Shipping lines are facing increasingly angry customers as rates continue to soar and service levels plunge. Many are noting their frustrations on LinkedIn as the debate over whether carriers are profiteering rumbles on, reports the LoadStar.
Is Reliability A Thing Of the Past?
In one typical example, the international transport manager for a furniture company claims accountability and reliability are now a “thing of the past”, while playing the blame game is the new top trend.
The manager notes that shipping lines “wipe their hands of responsibility” as soon as the cargo is in a port: “Trucker capacity isn’t their problem, gate hours isn’t their issue, equipment availability is not for them to manage”.
She added: “I’ve never seen a more disconnected business practice than what we are seeing now. Treating the customer as though they are to blame for the broken movement of freight.” Mounting anger could see shipping lines being forced to change course.
Allegations of Freight Bunching
Ocean carriers have no schedule adherence. This past week, we experienced yet another edition of freight “bunching” at discharge port. The departure from origin was consistent, yet the ocean carrier rolled cargo upwards of three weeks. BCO’s continue to receive blame for surging markets, not unloading fast enough, delaying goods into DCs. If one truly puts pen to paper, only 60% of cargo shipped is actually sticking to the originally planned routing or transit. Remaining cargo is being “dumped” at a trans-ship and collected by a filler or service with space. These practices lead to bursts of cargo at US ports where the ocean carrier wipes their hands of responsibility – trucker capacity isn’t their problem, gate hours isn’t their issue, equipment availability is not for them to manage.
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Source: The LoadStar
