FMCSA OKs exemptions for pulsing brake lights for 2 truck fleets
WASHINGTON – A brake-light technology company focused on reducing rear-end truck crashes got another boost from regulators with a ruling that two private fleets can deploy its equipment even though it is at odds with current rules.
Intellistop, which makes a module that briefly pulses a truck’s brake lights immediately after the brakes are engaged, was denied an exemption by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in 2022 to deploy its technology. Current FMCSA regulations do not allow pulsing brake lights.
But after approving limited five-year exemptions in 2024 (Gemini Motor Transport and Encore Building Products), FMCSA on Tuesday followed with five-year exemptions to the private fleet subsidiaries of Iowa-based convenience store operator Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ GS: CASY) and Sugar Land, Texas-based petroleum refining and marketing company CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI).
“In the last four years we have been involved in 17 collisions where our truck was struck in the rear end by another vehicle, with damage to our equipment in excess of $500,000,” according to Casey’s Services Co., which hauls fuel for its parent company’s retail outlets.
“This would not include damages and injuries to the other party that struck us. We feel that with the use of Intellistop, these types of collisions will be greatly reduced,” the company noted, while also reducing its “potential exposure to litigation.”
CRV Energy’s Coffeyville Resources Crude Transportation, which operates a “crude” fleet and a “highway” fleet, told FMCSA it plans to use the exemption for the highway fleet only.
“The two different fleets, one running the exemption and one not, will allow us a good comparison between the two internal fleets on crash reduction and maintenance of the module itself,” the company stated in its application.
In approving the exemption for Coffeyville, FMCSA agreed that the plan to restrict it to a limited portion of the company’s fleet will provide valuable data on the safety value of pulsating brake lights.
“Data collected through this exemption and any other similar exemptions the agency may grant in the future will allow for an evaluation of how the Intellistop module may improve following-vehicle driver responses to CMV [commercial motor vehicle] braking.”
Rear-end crashes account for approximately 30% of all crashes, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and can result from a failure or delay in responding to a stopped or decelerating lead vehicle. “Data on crashes that occurred between 2010 and 2016 show that large trucks are consistently three times more likely than other vehicles to be struck in the rear in two-vehicle fatal crashes,” FMCSA stated in its approval notice.
Freight fraud has continued to be a hot topic of discussion in the freight brokerage space. Last week at the Transportation Intermediaries Association annual conference, TIA President Chris Burroughs provided some guidance on the agency’s plan to tackle freight fraud.
Burroughs referenced 2020 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data showing the agency had more than 80,000 complaints of freight fraud. He called the figure “staggering and quite frankly unexpected.”
He doubled down on the need for enforcement: “We’re also working directly with Congress and the federal agencies to push forward and getting regulations that are already on the books enforced.”
Prosecuting and otherwise doing more than just reporting bad actors and stolen freight has long been a struggle for the entire freight industry. It seems there is some hope to be found in this arena after all. A bipartisan bill has been brought to the Senate in hopes of cracking down on flash mob robberies and intricate retail theft schemes.
The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025 would establish a coordinated multiagency response and create tools to tackle evolving trends in organized retail theft. The two main sponsors of the bill are Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
The proposed law would create a department under the Department of Homeland Security and develop means to investigate and prosecute thieves.
Grassley said: “Our bill improves the federal response to organized retail crime and establishes new tools to recover stolen goods and illicit proceeds, and deter future attacks on American retailers.”
Cortez Masto added: “Large criminal organizations are constantly evolving their tactics to steal goods from retailers and the supply chain in communities across the Silver State [Nevada]. The rise in organized retail crime has left businesses scrambling, and it is time for Congress to pass this bipartisan legislation to help law enforcement agencies keep our communities safe.”
Grassley and Cortez Masto introduced similar legislation in 2022 and 2023. Here’s hoping the third time is the charm.
Legislation like this could not come at a better time. There is a strong fear that more fraud will occur as tariffs continue to change and surge between the U.S. and China.
Grace Sharkey notes in a FreightWaves article: “Importers facing steep duties are resorting to creative, and sometimes illegal, methods to avoid paying the required fees. Mislabeling goods, undervaluing shipments and falsely declaring the country of origin are just a few tactics being employed to bypass customs inspections.”
