Danish shipping data analysis firm Sea-Intelligence assessed the schedule reliability of major ocean carriers.
In October, global schedule reliability rose slightly by 0.9% points month-over-month (M/M), reaching 51.5%. Throughout 2024, schedule reliability has generally remained in the 50%-55% range.
“That said, despite being disappointingly low, the low levels of volatility in schedule reliability in 2024 does give shippers a relatively good idea of what to expect M/M. The average delay for late vessel arrivals decreased by 0.14 days M/M to 5.72 days. This is the second-highest figure for the month, only surpassed by the pandemic high of 2021,” noted Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence.
Among the top 13 carriers, Maersk ranked as the most reliable in October, achieving schedule reliability of 57.9%, followed by MSC at 52%. Ten of the remaining carriers fell within the 40%-50% range, with PIL ranking as the least reliable at 37.2%.
Eight of the top 13 carriers showed M/M improvements in schedule reliability, with Wan Hai posting the largest increase of 5.4% points. Conversely, ZIM saw the largest decline, dropping by 3.5% points.
Meanwhile, on a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis, none of the carriers has achieved an improvement with 12 of the top 13 box lines having experienced double-digit declines in schedule reliability scores.
