Performance measured

Performance measured       The Agriculture Transportation Coalition released its annual list of the best performing carriers as determined by ag exporters, during its conference in San Francisco in June.
      The survey is based purely on customer service quality, not on rates.
      'AgTC initiated the annual survey in order to address significant shortcomings on the part of some carriers in the area of documentation, specifically, timely and accurate bills of lading,' the coalition said. 'In recent years, with the proliferation of government data collection requirements and commercial and financial demands, the ability of the ocean carrier to provide necessary documentation, dependable booking realization, smoothly functioning electronic data and Web portals, prompt and effective customer service has become increasingly important.'
   In 2009, APL was judged the best, as it had been in 2007, before dropping to fifth in 2008. Rounding out the top five were OOCL, MOL, 'K' Line and Hanjin. At the bottom were Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, UASC, Mediterranean Shipping and Zim, though the AgTC pointed out that Maersk has climbed from 19th in 2007 to 16th in 2008 to 14th in 2009.
      'Maersk accepted our invitation to meet with ag shippers at the AgTC Mid-Year Conference in Chicago, December 2008,' the coalition said. 'Maersk had established a documentation initiative, with dedicated personnel. A constructive dialogue on documentation (occurred) ' generally, the timeliness and accuracy of bills of lading. The Maersk team heard, directly from the shippers, the specific documentation metrics required in order for the shipper to be able to perform under their contracts to their foreign customers.
      'The shippers were able to provide as well a gauge as to how well Maersk was performing relative to other carriers. Maersk then accepted the invitation to work directly with individual AgTC shippers; in the ensuing months a Maersk documentation team met with several AgTC members, to improve the documentation function. Those shippers report significant improvements and have moved some cargo back to Maersk. Thus, both the carrier and the ag shipper are the beneficiaries of this exercise. We are not surprised therefore to see Maersk moving up in the rankings in this year's survey.'