Ocean cargo/global logistics: Ag shippers release latest findings

APL was named the the top ranked player in the the 4th annual AgTC Ocean Carrier Performance Survey last week in San Francisco.

The AgTC initiated the Annual Survey in 2007 in order to address significant shortcomings on the part of some carriers in the area of documentation, specifically, timely and accurate bills of lading. In recent years, with the proliferation of government data collection requirements and commercial and financial demands—and the shifting volumes from imports to exports—carriers have faced new challenges. 

“The objective of the AgTC Ocean Carrier Performance Survey is to recognize those carriers who consistently perform well, and to incent the others to focus their company, personnel and resources on doing better” said association spokesmen.

The AgTC has each year extended an invitation to each carrier to work with the AgTC and its members to address documentation and other performance practices, in order to improve them and enhance the shipper-carrier relationship.

According to spokesmen, a demonstration of positive potential of the survey has been the effort of Maersk to address documentation issues.

“Maersk met with ag shippers at the AgTC mid-year conference, established a documentation initiative, with dedicated personnel, and heard directly from the AgTC members, the specific documentation metrics required for the shipper to perform under their contracts to their foreign customers,” said spokesmen.

The Confidential Survey asks each shipper to “assign a number that reflects your overall experience with the booking, equipment and space allocation, documentation and customer service practices of the carriers with whom you ship: 1. Among the best; 2. In the upper half; 3. In the bottom half; 4. Among the worst.”

To calculate a score for each carrier, all the submissions are aggregated and averaged. The submissions of each participating shipper are completely confidential, and after the scores are calculated, all individual submissions are discarded.

The complete survey findings can be found on the AgTC’s website: http://www.agrans.org