Drewry: Higher rates don?t raise reliability

Drewry: Higher rates donÆt raise reliability    Drewry Shipping Consultants' latest report on ocean carrier reliability suggests Maersk Line is distancing itself in on-time performance from the rest of its competitors.
   The Danish line topped the table with a 76.5 percent on-time arrival rate across all trades measured, compared to an industry average of 52 percent.
   The report, Drewry Schedule Reliability Insight, released in late July, measured industry performance in the second quarter, from April through June. Drewry analyzed 1,792 vessel calls during the quarter, considering a vessel on time if it arrived on the day it was scheduled to arrive, or one day early.
   After Maersk, the rest of the top five, among the world's top 20 container lines, were:
   ' Hyundai Merchant Marine, 64 percent on-time.
   ' APL, 63.2 percent.
   ' CMA CGM, 59.6 percent.
   ' United Arab Shipping Co., 59.5 percent.
   The bottom five were:
   ' CSAV, 40.4 percent.
   ' 'K' Line, 39.7 percent.
   ' Mediterranean Shipping Co., 38.6 percent.
   ' China Shipping, 28.4 percent.
   ' PIL, 14.3 percent.
   The industry average of 52 percent was up from 50 percent in the first quarter. Average deviation from scheduled arrival was 1.3 days.
   'The on-time performance in the second quarter is down from the 68 percent peak performance recorded in the same period in 2009,' Drewry said, adding the high on-time performance in the second quarter of 2009 coincided with the historically low rates as measured by Drewry's freight rate index.
   The report also shows on-time performance on both the transpacific and Asia/Europe trades was 54 percent. Interestingly, on-time performance in the two trades has been converging, with schedule reliability worsening over the past five years on the transpacific and improving gradually between Asia and Europe.
   Carriers on the transatlantic recorded a 79 percent on-time performance, the highest in any trade, which Drewry attributed to the trade's relatively settled service patterns. In contrast, services have been amended frequently on the transpacific and Asia/Europe trades this year.
   Drewry suggested the carriers' poor global on-time arrival performance means shippers are not getting much service bang for the increased rates they are paying this year.
   'Customers have seen few tangible benefits from the (largely shipper-funded) turnaround in carriers' fortunes,' the report said. 'Shippers have simply had to endure vessel and equipment shortages and foot the inflated bill without seeing any appreciable improvement in service quality.'