One in five containers are late due to lack of schedule reliability: ESC

AS many as 28 million TEU arrive late annually which impacts on a shipper's bottom line, which depends on reliability and on-time delivery for retailers, said Marco Wiesehahn-Vrijman of the European Shippers' Council's (ESC) maritime transport division.

Mr Wiesehahn-Vrijman said the problem is an "enormous cost burden" for shippers and consignees alike, made worse by the lack of communication with ocean carriers and exchange of real-time data.

Mr Wiesehahn-Vrijman told an audience at the fifth annual Med Freight Conference in Istanbul that the one in five containers arrives late despite an industry boast that schedule reliability has improved.

Slow steaming to reduce costs has increased transits from Asia to Europe by four to five days causing further supply chain costs in extra inventory, he added.

Surplus capacity and lower traffic levels have meant that the usual level of complaints of missed connections on transhipment services has been less, he said, but added that many of its members would be prepared to pay more in freight rates for faster transit.