Drewry will incorporate the additional KPIs into a new quarterly report, the details of which will be announced later this month.

"The new container KPIs will add value as they will measure performance at the box level, which is more important for shippers than at the ship level," said Philip Damas, director at Drewry.

"Measuring KPIs is critical for shippers to optimise their business operations," said Kim Le, director of CargoSmart North America. "Drewry's and CargoSmart's complementary data and analysis provide a unique perspective and in-depth analysis for shippers to make informed decisions about their carriers, ports and routes."

The new KPIs will monitor not only the performance of the physical port-to-port shipping operation but the performance of commercial processes, as well as regional inland transport performance and port dwell times.

Drewry was the first company to introduce, in 2006, independent schedule reliability KPIs and spot container freight rate benchmarks. Six years on, Drewry intends to bring more transparency, accountability and comparability in other key aspects of container carrier performance, through its partnership with CargoSmart, providing like-for-like, regular assessments of carrier industry performance and quality over time.

"Drewry's reporting over recent years has indicated that only 60 percent to 70 percent of containership sailings arrived on time, with carriers only recently deciding to provide a guaranteed standard of service with compensations for delays," Damas commented. "In a service industry, we believe that it is important that buyers know what standards of service and performance they can expect from the carrier industry - whether good or bad - and what it means in terms of value for money and the cost of failed performance."

Many large importers and exporters today already measure various performance metrics for the carriers they use. The new industry KPIs provided by Drewry and supported by CargoSmart will provide a comparative, standard assessment of the performance of the carrier industry as a whole and of carriers unknown to shippers, which is not otherwise available even to large shippers.

Drewry will disclose information on the new industry KPIs later this month, once the first phase of analysis has been completed.

Drewry is currently consulting importers and exporters, as well as shipper associations about their requirements for carrier KPIs.

Source: Drewry, CargoSmart