The supply chains of today are complex webs of producers, manufacturers, shippers, governments, and transportation providers spread out across the globe. Each of these actors is collecting copious amounts of data which helps them make sense of their work and how to meet the growing freight demands in their spaces. The result is a world in which there is no shortage of data. Under normal conditions, the story ends there, with all the actors in the supply chain collecting data and using it to conduct (and ideally improve) their own operations.  

However, a variety of events can disrupt the supply chain’s normal operating conditions. Impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, extreme weather events, cyberattacks, and geopolitical conflicts hinder the supply chain’s ability to effectively move goods to where they are needed. The global nature of the supply chain means that it is susceptible to disruptive events and vulnerabilities across the world. These disruptions have exposed physical bottlenecks in the freight transportation system, where goods are unable to move through the supply chain due to damaged infrastructure or congestion at ports or railyards. But the disruptions expose another fault in the supply chain. While companies and governments are collecting large amounts of data to make sense of the complex supply chain, the data is too often siloed within narrow links of the supply chain, with each actor’s visibility of the supply chain limited to their individual operations, and not the entire picture. When a disruption occurs, the lack of visibility over the whole supply chain hinders the ability of actors to make adjustments to their operations.  

The idea of supply chain visibility is defined as the ability to track and monitor the movement of goods and related information across the entire supply chain in real time—from suppliers of raw materials through production, transportation, and distribution to the final customer. Successful supply chain visibility (SCV) relies on data collection, storage, and sharing as the elements of creating a comprehensive view.However, even with large amounts of data, disruptions in the supply chain continue to persist. Therefore, increasing visibility is an important strategy to ensure the resilience of the supply chain by helping actors use all the data available across the supply chain to address risks and respond to disruptions. As an entity that collects, stores, and shares large amounts of data, the federal government is an important piece of the supply chain ecosystem. Although private sector actors play a central role in managing their own operations, the federal government is well positioned to take the lead in improving overall supply chain visibility. Expanding this visibility during normal operations would better position the federal government for success in managing disruptions, when agencies are often expected to step in and mitigate disruptive effects through its authorities of funding, data collection/management and regulation.  

The Private Sector in the Supply Chain 

The private sector has invested heavily in supply chain data. Companies use GPS, telematics, and transportation management systems to track shipments, inventory, and performance. Internally, private companies possess large amounts of data and have visibility in their own operations. But despite the proliferation of data and technology, visibility across the entire system remains a challenge for several reasons.  

Internal freight data is sensitive, proprietary information. Companies worry that sharing sensitive data reveals internal strategies and valuable relationships that competitors or malicious actors can use for their own benefit.  The lack of information sharing results in a partial data picture that helps the company in its internal operations but does not give an accurate view of the entire supply chain.  

Another issue is uneven capabilities. Larger companies can invest in advanced data collection and also benefit from the larger breadth of their assets and their greater integration with partners, all of which provides them with a better view of the supply chain. Smaller companies lack these resources and scale, creating an asymmetry in the supply chain, where larger actors have a good view and smaller actors remain in the dark.  

Under normal operating conditions, there is little reason for companies to address the lack of data sharing and uneven capabilities because the system is operating without problems. However, when a disruption occurs in one part of the supply chain, the entire system suffers, raising the issue of visibility. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach saw massive vessel congestion. With so many vessels trying to come in, the ports were overwhelmed. Trucking companies could not handle the increased container traffic at the ports, particularly when they were experiencing driver shortages or lack of sufficient equipment. These effects rippled through the supply chain, with consumer goods and component parts waiting in containers that were sitting on vessels waiting to dock or in yards waiting for truck availability. A retailer may be aware that a shipment was delayed somewhere but does not have any information about the vessel at the port. Each of these “nodes” in the supply chain is looking at one individual picture but not the entire picture. Absent the shared whole view of the supply chain, a shipper may reroute a shipment to an already congested port. The issue at hand is not a lack of data but a lack of shared visibility across the entire supply chain.  

This is where supply chain visibility comes into play. The supply chain is complex, with shippers, manufacturers, retailers, consumers, ports, railroads, and other actors all trying to produce and move goods around the world. Maintaining visibility is important for several reasons. A full view of supply chain congestion and capacity helps companies align production to match freight demand, identify risks in the network before they cause problems, identify potential partners, or find alternative transportation routes to avoid bottlenecks.  

Federal Role in Freight Data and Improving Supply Chain Visibility 

The federal government plays an important role in freight data. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has an extensive freight data program with several components, including the Freight Analysis Framework, Commodity Flow Survey, and Port Performance Freight Statistics Program. 

Following the disruptions of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the government expanded its role in data collection. In 2021, the Biden Administration launched the Supply Chain Disruption Task Force, which aimed to create a whole-of-government response to supply chain challenges. As part of the task force, USDOT developed a Supply Chain Tracker to communicate supply chain conditions across various transportation modes.  

Most notably, USDOT created the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) initiative in 2022. FLOW was designed to build a comprehensive view of the supply chain by collecting and aggregating data from across the freight transportation system. The aim is to help the industry understand current supply chain conditions and forecast future conditions.  

