7 Mistakes You’re Making with New Shipping Laws (and How Today’s 15:00 Update Fixes Them)

The regulatory floor just dropped out from under the freight market. Between the Supreme Court’s new ruling on carrier liability and the DHS extending the Jones Act waiver, shipping "business as usual" is now a legal liability.

The Liability Trap: State vs. Federal

The biggest mistake shippers are making right now is relying on federal preemption to shield them from carrier selection lawsuits. A new SCOTUS ruling has cleared the way for state-level negligence claims. If your 3PL Maryland partner isn't vetting carriers with airtight documentation, you are exposed. At our Glen Burnie warehouse, we’ve tightened our 4PL integration to ensure every carrier in the Mid-Atlantic circuit meets these evolving state standards.

Missing the Waiver Window

Mistake number three: ignoring the foreign-flag capacity opened by the June 2026 Jones Act waiver. While originally for energy, the expanded list now covers 671 commodity categories. If you're moving agricultural inputs through the Port of Baltimore without checking the waiver list, you’re overpaying for domestic tonnage.

Compliance and Capacity Shifts

Finally, failing to track the FMC’s latest slot-charter updates for the U.S. East Coast is costing you lead time. New agreements between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are shifting capacity toward Panama and Colombia routes. For brands using our food-grade warehouse or Hazmat certified 3PL services, these shifts mean re-routing inventory to avoid the bottleneck.

Lanta Logistics handles the compliance heavy lifting so you can focus on scaling; contact our team today to audit your Mid-Atlantic fulfillment strategy before the next regulatory shift.