TWO years ago Federal Maritime Commission chairman Daniel Maffei sat in front of the Lloyd’s List microphone and bluntly told the container carriers to buck up their public relations.

They needed to do a better job of explaining the economics of container shipping and the industry’s essential role in supporting commerce, was his basic beef. Well, a lot has happened since then so when Maffei was in town recently we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drag him once again into a small office and insist that answer another stream of questions from our team.

You can hear the combined forces of our containers editor James Baker, our US correspondent Tomer Raanan and Janet Porter, chair of the Lloyd’s List editorial board throwing the questions his way as we discuss everything from the image of the industry to alliances and vexatious complaints from shippers.