Together, these efforts illustrate the federal government’s presence in the supply chain ecosystem. It already collects substantial freight data and has created targeted initiatives to communicate supply chain conditions and share data with industry. BTS and other agencies have long-standing frameworks for collecting, protecting, and aggregating freight data. As a major collector of freight data through FLOW and the various BTS freight data programs, the federal government exists as a central hub for supply chain actors to access valuable data and has therefore positioned itself as data management “control tower” of sorts.  

Building on existing efforts, the federal government can leverage its role as a “control tower” to facilitate Supply Chain Visibility within the system through targeted initiatives, data sharing incentives, and emergency powers during disruptions.  

Institutional leadership: a Supply Chain Visibility Initiative 

USDOT could establish a Supply Chain Visibility Initiative within the Office of Multimodal Freight to serve as the focal point for this work. The core functions of this initiative would include defining clear data-sharing principles across supply chain sectors and confidentiality protections (to ensure sensitive data is not misused), coordinating efforts among relevant offices within USDOT, the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, and other agencies, and collaborating with technology firms and academic institutions to develop visibility models.  

As part of the Supply Chain Visibility Initiative, USDOT can create a Visibility Dashboard that uses data from FLOW or BTS to visualize the health of the complete freight transportation network. Users would be able to see in real time capacity at ports, congestion on rail corridors, or truck/rail dwell time at warehouses, throughout the entire system.  

A visibility platform should not just describe current conditions; it should also help anticipate disruptions. By combining federal data (e.g., weather forecasts, labor statistics, physical infrastructure conditions, freight flows) with industry data on volumes, lead times, and capacity, the government could develop early-warning indicators for rapid shifts in demand, potential capacity constraints, or key points in the transportation network that are at risk for damage. 

Incentives and rules for data sharing in normal conditions 

Many federal funding programs already support freight infrastructure, port modernization, and multimodal projects. These could more systematically incorporate data-sharing expectations. For example, port and freight rail projects receiving federal grants could be required to contribute specified data elements (e.g., throughput, dwell times) to the Supply Chain Visibility dashboard, under clearly defined confidentiality protections. Or, applicants could be scored on their plans to improve regional or national visibility, including how they will connect to federal and regional data platforms. This approach uses carrots rather than sticks, aligning federal investment with long-term visibility goals. 

Any expansion of supply chain data collection and sharing must be accompanied by robust safeguards. These safeguards include ensuring confidentiality when sharing company data, and USDOT does this already by aggregating and anonymizing data, so that the data is not directly linked to any one company. Additionally, USDOT must ensure that centralized data platforms meet cybersecurity standards, given the attractiveness of supply chain data to malicious actors. Third, USDOT must ensure that its tools are accessible to smaller firms in the supply chain network. One way to achieve this can be to actively promote the Supply Chain Visibility Initiative to regional or local firms like smaller inland ports or regional railroads. These guardrails are not secondary; they are essential to building and maintaining trust among participants. 

Targeted authorities during disruptions 

Supply chain disruptions are a reality, and in the event of disruption, actors must work collectively to mitigate the disruption as quickly as possible. The federal government can step in and heighten supply chain visibility, by establishing specific emergency authorities to require data sharing from companies. In such cases, Congress could establish time-limited, narrowly scoped authorities to require specific data to be shared with the government, subject to strong protections. This includes limiting mandated data to what is necessary to manage the disruption, requiring aggregation or anonymization of data, and maintaining oversight to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive data. Such authorities would provide a legal framework for “surge visibility” under extreme conditions, complementing voluntary arrangements in normal times. 

The Value of Visibility 

The United States has entered an era of complex global supply chains in which disruptions are more frequent due to pandemics, climate change, geopolitics, and cyber threats. Companies are racing to deploy advanced visibility tools internally, and the federal government has responded with initiatives like the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, the Supply Chain Tracker, and FLOW. 

Yet the core vulnerability remains. Private firms each hold valuable pieces of the puzzle, in the form of data, but data fragmentation and uneven capabilities prevent those pieces from being assembled into a timely, shared picture. In the event of a supply chain disruption, the inability to see the entire board hinders the ability of supply chain actors to find alternative producers, reroute shipments, or identifyalternative modes of transport.  

By leveraging its existing role in data collection and sharing, the federal government can help close this gap. That means institutionalizing supply chain visibility through a Supply Chain Visibility Initiative, Visibility dashboard, incentives for data sharing, and expanded authority during disruptions, all while protecting sensitive information.  

Done well, this agenda would provide a visibility layer that enables ports, carriers, shippers, and public agencies at all levels to act faster and more effectively in the face of disruption—protecting economic activity and public welfare alike. Supply chain visibility, in this sense, is both a technical challenge and a policy choice about how to build a resilient supply chain. 

The question is not whether government should “run” the supply chain. Rather, it is whether government can provide data infrastructure and governance that allow supply chain actors to make better decisions in the face of shocks.