With their initiative on schedule reliability, Hapag-Lloyd is tackling one of the main challenges faced by the global shipping industry. Container shipping is currently going through its worst operational crisis, in many years.
Due to high demand, massive COVID-19-related restrictions and the Suez Canal incident in April 2021, the shipping industry has been forced to deal with major operational challenges, such as congested ports, ship delays and infrastructural bottlenecks.
Transparency on the performance of vessels
Nonetheless, Hapag-Lloyd would like to underline its commitment to address this critical aspect of the service that it provides to its customers. Hapag-Lloyd’s clear objective is to enhance transparency on the schedule performance of its vessels.
By also increasing the ships’ on-time performance, the carrier aims to improve supply-chain reliability for its customers and to maintain its current high ranking, among the top third of the 15 largest carriers, in terms of schedule reliability.
Offering reliable transportation
While offering more visibility on our schedule performance, we are proceeding to improve our on-time delivery"
“Reliable transportation and along with it, transparency on schedule changes, are significant service characteristics that customers value in managing their global supply chains,” explains Rolf Habben Jansen, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hapag-Lloyd.
Rolf Habben Jansen adds, “While offering more visibility on our schedule performance, we are proceeding to improve our on-time delivery, at the individual-container level. To get there, however, we first have to manage the on-time arrival of our ships, one of the key influencing factors.”
Better cooperation with terminals and ports
Hapag-Lloyd is making significant changes to many operational processes, including improving cooperation with terminals, ports and all on-shore partners, to reduce delays. The clear target is to have ships arrive on or within one day of the ETA (estimated time of arrival), as indicated in the booking confirmation.
Relying on punctuality can bring benefits to customers, such as reducing their warehouse stocks and avoiding excess inventory, and interim storage. The carrier modifies its schedule and voyage management, in order to provide more accurate vessel ETAs and pick-up times, when containers will be released.
Enhancing operational processes and arrival forecasting
Delays will still occur, but with better operational processes and arrival forecasting, customers can get updates faster, more reliably and proactively, so as to improve planning. Hapag-Lloyd will be fully transparent about its schedule reliability via its Customer Dashboard. Here, its performance, as well as its standing, in comparison to the global shipping industry is measurable.
Apart from providing detailed information, based on the monthly Sea-Intelligence Global Liner Performance Report, the company offers data collected in the ‘Carrier Schedule Analysis’ (CSA), which is developed in-house.
Global data versus the market
Hapag-Lloyd presents global data versus the market, as well as additional breakdowns
As part of the launch, Hapag-Lloyd presents global data versus the market, as well as additional breakdowns, at the country, trade and port-pair levels. Additionally, the carrier will continuously work to expand the amount of information it provides, eventually down to the individual-container level.
Rolf Habben Jansen stated, “We fully acknowledge that today we are still far away from achieving the reliability levels that our customers expect from us and the entire industry. Currently, we are facing massive congestion at ports and terminals. However, our teams are working hard on managing these challenges and creating more transparency for our customers.”
Improving schedule reliability
He adds, “At the same time, our organisation is changing processes to improve our schedule reliability. The initial result of these efforts is that Hapag-Lloyd has climbed from 12th out of 15 in the Sea-Intelligence Global Liner Performance Report, in December 2019 to 4th in April 2021.”
Rolf Habben Jansen concludes, “And, our target is to at least maintain this position, among the top third. While we expect the global situation at ports and terminals to reach normal levels in the second half of 2021, we do not intend to rest. In 2022, we will set ourselves specific targets on the schedule reliability that we would like to achieve.”
Hapag-Lloyd’s Strategy 2023
With this initiative, Hapag-Lloyd reaffirms its ambition to differentiate itself from its competitors, in terms of quality and sets the course to be an active driver of change in the industry.
With the implementation of its Strategy 2023, Hapag-Lloyd is significantly improving its service to its customers and continuing on its journey, with the overall goal of becoming ‘Number One for Quality’.