Sharkey also brings up the historical precedent for tariff evasion. “These types of fraudulent activities have already had significant financial implications. In one case from the early 2000s, a group of importers used fraudulent schemes to misrepresent the country of origin of textiles from China to evade tariffs. In that instance, the perpetrators were caught, but not before costing the U.S. Treasury over $100 million in lost duties.”
A new artery for fraud and no way to stop the bleeding are the last things the supply chain needs. Last year estimated losses to fraud were $454.9 million. That’s just the reported number; it’s likely much larger once you get into loss of revenue, loss of business and financial fraud. The average value per theft also rose to $202,364 in 2024, up from $187,895 the previous year.
SONAR Key Market Insights – Ontario, California
Market Check. Ontario, California, typically serves as a strong barometer for the freight market in the U.S. It’s a trendsetter. With most West Coast imports coming through the ports of LA and Long Beach and then heading inland, Ontario serves as that gateway. That being said, there is plenty of excess truck capacity and most outbound lanes have decreasing spot rates.
Inbound container ships have seen a drop-off in volumes amid the threat of tariffs, which has pulled significant volume from the market. The prognosis for spot rates isn’t much better as the Outbound Tender Rejection Index is 2.12% – half the national average. Ontario saw a 1.49% drop in rejection rates, which is great for shippers and brokers in the market as contract carrier compliance is incredibly high for this time of year.
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Who’s with whom. Tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico were subject to a 25% tariff before tariffs were paused for 90 days. It seems as though that number is subject to an increase. President Donald Trump has brought up a long-running water dispute between the U.S. and Mexico as a reason to possibly levy higher tariffs. The spat is over a 1944 water treaty, the “Treaty Relating to the Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande.”
The gist of the treaty is that the U.S. is obligated to deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually to Mexico from the Colorado River and Mexico is obligated to deliver 1,750,000 acre-feet of water over a five-year cycle to the United States from the Rio Grande, with an average annual delivery of 350,000 acre-feet.
Why does a treaty about water stand to disrupt cross-border freight? Great question. The current administration is saying Mexico has not fulfilled its water obligation. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum claims the drought has made it difficult for Mexico to comply fully with the treaty. However, the International Boundary and Water Commission, the organization that enforces the treaty, has been working to identify solutions that benefit both countries.
The water shortage is negatively impacting produce grown in the Rio Grande Valley, which can also negatively impact the freight market, especially since produce season is around the corner.
There has been no official word on whether additional tariffs would be levied or what possible actions could be taken against Mexico. The main impact seen from this will be decreased produce volumes from South Texas in a few weeks.
Fleets Face Privacy Challenges as Workplace Surveillance Looks at Major Overhaul
Privacy has long been an industry argument from the driver seat when it comes to dashcams. California trucking fleets may soon face substantial hurdles in how they monitor driver activity if Assembly Bill 1331 becomes law. AB 1331 limits employer surveillance, explicitly requiring fleets and businesses to disable dashcams and other monitoring devices during employee off-duty periods, including mandatory rest breaks and meal periods, even when taken inside the vehicle. The bill defines these off-duty moments as private, meaning fleets would no longer have the choice, or even the option to obtain consent from drivers, to maintain surveillance during these times.
This legislation goes far beyond privacy protections typically seen in other states, many of which focus primarily on transparency and informed consent. States like New York, Connecticut and Delaware, for example, only mandate that employers inform employees about monitoring practices. By contrast, California’s AB 1331 completely prohibits surveillance in private off-duty areas such as breakrooms, cafeterias and lounges, as well as in a worker’s personal vehicle or residence, except under vague conditions deemed “strictly necessary.”
Trucking fleets, already burdened by regulatory compliance, could face difficulties under AB 1331. For instance, since rest breaks for non-exempt employees in California are paid, many drivers never formally clock out. Fleets often don’t know exactly when drivers choose to start or end their 10-minute breaks. Under AB 1331, this uncertainty becomes a major compliance challenge. Would fleets need to disable GPS tracking systems or dashcams each time a driver spontaneously pulls over for a break? The bill offers no clarity on these scenarios, potentially opening fleets to more driver legal battles, given the law’s $500-per-employee-per-violation penalty and the ability of drivers and state attorneys to sue employers directly.
