BIFAlink
Legal Eagle
www.bifa.org
Maersk Line was the most reliable top 14 carrier in July, with a service reliability of 47.3%
Container shipping reliability dips further and other services suffer
ports on the American West Coast has exacerbated the problems.
Vessel schedule reliability is at historically low levels whilst lines are making eye-wateringly high profits from their activities, much to the irritation of BIFA Members
However, what is not acceptable is the poor service that is provided by carriers in many of their administrative functions. Too often BIFA has heard from Members that carriers have been too slow invoicing for collect freight and terminal charges, making it impossible to arrange collection within the free quay rent period. Also, carriers have mislaid original bills of lading, delaying cargo release whilst indemnities are obtained, or have released cargo to the wrong party. What is rightly annoying BIFA Members is that where shipping lines have made an error leading to additional cost, they decline to accept responsibility for their error and bill the forwarder for quay rent, etc. Often the forwarder has difficulty recovering this additional charge from its customer. BIFA has not joined the chorus of condemnation being directed against carriers, but the Association does strongly believe that lines should accept responsibility for their own errors and not expect another party to pay for them.
In the latest figures released by Sea-Intelligence, vessel schedule reliability (those vessels arriving within 24 hours of their scheduled berthing) declined in July 2021 by 3.8 percentage points to 35.6% compared with June 2021. This represented a very significant decrease of 29.7% on the same month in 2020. The average delay for late vessels increased by 0.35 days between June and July 2021 to 6.88 days. The July figures were a slight deterioration on the previous three months but were not as bad as the February figures. It would appear that on this issue at least there is a degree of consistency – but at a historically low level, hovering around the 35% to 40% mark for most of this year. Maersk Line was the most reliable top 14 carrier in July, with a service reliability of 47.3%,
with Hamburg Sud scoring a reliability rating of over 40%. Four carriers achieved a reliability rating of between 30% and 40%, six between 20% and 30%, and the remaining two under 20%. The worst performing carrier during this month was Evergreen with only 16.2% of all vessels arriving on time. Provocative profits Many in shipping note that this is their biggest complaint: vessel schedule reliability is at historically low levels whilst lines are making eye- wateringly high profits from their activities. Admittedly, there are certain factors outside the carriers’ control which have impacted these performance figures – for instance unexpected port closures such as at Yantian and Ningbo and widely reported terminal congestion such as at
12
October 2021
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker