If anything positive has come out of the global pandemic and its impact on supply chains it would be the need for closer collaboration between service providers and shippers - and the need for much-improved service levels.
That’s the view of Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight market analytics company Xeneta, who was one of the keynote speakers at the recent TOC Europe Conference - an annual event that brings together port and cargo supply chain professionals – held this year in Rotterdam.
“Global service providers have been making landfall profits – particularly this year – and providing appallingly low service levels.
“Hopefully all that money could be spent on improving service levels going forward so that everyone would be better off.”
Sands stresses that everyone in the global supply chain needs to “dip in”.
“Now, when global carriers and shippers are negotiating long-term contracts, they all want to know more about their supply chains so carriers can deliver better services and shippers also get much-improved services – something they have been missing for two years now.”
And carriers will not only need to up their game in terms of service levels – but also sustainability levels, says Sands.
Xeneta is currently developing a sustainability index that will rank global carriers on key trade lanes in terms of carbon footprint, enabling shippers to choose their carrier based on carbon footprint.