AB 1331’s expansive reach could compromise legitimate safety and security efforts. Fleets rely heavily on dashcams, GPS tracking and biometric monitoring to safeguard drivers, cargo and the public, and to comply with federal safety standards mandated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Removing or disabling these devices during breaks, especially in vehicles still technically on duty, could undermine accident prevention, theft deterrence and internal investigations into misconduct, harassment or theft.
This issue isn’t limited to California. Illinois and Texas already have stringent biometric consent laws that have triggered significant litigation, particularly when companies failed to secure explicit consent from drivers for facial recognition technologies embedded in dashcams or telematics devices. Fleets operating nationally now must navigate an intricate patchwork of privacy rules that vary dramatically from state to state, from full-consent models in Illinois to California’s more restrictive prohibition-based approach.
Given the stakes, trucking employers must closely track AB 1331’s progress through the California legislature. To manage risk, fleets should immediately evaluate current surveillance practices, update privacy policies and engage proactively with industry advocacy groups to highlight the impracticality and risks of compliance under this sweeping new law.
California’s step in redefining workplace privacy could set a national precedent, dramatically reshaping the way trucking fleets handle driver monitoring, privacy and consent. As privacy concerns intensify nationwide, fleets have to find a way to balance privacy, risk and regulatory demands with operational practicality, because failing to do so could prove costly in more ways than one.
How to take decisive action against distracted driving
In 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 3,308 fatalities in crashes involving distracted drivers, accounting for roughly 9% of all fatal collisions on U.S. roads. For commercial truck drivers, the risks are even more pronounced.
A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study found that truckers who text while driving are a staggering 23.2 times more likely to be involved in an accident than their nondistracted counterparts.
To put the danger of distracted driving into perspective, consider this: At 60 miles per hour, a driver who glances at the phone to read a text for just seven seconds will travel more than 600 feet – or over two football fields – without looking up. Even very brief distractions, like reading a billboard for 1.5 seconds, can result in traveling over 130 feet without paying full attention to the road.
April is recognized as Distracted Driving Awareness Month, acting as a reminder to all motorists – including truckers – to make safe choices on the road. Despite ongoing education efforts, distracted driving remains a leading cause of injury and fatality crashes on America’s highways.
Distracted driving encompasses any activity that diverts a driver’s attention from the critical task of safe vehicle operation. This includes the obvious culprits like texting or talking on a phone – even in hands-free mode – but also extends to seemingly innocuous actions such as eating, drinking, conversing with passengers, adjusting vehicle controls or even daydreaming.
“In my past career as a fleet professional, I lost one driver, a father of two and husband, to a completely avoidable fatigued/distracted crash. That was one too many. Dash cameras, if available at the time, could have kept that great driver alive,” said J. J. Keller Senior Transport Management Editor Mark Schedler.
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) found that drivers convicted of reckless or inattentive driving have a 62% greater chance of being involved in a Department of Transportation-reportable accident.
The consequences of such behavior extend beyond immediate safety concerns. The legal ramifications are significant, with fines of up to $2,750 for drivers and $11,000 for carriers who violate the federal ban on hand-held electronic device use for commercial drivers.
Understanding the nature of distraction is crucial to addressing the issue effectively. Distracted driving encompasses three categories: visual (taking eyes off the road), manual (removing hands from the wheel) and cognitive (mind not focused on driving). Using a mobile device while driving involves all three types of distraction, making it particularly dangerous.
Two forms of cognitive distraction – inattention blindness and highway hypnosis – can render drivers unable to perceive hazards even when their eyes are on the road. Factors such as overconfidence, extended periods of driving without breaks, night driving and even a warm cab can contribute to these dangerous mental states.
The stakes are high, and the time has come for trucking companies to move beyond simple awareness of these risks and begin taking concrete action to reduce distracted driving in their fleets.
