Container Liner is reliable and communicates well, research shows
Businesses in the Netherlands have elected K’ Line as the best performing deep sea container carrier of 2014.
Research by the Erasmus University Rotterdam among members of the Dutch Shippers’ Council (EVO) and Exports Association (Fenedex) made this clear. Daisuke Arai, European CEO of K’ Line, accepted the award yesterday at the Dutch National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, which was presented by EVO-Chairman Chris Bruggink.
The annual award is granted by EVO to the deep-sea container carrier whose service level is perceived to be the best by its members. The clients evaluate carriers on topics such as reliability, communication, punctuality, price and routes.
The Japanese carrier has the best score on 13 of the 21 criteria and is therefore the deep-sea carrier with the best overall service level. K’ Line got the highest marks on topics which Dutch business valued the most – reliability of booking, accurate documentation, availability of cargo space, customer service quality and delivery of information. Interviewed shippers stated that K’ Line is always in close contact with them, therefore knowing what customers want and what their services may cost.
Looking at the market as a whole, the research also showed that businesses generally are satisfied with the geographical coverage of carriers. As more and more businesses export goods to different parts of the world, this is a vital part of shippers’ choice for a specific carrier. In the last three years it appears that the number of surcharges has reduced and became more transparent.
EVO-Chairman Bruggink: “I am pleased this trend is moving in the right direction and I sincerely hope that next year’s score is even higher.” Yet, there were also declining trends – shippers for example experienced a lower degree of loyalty towards the signed contracts. “This worries me, because I do not want to believe that loyalty is an utopia. Trust should be the fundament in the relationship between shippers and carriers“, Bruggink stated. The loss and damage performance also showed a declining trend. The number of containers lost at sea in the last year however can clarify this in a way.
The European Shippers’ Council (ESC) is watching EVO’s Container Liner Shipping Award, which was granted this year for the third year, closely, hoping the rest of Europe can follow the Dutch example. The award is a first step in aiming for a change in the mindset of the industry to have more attention to the needs of shippers. The research provides an insight on the shippers’ sentiment towards the market. What works and what doesn’t? What challenges do they see? Which deep-sea container carrier’s service level is perceived best?
Source: ESC
