There's a whole shadow world operating underneath legitimate global shipping, and it's bigger than most people realize.

The dark fleet (also called the shadow fleet) is a loose network of oil tankers that move sanctioned crude around the world, specifically designed to get around Western trade restrictions. It's not a coordinated cartel with a headquarters somewhere. It's more like a swarm, hundreds of vessels operating under a shared logic: move oil that isn't supposed to move, and don't get caught. Or the IMO definition is vessels engaging in illegal operations to circumvent sanctions, evade safety/environmental regulations, or bypass insurance costs, typically using deceptive tactics 

There's a scene in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where our heroes land on a planet run by the Vogons, a species so obsessed with bureaucracy that nothing gets done without the right form, stamped in triplicate, submitted to the right department, possibly recited as poetry. It's supposed to be a joke, but every time I rewatch it, I think this is just a Tuesday working in supply chain.

We've all worked with a company like this. Maybe you're working at one right now. Maybe, and I say this with kindness, you're running one.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most bloated workflows weren't designed. They were accumulated. No one is sitting down and building a 14-step purchase order approval process on purpose. Out of control SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) grow one CYA (cover your ass) step at a time. Someone got burned on a shipment in 2018, so we added a checkbox. Someone else got yelled at by a customer in 2021, so we added an approval. A rogue invoice slipped through in 2023, so now finance signs off too. Five years later, booking a shipment takes longer than driving the truck to the delivery.

This is procedure exhaustion, and it's quietly killing your team's ability to actually do their jobs.