Implementing a comprehensive safety policy is essential. These policies should cover pre-trip preparations, communication protocols and the use of camera-driven coaching systems. AI-powered cameras – like those offered by J. J. Keller – identify a range of unsafe behaviors, from unintended lane departures to hand-held cellphone use. Early detection enables timely intervention and corrective action.
“Company safety slogans are hollow promises, unless backed by detecting and correcting all unsafe behavior,” added Schedler. “Leaders must show by their actions every day that safety is a value, not a situational priority.”
A road- and driver-facing camera can detect events requiring corrective action, including:
Unintended lane departures
Hard-brake events
Following too close
Hand-held cellphone use
Adjusting the radio
Excessive drowsiness
Eyes off the roadway
Encouraging regular breaks and providing tips to maintain concentration are also vital strategies. Simple actions like keeping the cab cool, engaging in mental activities and maintaining proper posture can help drivers stay alert and focused on the task at hand.
Carrier personnel should only call drivers when they know the driver’s vehicle is safely parked. It takes all the driver’s attention to operate a commercial vehicle. In order to achieve this, companies should have a nondistracting method to let drivers know to call the office, such as an alert to an in-cab device that indicates a need for communication.
Ultimately, creating a culture of safety is paramount.
“A carrier’s culture must make distracted and fatigued driving unacceptable,” according to Schedler. “Regardless of how urgent the perceived need is, don’t put lives at risk. When I dispatched drivers, I coached them as if my family were in the car next to my drivers.”
With the technology and knowledge available today, there’s no excuse for not taking decisive action against distracted driving. Camera-driven coaching systems offer a powerful tool to detect, correct and ultimately prevent dangerous behaviors behind the wheel.
Distracted Driving Awareness Month should act as a call to action for carriers across the nation. By prioritizing safety through comprehensive policies, advanced technology and a culture of accountability, the trucking industry can work toward a future where preventable tragedies become a thing of the past. The lives of drivers and the motoring public depend on it.
Click here to learn about J. J. Keller’s VideoProtects Fleet Camera System.
Bookkeeper pleads guilty to stealing $4M from New Jersey trucking company
A New Jersey woman has pleaded guilty to stealing roughly $4 million from her employer, a trucking company, to fund her gambling habit.
Jeanette Avellan pleaded guilty to charges involving theft from West End Express, based in South Brunswick. The company’s website describes it as a truckload carrier and drayage provider.
Avellan pleaded guilty to second-degree theft of movable property, third-degree failure to pay income taxes and third-degree filing a fraudulent tax return. The guilty plea comes with a recommended sentence of four years in state prison, according to a prepared statement from state Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
“Employers need to know the people they hire to handle sensitive financial duties can be trusted to do their jobs honestly and professionally,” Theresa L. Hilton, director of the state’s Division of Criminal Justice, said in the statement. The DCJ also participated in the investigation. “Unfortunately, in this case, the defendant’s gambling habit led her to steal from her employer and then try to hide her theft by filing fraudulent tax returns.”
At the plea hearing, according to the release from the attorney general, Avellan said she was a bookkeeper for West End Express beginning in 2005. Her theft of the $4 million occurred between January 2017 and January 2023. Avellan said at the plea hearing that she did not declare any of the stolen funds as income when filing her tax returns.
Restitution is set at $4.03 million to her victims and about $560,000 to the state for back taxes and penalties.
She will be formally sentenced May 9 in Monmouth County.
White House slapping 21% tariffs on tomatoes from Mexico
The Trump administration plans to withdraw from a trade agreement that lets Mexico export tomatoes to the U.S. duty-free, the Commerce Department said.
Starting July 14, tomatoes from south of the border will be tariffed at 20.91%.
“The current agreement has failed to protect U.S. tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports, as Commerce has been flooded with comments from them urging its termination. This action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace,” the department said in a news release Monday.
Tomatoes sold in the U.S. from Mexico are controlled by the Department of Commerce through the suspension agreement, which sets minimum pricing and regulates sales between growers and importers.
Mexican tomato producers signed an agreement with President Donald Trump’s first administration in 2019 to end a tariff dispute.
As part of the 2019 agreement, Mexico-based growers agreed not to sell tomatoes below a reference price, a seasonably adjusted floor price at which Mexican tomatoes can’t fall underneath and still be exported to the U.S.
