Liner Service Reliability Jumps to 64%

According to Carrier Performance Insight, the online schedule reliability tool provided by Drewry, this was 8.5% up on the February figure - and the second best aggregate since the new data series begun last May.

The latest result represents an 8.5 percentage point gain over February and is the second best average (after October 2014) since the start of the new data series in May 2014.

Drewry attributed the improvement to better services on the Asia-Europe trade and slowly improving congestion conditions after the labour go-slow on the US West Coast was settled.

Once again, top carrier for reliability was Maersk Line (average on-time performance of 81%), followed by K Line (73%), and Cosco and MSC (both 70%).

“It is good news for shippers that service reliability is on the rise, although it comes from a low base and the industry average still has plenty more scope to improve. We expect the upwards trend to continue as USWC operations return to normal, but the sharp drop in Asia-Europe freight rates is a risk as carriers could look to make cost savings detrimental to reliability,” said Simon Heaney, senior manager of supply chain research at Drewry.