DREWRY Maritime Research and CargoSmart Limited have entered into a cooperation agreement that will introduce a wider range of container key performance indicators (KPIs) to help importers and exporters benchmark their carriers' service levels.

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

"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 Drewry director Philip Damas.

Drewry has chosen CargoSmart for its comprehensive, high quality data, which is necessary for KPIs to be effective for decision making.

"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 also the performance of commercial processes, as well as regional inland transport performance and port dwell times.

"Drewry's reporting over recent years has indicated that only 60 per cent to 70 per cent of containership sailings arrived on time, with carriers only recently deciding to provide a guaranteed standard of service with compensations for delays," Mr 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," he added.

The company explained that many large importers and exporters already measure various performance metrics for the carriers they use. But, 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.