Carrier Schedule Reliability Improves in April
Transport consultant Drewry’s Carrier Performance Insight (CPI) for April records 67.6%, up by 4.1 percentage improvement on the previous month in the aggregate reliability of ships on the main Asia-Europe, transpacific and transatlantic trades.
The previous best since Drewry’s new data series started in May 2014 was achieved in October last year (64.3%) after which the industry struggled to cope with heavy port congestion on the US West Coast and the implementation of new alliance partnerships and services.
Drewry attributes the upswing to a return to “normal” operations at US west coast ports after the agreement of a new labour contract, and the bedding in of the new and upgraded vessel sharing alliances.
The most reliable carrier in April was Maersk Line with an average on-time performance of 85%, followed by OOCL (77%); MOL and NYK (both 74%). At the bottom of the rankings were Wan Hai (51%) and PIL (40%).
Simon Heaney, senior manager of supply chain research said: “Drewry expected the upturn in reliability following the end of the exceptional circumstances.”
The CPI on-time performance in April was the highest recorded since its inception in March last year when Drewry began using data from CargoSmart; but this was a low starting base reflecting how badly schedule reliability had deteriorated over past years.