A solution for this was offered back in September 2011 by Maersk Line. In an effort to provide a differentiated product, they offered a more regular service where customers were given guaranteed delivery times, in return for increased freight rates.
The idea, named ‘Daily Maersk’ was labelled a premium product by its founders and was said to be ‘second to none’ in terms of frequency and reliability. Maersk’s idea for the product was to offer it to high end customers who had previously spoken of paying more for better quality services. The service was rolled out by Maersk, and target delivery times were met 95% of the time, with compensation offered to those whose deliveries did not arrive as early as they had paid for.
The ‘Daily Maersk’ service did not provide faster vessels, but daily cut offs so goods could be shipped immediately once ready which saved their customers up to 7 days on their total transit time. This was put in place by the previous chief of the line Eivind Kolding as a bid to position themselves way out of reach of the other shipping lines.
However, it seems the big customers who requested the service had dried up by the time it was available as less than 5 years after its release the service has been abandoned by Maersk. Soren Skou, Maersk line’s chief executive said that they provided the service that they had promised but the customers didn’t want to pay the extra cost for the better service quality.
After the cancellation of the service, it would seem importers are not as interested as they may seem in paying higher freight rates for slightly faster service. All customers want their cargo sooner but would you pay extra for faster services? Let us know, tweet us at Shippo_uk.