Global schedule reliability increased in September as the average delay for late vessel arrivals also improved. 

Sea Intelligence said in a new report that schedule reliability increased by 1.2 percentage points month-on-month (M/M) in September 2023 to 64.4%.

The Danish maritime data analysis firm noted that barring the increase in May, schedule reliability has been ranging within 2 percentage points since March 2023. 

On a year-on-year (Y/Y) level, schedule reliability was 19.0 percentage points higher.

Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, said in the analysis that the average delay for late vessel arrivals decreased by 0.09 days M/M to 4.58 days. 

With the M/M decrease, the average delay for LATE vessel arrivals is now -1.30 days better off than at the same point last year.

Maersk, Hamburg Süd most reliable 

“With 71.3% schedule reliability in September 2023, Maersk and Hamburg Süd were the most reliable top-14 carriers, followed by MSC with 69.8%,” he said.

Murphy noted that along with MSC, 6 other carriers had schedule reliability of 60%-70%. 

Four other carriers had schedule reliability of 50%-60%, with HMM the only carrier under 50% with schedule reliability of 45.9%. 

Meanwhile, 10 of the top 14 carriers recorded an M/M increase in September 2023, with PIL recording the largest increase of 7.3 percentage points. 

The report said on a Y/Y level, 13 of the 14 carriers recorded double-digit improvements, with Hamburg Süd recording the largest improvement of 26.8 percentage points.