Vessels Mostly To Blame For Late Containers

by Oliver Probert— last modified Jun 13, 2012 12:44 PM

The aim of the study was to find the point in the supply chain which was most to blame for late deliveries. Photo - Ingram Publishing

But almost as much focus needs to be given to the processes around the shipment of goods, the study says.

A global survey of vessel arrival times by SeaIntel Maritime Analysis showed that 79.1% of all vessel arrivals were timely when measured within a window of 24 hours on either side of the scheduled arrival time.

A corresponding study by the company analysed global data comprising more than 800,000 container status messages per day, and found that containers are delivered to their final destination in a timely manner 64.7% of the time.

“From this we see that the majority of late deliveries are due to the vessels being late,” SeaIntel surmised, “but only just.”

“The numbers show that 59% of late container deliveries are due to the vessels not being on time, however theremaining 41% will have been delayed due to other factors such as missed trans-shipments, rolled containers, gate-in too late, and the like.”

SeaIntel concluded: “This shows that in order for the industry to improve reliability in the supply chain, almost as much focus need[s] to be awarded to the processes around the shipment as to the actual operations of the vessels themselves.”

Back to News