Now that the new normal is upon us and carriers have once again learned how to make a sales call, we start to wonder what it is we are going to buy from our ocean carriers in 2023.
Some carriers have opened up new logistics ventures featuring everything from warehousing, parcel, air, brokerage, and LTL/FTL. Other carriers have decided to invest heavily in larger vessels, which would lead one to conclude that they will soon be offering a larger global footprint for us to purchase from.
On the surface, these additional offerings from our core carriers may seem enticing. However, the problem that we face is that core services we have been buying from our ocean carriers are broken. Why, then, would we attempt to expand our partnerships into these new ventures when the basics are already not working? For instance, vessel on-time arrivals are still hovering at 50 percent. It is even worse for on-time metrics for door delivery, which carriers could at least partially blame on their sub-vendors.
Another broken area is in transit visibility. Carriers are pretty good at telling us where the vessel is — thank you, AIS — but once it hits the berth, all bets are off. It becomes an even bigger black hole once it outgates. Add into the equation things such as confusing terminal appointments, volatile chassis pools, and grounded vs. wheeled rail yards, and you start to question why one would expand into other logistics ventures when the scorecard for basic ocean services is so poor.
When we question our ocean carrier partners about these service failure anomalies, we are usually told it is out of their hands. If these basic service features can’t be controlled, why would we look to expand our logistics footprint with them any further?
One of our goals for 2023 will be to partner with carriers that have a clear, structured approach toward our primary objectives. These include areas around sustainability, digital roadmap, investment plan, schedule integrity, in-transit visibility, and most importantly, organizational effectiveness. Carriers that prove they have mature offerings in these areas will be the ones that will earn our business.