2020 State of Logistics: Ocean Cargo
Container shipping lines’ ability to provide cargo space as needed showed a marginal improvement at the start of 2020, but this gain will have been dramatically reversed by the end of the first half of this year, according to the fourth annual shipper satisfaction survey of Drewry and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC).
The level of satisfaction for 16 different carrier service and cost criteria reviewed in the survey was found to be diverse among respondents. Satisfaction with clarity of prices and surcharges, transit times and quality of customer service in 2019 ranked lowest—with scores of 2.8 to 3. Satisfaction with availability of cargo space provided in 2019 ranked higher, at 3.3, and improved from the 3.2 reported in 2018.
In fact, shippers and forwarders now see availability of cargo space as the most important criterion of carrier service, and, according to Damas, that improvement in availability in 2019 was a welcome development for the industry. However, following the coronavirus outbreak, some 281 Asia-Europe and Asia-North America sailings have been canceled, and availability of cargo space has decreased dramatically.
Resource: Logistics Management
