems since the manufacturer is the expert on the design of these
systems and the critical components that are Y2K susceptible.
As a maritime trade association, we believe there is more we can do to benefit our Members
and the marine transportation system as a whole. It is clear that there is flurry of activity in
our industry which seeks to address the Y2K issue. What is not so clear is the coordination of
these efforts among the various sectors of the industry and what agency has regulatory
authority over it. We believe that this coordination is absolutely essential to ensure that our
"seamless" transportation system continues to operate without interruption on the critical
dates. To achieve this end requires more than a good internal Y2K program for without more,
the distinct segments will be self-sustaining but unable to interface with each other. The
Chamber is committed to addressing this issue and has identified the following initiatives to
address these needs.
First, we will continue to actively provide available information to our Members from all
sources, both domestic and international, private and public sector. Similarly, we will share
information with our international colleagues to maximize the likelihood that foreign
transportation systems are addressing these issues .
Second, we are committed to addressing the problem of external interfaces which present the
greatest challenges our Members. These challenges are heightened by the sheer number of
these external interfaces as well as the fact that vessel owners and operators have little or no
control over the Y2K assessment and contingency planning of their external counterparts. In
most cases, our Members can only survey their commercial external counterparts to
determine the status of their programs and where possible, as customers, make future
business decisions based on the information received in these surveys. This unfortunately is
not a choice in the case of interfaces with domestic and international government agencies
with which they are required to provide information and/or otherwise interface. In this
respect, we will help to identify these external interfaces and, as an association, seek to assure
that complete and accurate information is being provided to the regulated community as a
whole.
Third, we would be pleased to work with your Committee and interagency groups formed as
part of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion project. This participation will be
critical to ensure that all public/private sector interfaces are identified and Y2K issues
associated with them are adequately addressed. It is only with this integrated or "macro"
approach that the "seamless" transportation system enjoyed by our nation will continue to
operate without interruption as the critical Y2K dates approach.
Finally, we ask that you consider the Y2K issue as a management issue rather than a
computer issue as many do. As with any management issue, the problem must be defined and
a resolution identified. Certainly, part of the resolution includes the technical evaluation of
computers and equipment containing embedded chips, but an equally important part of the
resolution is understanding the input/output sources and interfaces associated with these
systems. This is the responsibility not of the information technology experts who designed the
system, but rather the operating personnel who use them on a daily basis. It is these
operating managers that understand fully the interaction of the many systems involved in
the day to day operation of their business and it is only these managers that can conduct the
macroscopic view necessary to identify the critical interfaces in their business systems and
with the external systems, be they private or public.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on this important issue. We stand ready
to assist in any way beneficial to the successful resolution of the Y2K problem in the marine
transportation industry.
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