Container service reliability declined during the third quarter of 2012 to 73.5 per cent for on-time ship arrivals down from a record high of 75.7 per cent, according to Drewry's latest report on Carrier Performance Insight.
The decline is a slight slip from a historical average of 50-60 per cent on-time rate since Drewry has monitored box reliability in 2005, so it is still very much "at the higher end", said Drewry analyst Simon Heaney.
"In fact, it is the second best performance ever recorded after the second quarter of 2012," Mr Heaney said, but added that a worrying variance of performance at "a staggering 40 percentage point difference between the most and least reliable carriers."
Danish giant Maersk Line held its status as the most reliable carrier achieving an on-time score on all-trades of 90.5 per cent, slightly down from second quarter results of 91.4 per cent, reported London's Containerisation International.
Maersk subsidiary, Safmarine, came in second place at an on-time percentage of 90.3 per cent with South Korea's Hanjin Shipping slipping 1.5 percentage points to third place at 88.1 per cent.
Shippers' procurement decisions do impact standards and on-time reliability on an industry which is reaching mildly respectable numbers, said the Drewry report.
With three out of 10 containers never reaching their intended vessel for loading, it is clear that there is room for improvement though some carriers, such as Maersk, come close 95 per cent reliability.
"A minimum of 90 per cent should be a realistic aspiration for any major carrier," said Mr Heaney, added that inclement weather, such as Hurricane Sandy, makes that extra five per cent reliability "elusive".
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