Mexico exports about 56% of the tomatoes it produces, with 99% of exports destined for the U.S., according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, reported Milenio.
In 2023, the U.S. market accounted for $2.7 billion worth of tomato exports from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Laredo customs district in South Texas — which includes Laredo’s World Trade Bridge and the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Pharr — accounts for the majority of tomato imports from Mexico, followed by the border crossing in Nogales, Arizona.
Officials for the Florida Tomato Exchange (FTE) said they support the tariffs on Mexican-grown tomatoes.
Florida growers have been pushing for more restrictions on Mexican-grown tomatoes for decades. Since 1996, the U.S. and Mexico have negotiated five separate agreements regarding tomato imports.
In June 2023, the FTE requested that the federal government terminate the tomato agreement, alleging that it has “failed to stop unfairly traded Mexican tomatoes from destroying the U.S. tomato industry,” it said in a news release.
“This is a major victory for American agriculture,” Robert Guenther, FTE executive vice president, said in a news release on Monday. “For decades, American tomato farmers have suffered from unfair trade practices by Mexican tomato exporters. Terminating this agreement and enforcing U.S. trade laws is the only way to finally give domestic growers the relief they’ve long deserved.”
DSV clears final closing conditions for Schenker acquisition
DSV on Tuesday said it had fulfilled the final closing conditions for its acquisition of German logistics provider Schenker.
Logistics provider DSV (DSV:CO) on Tuesday said it had cleared the final regulatory hurdles for its acquisition of DB Schenker of Germany.
Denmark-based DSV announced in September that it was acquiring Schenker from German national railroad Deutsche Bahn in a deal that would create a combined entity with revenue of $43.5 billion, ranking ahead of current leading global forwarder Kuehne+Nagel of Switzerland, at $28.11 billion. The joint workforce will total around 147,000 employees at 1,850 locations in more than 130 countries.
The acquisition will be officially completed on April 30, DSV said.
The rumors were true and the SPAC is back. Kodiak Robotics announced Monday it has entered into an agreement with Ares Acquisition Corp. II (AACT), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company that will make Kodiak a publicly listed company valued at around $2.5 billion. The combined company will be named Kodiak AI Inc.
New and existing institutional investors for Kodiak include Soros Fund Management, ARK Investments and Ares. They have funded or committed to over $110 million in financing in addition to approximately $551 million in cash, held in trust.
Rumblings about the deal were announced last month by Bloomberg, with the blank check firm AACT led by David Kaplin having raised $450 million in April 2023. Prior to founding Kodiak Robotics in 2018, Don Burnette had previously worked for Google’s self-driving car project before it became Waymo. Burnette left Google after five years to found Otto, a self-driving truck startup later acquired by Uber.
“This is a remarkable milestone for the Kodiak team and reinforces our confidence in the significant value proposition we see in our differentiated driverless technology,” said Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak in a news release. “We believe entering the public markets will accelerate our strategy to expand our existing partner relationships, provide our technology to a broader customer base, and deliver enhanced solutions across the commercial trucking and public sector industries.”
Kodiak boasts a first-to-market fully active driverless truck operation from its partnership with Atlas Energy Solutions operating in the Permian Basin. Kodiak announced in January it had completed the delivery of 100 loads of proppant with two RoboTrucks equipped with Kodiak Driver, Kodiak’s self-driving system. The Kodiak-powered Atlas trucks have over 750 hours of commercial driverless operations with further support inbound via a firm commitment by Atlas for an initial order of 100 trucks.
“As an early-mover in autonomous trucking and first to deliver a commercial driverless product to a customer, Kodiak has quickly set itself apart as an industry leader in a significant addressable market,” said David Kaplan, CEO and co-chairman of the board of directors of AACT and co-founder of Ares. “We are excited to partner with Don and the Kodiak team as they seek to further capitalize on significant industry tailwinds and deliver value for their stakeholders.”
Kodiak’s business model works via a Driver-as-a-Service business model. Customers use Kodiak-equipped RoboTrucks and are charged either a per-truck or per-mile recurring license fee. In the case of Atlas, Kodiak owns and operates autonomous trucks, and Atlas pays as a fee per delivery by the trucks.
