THE Chief Operating Officer of the 250-member strong Gemini Shippers Group in the US, Ken O'Brien, says the association, like many shippers, 'have been constructively dissatisfied with service levels' offered by container shipping companies.
'I don't think many of the carriers feel that they are delivering at the level that they should. Some of them are more public about admitting it, and some have said it off the record to us,' he says.
'I guess you could argue that they're not making the money to provide the service or they lost focus on the service or all the other distractions of a very volatile shipping industry - be it rate, price, fuel, operational cost, etc - distracted some of the players.
'I think the answer is all of the above,' says Mr O'Brien, a former liner executive himself, having worked 21 years at Hapag-Lloyd and APL.
Problems at carriers can be attributed to both 'technology and not keeping up and reinvesting in people and processes.'
But he says he believes the carriers Gemini works with - and he says in the transpacific, for example, it works with a couple of lines from each of the three major alliances and independents - are working to improve service.
When Gemini calls those carriers or has quarterly discussions with them, 'they're listening' - hence his use of the term 'constructive dissatisfaction.'
But he adds the pace at which carriers are able to fix problems 'is a struggle'.
The biggest pain point for its members right now? Last-mile delivery. He says the cost of inland transportation has risen and service levels have gone down, reports American Shipper.
Mr O'Brien said Gemini has been working to mitigate those effects.
Earlier this year Gemini surveyed shippers to find out how they feel about service.
He says some shippers are frustrated with the process of getting bookings confirmed and getting carriers to release space in a timely manner, though he admits this is partly because shippers have trouble giving carriers accurate forecasts of how many containers they are going to ship weeks in advance.
'Many shippers that I've talked to both in and outside this association continue to say that what I would call data integrity, both invoice and transactional EDI, is not where it needs to be for many carriers.'
He is enthusiastic about carriers wanting to do more 'digitisation' and notes Gemini has built a proprietary platform it uses to audit every bill of lading, matching electronic invoices and matching them against rates in databases without human intervention and determining what's right and wrong.
'My cautionary tale would be that tech without business insight is dangerous,' says Mr O'Brien. 'We like to think we have a lot of business insight, and if we combine it with good tech we can not only reduce keystrokes, which ultimately reduces error rate, but we can start to use data to help drive decision-making.'
'I don't think many of the carriers feel that they are delivering at the level that they should. Some of them are more public about admitting it, and some have said it off the record to us,' he says.
'I guess you could argue that they're not making the money to provide the service or they lost focus on the service or all the other distractions of a very volatile shipping industry - be it rate, price, fuel, operational cost, etc - distracted some of the players.
'I think the answer is all of the above,' says Mr O'Brien, a former liner executive himself, having worked 21 years at Hapag-Lloyd and APL.
Problems at carriers can be attributed to both 'technology and not keeping up and reinvesting in people and processes.'
But he says he believes the carriers Gemini works with - and he says in the transpacific, for example, it works with a couple of lines from each of the three major alliances and independents - are working to improve service.
When Gemini calls those carriers or has quarterly discussions with them, 'they're listening' - hence his use of the term 'constructive dissatisfaction.'
But he adds the pace at which carriers are able to fix problems 'is a struggle'.
The biggest pain point for its members right now? Last-mile delivery. He says the cost of inland transportation has risen and service levels have gone down, reports American Shipper.
Mr O'Brien said Gemini has been working to mitigate those effects.
Earlier this year Gemini surveyed shippers to find out how they feel about service.
He says some shippers are frustrated with the process of getting bookings confirmed and getting carriers to release space in a timely manner, though he admits this is partly because shippers have trouble giving carriers accurate forecasts of how many containers they are going to ship weeks in advance.
'Many shippers that I've talked to both in and outside this association continue to say that what I would call data integrity, both invoice and transactional EDI, is not where it needs to be for many carriers.'
He is enthusiastic about carriers wanting to do more 'digitisation' and notes Gemini has built a proprietary platform it uses to audit every bill of lading, matching electronic invoices and matching them against rates in databases without human intervention and determining what's right and wrong.
'My cautionary tale would be that tech without business insight is dangerous,' says Mr O'Brien. 'We like to think we have a lot of business insight, and if we combine it with good tech we can not only reduce keystrokes, which ultimately reduces error rate, but we can start to use data to help drive decision-making.'