Shippers are now willing to pay a premium price for guaranteed vessel space, revealed Hapag-Lloyd AG’s Head of Commercial and Sales, PJ McGrath at CMA Shipping 2023.
The trend has the potential to lead to customers paying for guaranteed delivery times, he expects. “I think that’s a first step in the direction of, maybe guaranteeing on time.”
The pay-for-space phenomenon has grown in a period where the pandemic tipped the supply-demand balance for container shipping, and tanked reliability.
Bill Rooney, VP Strategic Development at Kuehne + Nagel said this leads to shippers building in extra days to their logistics plans, reducing overall efficiency.
Lead speaker John McCown, a liner shipping veteran, saw his own reliability issues, but this time with the data itself. On price reporting, McCown said, “there is a problem with some of the analog data… being misunderstood and misquoted.”