The release notes that in addition to Atlas, Kodiak has collaborated with companies including Bridgestone, C.R. England, J.B. Hunt, Martin Brower and Werner Enterprises. Besides truckload operations, Kodiak has a Department of Defense contract for approximately $30 million to adapt its autonomous technology for U.S. Army vehicles.
The autonomous freight space is projected to be lucrative. While Kodiak primarily operates in the Sunbelt, the company estimates that there is “a roughly $1 trillion market opportunity in the U.S. alone, with the potential for a total global addressable market of over $4 trillion.”
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Early container rush ahead as Asia-Pacific defies global growth slowdown
The global ocean freight market is facing a fraught outlook in 2025, a new DHL update finds, characterized by economic headwinds, geopolitical tensions and industry restructuring.
Global economic growth is projected to slow to 2.5% in 2025, the weakest since 2009, excluding the pandemic. The Americas region, including the United States (2%), Canada (1.8%) and Mexico (0.6%), is experiencing the most significant downward revisions to growth forecasts. Despite this challenging backdrop, container volumes have shown resilience. Global container trade grew by 7.7% in 2024, with Asia-Pacific exports, particularly from China, driving much of this expansion. Looking ahead, trade is expected to grow by 4.3% in 2025, with Asia-Pacific export lanes outpacing the global average.
While the U.S. is delaying port fees on Chinese vessels that could have disrupted global shipping, the return to normal Red Sea-Suez Canal operations appears unlikely in 2025 due to ongoing security concerns, leading to potential capacity constraints as the peak season approaches. New alliances are settling, but blanked sailings – scheduled voyages that don’t sail – increased in recent weeks, partly due to port congestion but also as carriers tighten capacity to boost rates, with 9.2% of the global fleet (2.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units) currently idle.
The end of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza has seen Israel and Hamas resume hostilities. The United States military continues to pound Houthi rebel positions inside Yemen, and while there have been no recorded attacks on merchant shipping so far this year, the region is still considered too unstable by major container carriers to resume scheduled services.
The global vessel orderbook has reached a record high, surpassing 9 million TEUs. However, only two-thirds of this new capacity is expected to be delivered before 2028, suggesting a gradual impact on overall fleet size.
Container freight rates have been on a downward trajectory since January, now sitting 75% below their 2021 peak but still above pre-pandemic levels. However, rates are expected to increase in May and June on early peak season volumes, compounded by the continued avoidance of the Suez Canal route.
The market is anticipated to reach a more balanced state, though volatility remains a constant threat. Factors that could disrupt this balance include potential blank sailings due to port congestion, longer transit times from Cape of Good Hope routing, and carriers’ focus on yield management as they settle into new alliance structures.
Port congestion remains a significant challenge, particularly in Europe. As of early April, more than 935,000 TEU of cargo was waiting at North European and Mediterranean anchorages, accounting for 32% of the global total. Key ports such as Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Antwerp are experiencing severe congestion and berthing delays.
On a positive note, global schedule reliability improved in February, reaching 54.9%, highest since May 2024. The newly formed Gemini Cooperation of Maersk (OTC: AMKBY) and Hapag-Lloyd (OTC: HPGLY) appears to be well-conceived, achieving an impressive 94% schedule reliability in origin ports during its first month of operations, outdistancing the other alliances.
The ocean freight sector is navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Notable developments include:
The implementation of the EU’s electronic security screening system (ICS2 Release 3) for ocean, road, and rail freight on April 1, 2025.
Ongoing changes to U.S. tariff policies, including new tariffs on Chinese, Mexican, and Canadian goods.
A proposed 25% tariff on countries importing oil from Venezuela, potentially affecting major economies like China and India.
Perhaps most significantly, the U.S. Trade Representative is delaying implementation of port fees on vessels linked to China after major pushback from carriers and shippers. These fees could total up to $1.5 million per port call for Chinese-built vessels, with additional charges for operators using Chinese-built ships or placing orders with Chinese shipyards. This would have far-reaching consequences for global trade patterns and shipping costs when and if they are implemented.
